Henry Clay

**Henry Clay** was the 9th President of the United States, the 12th Vice President of the United States, a United States Representative and Speaker of the House, a Secretary of State, and an Attorney General. Henry Clay is also well known for being a strong lawyer with powerful oratory skills.

## Law & Political Career

### Legal Career

In November 1797, Clay relocated to Lexington, Kentucky, near where his parents and siblings resided. The Bluegrass region, with Lexington at its center, had quickly grown in the preceding decades but had only recently stopped being under the threat of Native American raids. Lexington was an established town that hosted Transylvania University, the first university west of the Appalachian Mountains. Having already passed the Virginia Bar, Clay quickly received a Kentucky license to practice law. After apprenticing himself to Kentucky attorneys such as George Nicholas, John Breckenridge, and James Brown, Clay established his own law practice, frequently working on debt collections and land disputes. Clay soon established a reputation for strong legal ability and courtroom oratory. In 1805, he was appointed to the faculty of Transylvania University where he taught.

### House / Speakership

The 1810–1811 elections produced many young, anti-British members of Congress who, like Clay, supported going to war with Great Britain. And while Clay briefly served in helping a treaty between Great Britain and the United States in 1815, he was still elected Speaker that same year, serving up until he left the House in 1821 to take up the position of Secretary of State.

As speaker, Clay wielded considerable power in making committee appointments, and like many of his predecessors he assigned his allies to important committees. Clay was exceptional in his ability to control the legislative agenda through well-placed allies and the establishment of new committees and departed from precedent by frequently taking part in floor debates. Yet he also gained a reputation for personal courteousness and fairness in his rulings and committee appointments.

### Attorney General

In 1817 following the election of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay was appointed Attorney General, which was common to serve in both the Congress and the Cabinet at the time. Clay argued in many cases, but the most recognizable was United States v. Rogers in early 1817, gaining a victory of 5-1 in the courts, and assuring that insurrections were treason even if it was to fight against a tyrannic thought.

### Secretary of State

Upon the election of James Monroe to the Presidency, **Henry Clay** was nominated as Secretary of State. Clay was only in the position for a few months, but Clay was able to reach agreements with Britain and Austria over remaining neutral in Europe, both Clay and Monroe agreeing to uphold the Adams' Doctrine.

Clay was reportedly horrified to hear of the Portland Affair while he stayed in Ottawa, Canada to discuss trade with British Ambassados, writing to Monroe to rescind the troops, but Monroe had resigned by the time the letters reached him.

### Vice President

After James Monroe resigned as the President, Vice President DeWitt Clinton assumed the office, and the Vice President position needed to be filled. As according to the line of succession, the President Pro Tempore, James J. Wilson, was offered the position first but denied it, then Speaker Herald Banks denied the position, and so Secretary of State Henry Clay took up the office. Clay only served in this position for a little over a month, Clay reaching D.C. on July 24, 1822, where a crown of March on D.C. members forced President DeWitt Clinton to resign from his position. Apparently satisfied with the new President, the militia dispersed, and Clay was left as President.

## Presidency

Clay was inaugurated President on July 27, 1822 following the deposition of President DeWitt Clinton. After the crowds dispersed, Clay would nominate his Cabinet, several of which served in the Congress as well. Democrats in the Senate refused to vote on the nominations, forcing Clay to wait out until after the midterms to get his Cabinet approved.

Clay would sign the Supreme Court Expansion Act on July 29, 1822, just 2 days into his Presidency, but his nominations were also frozen by Senate Democrats. On the same day Clay would veto the Back to Africa Act, the one which sparked the protests in the first place which lead to the Portland Affair. Clay had personally supported the bill and idea, but recognized it's unconstitutionality, and thought it'd be better to veto for national unity, especially in the north.

### Non-Recognition Affair

From July 27, 1822 until August 15, 1822, three to five Governors refused to recognize Henry Clay as President, instead supporting James J. Wilson as the should be President, Wilson had denied the movement and personally denounced it. The Governors initially included Israel Pickens of Alabama, Herald Banks of North Carolina, Benjamin Taylor of South Carolina, Daniel Evans of Tennessee, and William Turner of Virginia. The group had denied of the federal government, and refused to uphold their laws, in response Clay denied federal funds to the states which refused to recognize the federal government, which made Israel Pickens and Daniel Evans drop out of the agreement. In response, the remaining three states stopped paying taxes to the federal government, so Clay threatened military action, and in response North Carolina filed a Court Case, in which (North Carolina v. United States), the United States won in a 5-2 ruling which saw North Carolina and the other three states give taxes back to the Government. North Carolina still refused to recognize the Federal Government, but in Edwards v. North Carolina they were forced to. All 3 of the Governors were voted out in the 1822 Midterms.

### Banks v. Rush

In Banks v. Rush, the Supreme Court ruled the members of Congress could not work in the Cabinet at the same time, which forced half of Clay's Cabinet to resign. Clay would have to nominate half of his Cabinet Spots again.

## Personal Life

Henry Clay was born on April 12, 1777, at the Clay homestead in Hanover County, Virginia. He was the seventh of nine children born to the Reverend John Clay and Elizabeth (née Hudson) Clay. Almost all of Henry's older siblings died before adulthood. His father, a Baptist minister nicknamed "Sir John", died in 1781, leaving Henry and his brothers two slaves each; he also left his wife 18 slaves and 464 acres (188 ha) of land.

On April 11, 1799, Clay married Lucretia Hart (1781–1864) at the Hart home in Lexington, Kentucky. Her father, Colonel Thomas Hart, was an early settler of Kentucky and a prominent businessman. Hart proved to be an important business connection for Clay, as he helped Clay gain new clients and grow in professional stature.

Clay and Lucretia had eleven children (six daughters and five sons): Henrietta (born in 1800), Theodore (1802), Thomas (1803), Susan (1805), Anne (1807), Lucretia (1809), Henry Jr. (1811), Eliza (1813), Laura (1815), James (1817), and John (1821).