Henry Clay | |
---|---|
President | John Quincy Adams |
Preceded by | John Quincy Adams |
Succeeded by | Martin Van Buren |
United States Senator from Kentucky |
Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777 - March 30, 1852) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 11th President of the United States from 1845 to 1852. Clay increased tariffs and prioritized the improvement of the telegraph system. By 1850, every state in the Union had at least three telegraph wires between themselves and other states, as well as several local ones. He …
The Attorney. On October 4, 1996, the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, received the Henry Clay Medallion from the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation in Lexington. Justice O’Connor now serves as a National Advisor to the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship.
Henry Clay was appointed Secretary of State by President John Quincy Adams on March 7, 1825. Clay entered his duties on the same day and served until March 3, 1829. Famous as the “Great Pacificator” for his contributions to domestic policy, he emphasized economic development in his diplomacy. Henry Clay, Ninth Secretary of State.
Aug 07, 2014 · In March of 1841 a verbal fued between Henry Clay and future vice president William Rufas King, that had started over Clay’s attempts to recharter the national Bank, escalated when the Whigs gained control of Congress. King objected to Clay’s plan to replace Washington Globe editor Francis P. Blair as the Senate’s official printer.
May 12, 2020 · Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, ... 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, served as ... The untimely death of President Zachary Taylor and ascendancy of pro-compromise Vice President Millard Fillmore to the White House helped contribute to the ...
The National Republicans nominated Clay for president and John Sergeant for vice president, while the Democrats chose former secretary of state Martin Van Buren to replace Calhoun as Jackson's vice president.
Henry Clay worked as a frontier lawyer before becoming a Kentucky senator and then speaker of the House of Representatives. He was the Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams in the 1820s, later returning to Congress, and pushed for the Compromise of 1850, with overall conflicting stances on race and slavery.Apr 2, 2014
Clay's appointment as Secretary of State stirred controversy. His bid for the Presidency in the election of 1824 ended with no clear majority for any candidate. Clay lent his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby violating the instructions of the Kentucky legislature.
Throughout his career, as senator, Speaker of the House, and secretary of state, Clay helped guide a fragile Union through several critical impasses. As senator, he forged the Compromise of 1850 to maintain the Union, but such compromises could not settle the fractious issues that ultimately resulted in Civil War.
John C. CalhounJohn Quincy Adams / Vice president (1825–1829)John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832, while adamantly defending slavery and protecting the interests of the white South. Wikipedia
Clay joined the National Republican Party and ran as its candidate for president against Jackson in 1832. Jackson crushed him at the polls. Clay remained in the Senate and fought against Jackson's policies. Clay promoted what he called the “American System” that encouraged policies to strengthen the Union as a whole.
five surviving siblingsClay was born on a modest farm in Virginia during the American Revolution. He was the fourth of five surviving siblings.Apr 8, 2022
Faced with a deadlock, Henry Clay proposed and the United States Congress enacted the Missouri Compromise in 1820. This agreement allowed Missouri to enter the United States as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state. The Congress thus maintained the balance between slave and free states.
In 1830, Henry Clay, one of the most prominent members of the House of Representatives, spoke out against Indian removal. In this speech, he quotes from an 1814 statement by the US government that says American Indians are not subject to the laws of the United States and have a legal right to their lands.
Henry Clay was “The Great Compromiser.” As a statesman for the Union, his skills of negotiation and compromise proved invaluable in helping to hold the country together for the first half of the 19th century. His compromises quelled regionalism and balanced states rights and national interests.
Because Clay seemed eager for social advancement and Hart was apparently a plain girl, their marriage has been described as a cold arrangement to save her from spinsterhood while providing him social status and economic security.
He soon became a pillar of the Lexington community, but he also maintained his youthful habits of drinking and gambling that had earned him the nickname “Prince Hal,” a reference to William Shakespeare ’s portrait of the future Henry V cavorting with the boozy Sir John Falstaff.
In addition to handling lucrative cases dealing with disputed land titles, Clay developed a commanding courtroom presence that made him a formidable defense attorney. In 1821 he was the first attorney to file an amicus curiæ (“friend of the court”) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court.
If others thought their marriage devoid of passion, they could have disagreed. They had 11 children. Five were boys, but Clay especially doted on his daughters.
The law was a natural path to politics. Clay had a powerful presence, a rich baritone voice, and the agility to speak extemporaneously. He could also memorize long texts for speeches that were persuasive as well as hypnotic. His talent saved him from occasional missteps that could have stalled a lesser man’s career.
Five were boys, but Clay especially doted on his daughters. To his and Lucretia’s heartbreak, two of the girls did not survive infancy, another died as a child, and the three others passed away in relative youth. Those losses made Clay and Lucretia closer in grief. The law was a natural path to politics.
Wythe introduced Clay to the law and arranged for his legal instruction under state attorney general and former governor Robert Brooke. Clay proved a quick study and was admitted to the bar in 1797. The glut of lawyers in Richmond persuaded him to follow his family to Kentucky, where they had moved in 1791.
In his fifty years of public service, Clay served as a congressman, a diplomat, and a senator – and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Clay himself is said to have remarked, “Sir, I would rather be right than be President.” As I look back over his long and distinguished career, I am struck by the observation that Clay did just about everything there is to do in Washington except be president.
On October 4, 1996, the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, received the Henry Clay Medallion from the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation in Lexington. Justice O’Connor now serves as a National Advisor to the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship. Previous medallion recipients include former Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley and historian Thomas D. Clark. Justice O’Connor offered the following remarks at a dinner in her honor at the Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Clay was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1803 and served to 1806. Next, he served as Senator from Kentucky, from 1806 to 1807, and then returned to the State House of Representatives, from 1807 to 1809. In 1810 Clay returned to the Senate and served until 1811.
Clay’s political negotiations, however, produced ample frustration. The Government of Mexico opted to expel Clay’s minister, Joel Poinsett, after Poinsett offered to purchase Texas. Furthermore, U.S. delegates arrived too late to attend an important diplomatic event in Latin America, the Inter-American Congress at Panama in 1826.
As a Commissioner, Clay pressed to prevent the British from gaining free navigation on the Mississippi River. Clay based his foreign policy plan on the so-called “American System,” emphasizing federal support of national economic development. To this end, Clay achieved a number of important successes as Secretary of State.
Influence on American Diplomacy. Clay’s appointment as Secretary of State stirred controversy. His bid for the Presidency in the election of 1824 ended with no clear majority for any candidate. Clay lent his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby violating the instructions of the Kentucky legislature.
Another disappointment came when Clay failed to settle continuing boundary disputes with Great Britain. In 1827 the United States and Great Britain merely agreed to the joint occupation of Oregon.
After his tenure as Secretary of State, Clay returned to the U.S. Senate from 1831 to 1842 and from 1849 to 1852.
Rise to Prominence. Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia. After a minimal formal education, Clay read law and gained admission to the bar in both Virginia and Kentucky in 1797. He became a leading real estate and business lawyer in Frankfort, Kentucky and soon embarked on a career in politics. Clay was elected to the Kentucky House of ...
The election of 1824, also called a corrupt bargain, was a hotly contested A picture showing who won each state and the amount of electoral votes allotted to each state one and the first one where the person who received the most popular votes and the most electoral votes lost the presidency.
Jefferson goes on to list all twenty eights reasons why the colonists are angry with the British government. He lists all twenty eight to really drive the point home that Parliament and the British monarchy have wronged them.
The election I choose to write about was the election of 1800. The two main opponents were John Adams of the Federalist party, and Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican party (The Election of 1800). John Adams was running for re-election, and his vice president, Thomas Jefferson decided to run against him.
Throughout the early 1800’s, the United States was going through some changes. For one, people were becoming more involved with electoral elections. By the year 1828, only two states out of the twelve were the legislatures voting for the president. This meant that people were voting for electors and that there was an increase in democracy.
Andrew Jackson was the first president to be born in a log cabin, similarly to other colonists at the time. Throughout his lifetime, he took upon several occupations before his presidency including serving as a general during the Revolutionary War and becoming an attorney in Tennessee.
The Federalist party’s goals had prevailed in American politics by 1809 by reducing national debt and doubling the size of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800, defeating the Federalist party.
Hypocrisy by Influential People: Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson once said, “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom (Monticello).” Though, former President Jefferson, was not the most truthful man out there.