Clay, Henry (1777-1852)

Henry Clay (1777-1852)

Sources

Statesman

An Enduring Career . Despite losing five presidential races, Henry Clay played a central role in Western—and national—politics for more than four decades. As Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1811 to 1820 and from 1823 to 1825, longer than anyone else in the nineteenth century, Clay emerged as the outstanding Western leader of the period. He also served as John Quincy Adams’s secretary of state from 1825 to 1829 and was regarded as the most influential senator of his era.

A Pioneer Nationalist . Although one of the most prominent leaders to come out of the West, Clay was first and foremost a nationalist. As Speaker of the House in 1812, Clay advocated war against Great Britain to preserve the overseas markets of the nation’s producers. After the War of 1812 Clay introduced plans for an integrated system of protective tariffs, a national bank, and subsidized internal improvements known as the American System. Although Clay intended this program to foster economic development and integrate the regions of the United States politically, many of its provisions joined the North and West, yet isolated the South.

The American System . The American System had direct bearing on westward expansion. Under this scheme the federal government sold public land in the West rather than give it away to settlers, with the proceeds benefiting transportation projects and schools. The plan’s supporters in Congress expected these projects, in turn, to benefit all sections of the nation and tie them together economically. The American System became central to the political beliefs of Whigs, who arose in opposition to Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party.

A Great Compromiser . Clay was also known as the Great Compromiser for his leading role in two watershed legislative compromises: the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. Though Clay intended these compromises to relieve sectional tensions, neither was able to prevent Southern secession and Civil War.

Sources

Daniel Walker Howe, The Political Culture of American Whigs (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979);

M. D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay and Calhoun (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987);

Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (New York: Norton, 1991).