Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CLAY, HENRY (1777–1852)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: CHR-CLI
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:CLAY, See also: One of the See also:chief See also:sources of his popularity was his activity in See also:Congress in promoting the See also:war with See also:Great See also:Britain in 1812, while as one of the See also:peace commissioners he reluctantly signed the treaty of See also:Ghent on the 24th of See also:December 1814. During the fourteen years following his first See also:election, he was re-elected five times to the House and to the speakership; retiring for one term (1821–1823) to resume his law practice and retrieve his fortunes. He thus served as speaker in 1811–1814, in 1815–1820 and in 1823–1825. Once he was unanimously elected by his constituents, and once nearly defeated for having at the previous session voted to increase congressional salaries. He was a warm friend of the See also:Spanish-American revolutionists (1818) and of the See also:Greek insurgents (1824). From 1825 to 1829 he served as secretary of See also:state in See also:President John Quincy Adams's See also:cabinet, and in 1831 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he served until 1842, and again from 1849 until his See also:death. From the beginning of his career he was in favour of See also:internal improvements as a means of opening up the fertile but inaccessible See also:West, and was opposed to the abuse of See also:official patronage known as " the spoils See also:system." The most important of the See also:national questions with which Clay was associated, however, were the various phases of See also:slavery politics and See also:protection to See also:home See also:industries. The most prominent characteristics of his public life were his predisposition to " compromises " and "pacifications" which generally failed of their See also:object, and his passionate patriotic devotion to the See also:Union. His earliest championship of protection was a See also:resolution introduced by him in the Kentucky legislature (1808) which favoured the wearing by its members of home-made His career as See also:pro. clothes; and one in the United States Senate (April as a tectionist. 181o), on behalf of home-grown and home-made supplies for the United States See also:navy, but only to the point of making the nation See also:independent of See also:foreign See also:supply. In 1816 he advocated the See also:Dallas See also:tariff, in which the duties ranged up to 35% on articles of home See also:production, the supply of which could satisfy the home demand; the avowed purpose being to build up certain industries for safety in See also:time of war. In 1824 he advocated high duties to relieve the prevailing See also:distress, which he pictured in a brilliant and effective speech. Although the distress was caused by the reactionary effect of a disordered currency and the inflated prices of the war of 1812, he ascribed it to the See also:country's dependence on foreign supply and foreign markets. Great Britain, he said, was a shining example of the See also:wisdom of a high tariff. No nation ever flourished without one. He closed his See also:principal speech on the subject in the House of Representatives with a glowing See also:appeal in behalf of what he called " The American System." In spite of the opposition of Webster and other prominent statesmen, Clay succeeded in enacting a tariff which the See also:people of the See also:Southern states de- nounced as a " tariff of abominations." As it overswelled the See also:revenue, in 1832 he vigorously favoured reducing the tariff rates on all articles not competing with American products. His speech in behalf of the measure was for years a protection See also:text-See also:book; but the measure itself reduced the revenue so little and provoked such serious threats of See also:nullification and See also:secession in See also:South Carolina, that, to prevent bloodshed and to forestall a See also:free See also:trade measure from the next Congress, Clay brought forward in 1833 a See also:compromise gradually reducing the tariff rates to an See also:average of 20%. To the Protectionists this was " like a See also:crash of See also:thunder in See also:winter "; but it was received with such favour by the country generally, that its author was hailed as " The Great Pacificator," as he had been thirteen years before at the time of the See also:Missouri Compromise (see below). As, however, the discontent with the tariff in the South was only a symptom of the real trouble there—the sensitiveness of the slave-See also:power,—Clay subsequently confessed his serious doubts of the policy of his interference. He was only twenty-two, when, as an opponent of slavery, he vainly urged an emancipation clause for the new constitution of Kentucky, and he never ceased regretting that its failure put his state, in improvements and progress, behind its free neighbours. In 182o he congratulated the new South American republics on having abolished slavery, but the same year the threats of the Southern states to destroy the Union led him to See also:advocate the " Missouri Compromise," which, while keeping slavery out of all the rest of the territory acquired by the " See also:Louisiana See also:Purchase " See also:north of Missouri's southern boundary See also:line, permitted it in that state. Then, greeted with the See also:title of " The Great Pacificator " as a See also:reward for his success, he retired temporarily to private life, with a larger stock of popularity than he had ever had before. Although at various times he had helped to strengthen the law for the recovery of fugitive slaves, declining as secretary of state to aid Great Britain in the further suppression of the slave trade, and demanding the return of fugitives from See also:Canada, yet he heartily supported the colonizing of the slaves in See also:Africa, because slavery was the " deepest stain upon the See also:character of the country," opposition to which could not be repressed except by " blowing out the moral See also:lights around," and " eradicating from the human soul the See also:light of See also:reason and the law of See also:liberty." When the slave power became more aggressive, in and after the year 1831, Clay defended the right of See also:petition for the abolition of slavery in the See also:District of See also:Columbia, and opposed Calhoun's See also:bill forbidding the use of the mails to " abolition " See also:newspapers and documents. He was lukewarm toward recognizing the See also:independence of See also:Texas, lest it should aid the increase of slave territory, and generally favoured the freedom of speech and See also:press as regards the question of slavery; yet his various concessions and compromises resulted, as he him-self declared, in the abolitionists denouncing him as a slave-holder, and the slaveholders as an abolitionist. In 1839, only twelve months after opposing the pro-slavery demands, he pre-pared an elaborate speech, in See also:order " to set himself right with the South," which, before its delivery, received pro-slavery approval. While affirming that he was " no friend of slavery " he held abolition and the abolitionists responsible for the hatred, strife, disruption and carnage that menaced the nation. In response, Calhoun extended to him a most hearty welcome, and assigned him to a See also:place on the See also:bench of the penitents. Being a See also:candidate for the See also:presidency Clay had to take the insult without wincing. It was in reference to this speech that he made the oft-quoted remark that he " would rather be right than be president." While a candidate for president in 1844, he opposed in the " See also:Raleigh See also:letter " the See also:annexation of Texas on many grounds except that of its increasing the slave power, thus displeasing both the men of anti-slavery and those of pro-slavery sentiments. In 1847, after the See also:conquest of See also:Mexico, he made a speech against the annexation of that country or the acquiring of any foreign territory for the spread of slavery. Although in 1849 he again vainly proposed emancipation in Kentucky, he was unanimously elected to the United States Senate, where in 1850 he temporarily pacified both sections of the country by successfully offering, for the See also:sake of the " peace, See also:concord and See also:harmony of these states," a measure or See also:series of measures that became known as the "Compromise of 185o." It admitted See also:California as afree state, organized See also:Utah and New Mexico as Territories without reference to slavery, and enacted a more efficient fugitive slave law. In spite of great See also:physical weakness he made several See also:earnest speeches in behalf of these measures to See also:save the Union. Another conspicuous feature of Clay's public career was his absorbing and rightful, but constantly ungratified, ambition to be president of the United States. His name in connexion therewith was mentioned comparatively early, and in 1824, with W. H. See also:Crawford, See also:Andrew Jackson, and John Quincy Adams, he was a candidate for that See also:office. There being no choice by the people, and the House of Representatives having elected Adams, Clay was accused by Jackson and his See also:friends of making a corrupt bargain whereby, in See also:payment of his See also:vote and See also:influence
for Adams, he was appointed secretary of state. This made Jackson Clay's lifelong enemy, and ever after kept Clay busy explaining and denying the allegation. In 1832 Clay was unanimously nominated for the presidency by the National Republicans; Jackson, by the Democrats. The See also:main issue was the policy of continuing the United States See also:Bank, which in 1811 Clay had opposed, but in 1816 and always subsequently warmly favoured. A See also:majority of the voters approved of Jackson's fight against what Clay had once denounced as a dangerous and unconstitutional See also:monopoly. Clay made the See also:mistake of supposing that he could arouse popular See also:enthusiasm for a moneyed See also:corporation in its contest with the great military " See also:hero of New See also: In his persuasiveness as an orator and his charming See also:personality See also:lay the secret of his power. He had early trained himself in the See also:art of speech-making, in the See also:forest, the field and even the See also:barn, with See also:horse and ox for See also:audience. By contemporaries his See also:voice was declared to be the finest musical See also:instrument that they ever heard. His eloquence was in turn majestic, fierce, playful, insinuating; his gesticulation natural, vivid, large, powerful. In public he was of magnificent bearing, possessing the true oratorical temperament, the See also:nervous exaltation that makes the orator feel and appear a See also:superior being, transfusing his thought, See also:passion and will into the mind and See also:heart of the listener; but his See also:imagination frequently ran away with his understanding, while his imperious See also:temper and ardent combativeness hurried him and his party into disadvantageous positions. The ease, too, with which he outshone men of vastly greater learning lured him from the task of intense and arduous study. His speeches were characterized by skill of statement, ingenious grouping of facts, fervent diction, and ardent patriot-, ism; sometimes by biting See also:sarcasm, but also by superficial See also:research, half-knowledge and an unwillingness to reason a proposition to its logical results. In private, his never-failing See also:courtesy, his agreeable See also:manners and a See also:noble and generous heart for all who needed protection against the powerful or the lawless, endeared him to hosts of friends. His popularity was as great and as inexhaustible among his neighbours as among his See also:fellow-citizens generally. He pronounced upon himself a just See also:judgment when he wrote: " If any one desires to know the leading and See also:paramount object of my public life, the preservation of this Union will furnish him the See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] CLAY, FREDERIC (1838–1889) |
[next] CLAYMORE (from the Gaelic claidheamh mar, " great s... |