For nearly 40 years, Henry Clay was a leading American statesman. Time and again he engineered compromises that kept the North and South together in the Union. With John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, he formed a great triumvirage of U.S. Senators.
Clay was the son of a Baptist minister. He wwas born in Hanover County, Virginia, on April12, 1777. He had little formal education. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1797, and began to practice in Lexington.
His long political career began in 1801 as a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention. Twice he filled unexpired terms in the United States Senate. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1811, he was elected speaker. As a War Hawk, he argued strongly for the War of 1812. In 1820, he was influential in pasing the Missouri Compromise. In 1832, he sponsored a compromise with South Carolina over the tariff and later, he supported the Compromise of 1850. Clay ran for President of the United States three times. When he lost in 1824, he put his support behind John Quincy Adams, who won in the Electoral College. Clay died in 1852.
