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Henry Clay was a senator, statesman, Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, planter, lawyer, three time presidential candidate in 1824, 1836, and 1844, and founder of the Whig Party and creator of the economic "American System" who represented the state of Kentucky who was born in Virginia on April 12, 1777 (during the War of Independence) and died on June 29, 1852. Henry Clay was an important figure in 19th-century American politics he was successful in keeping the Union together not once not twice but three times: the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (admitted Missouri a Southern state, Maine a Northern state), the Compromise Tariff of 1833 (which cooled down South Carolina), and the Compromise of 1850 (which stopped a potential conflict from erupting in the Texas-New Mexico desert).
Although Clay was a Southerner he had ties with Northerners from the Northeast/New England and Northwest/Midwest such as President John Quincy Adams and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and a certain lawyer and Senator named Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, he was also a big JQA supporter an advocate for the American System which supported a national bank, federal spending/internal improvements on roads, canals, and infrastructure, and a tariff, despite his planter roots and slaves he was not an enthusiastic proslavery advocate in fact he saw it as an evil and was involved in an unsuccessful effort to bring about gradual emancipation of Kentucky's slaves in the 1840s and 1850s in his home state and wanted blacks back to Africa (a popular idea at the time).
The first time Clay was faced with a potential Union-breaking crisis was over whether Missouri should become a Northern or Southern state between 1819-1820 on one hand James Tallmadge of New York wrote a self-titled amendment that would have banned slavery there which actually passed the House of Representatives but narrowly failed in Senate there had even been a warning by Tallmadge himself that there would civil war and disunion to which Howell Cobb of Georgia responded to him that he was it became a bit of a stalemate afterwards eventually Clay would propose an amendment admitting Missouri alongside Maine which became the basis of the Missouri Compromise alongside Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois.
The second time Clay was involved in a major compromise was the Compromise Tariff of 1833 unlike with what happened in Missouri this was less of a sectional issue and more of a South Carolina issue between them and Andrew Jackson as the other Southern states generally did not approve of SC's Nullification doctrine (see The Union at Risk) so he was able to cooperate with John C. Calhoun (an influential senator and progenitor of Southern secession) to get this pass thus ending the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833.
The third and final time Clay would be in a major sectional crisis/compromise was between 1849-1850 when the Northern and Southern states fought each other over the status of newly acquired Western territory from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) the crisis even when as far as Texas (a newly-admitted state) threatening to reinforce its claims on New Mexico by force and sending an expedition led by Robert S. Neighbors in June of course Zachary Taylor was willing to use force against the Texas militia as was his successor Millard Fillmore despite repeated warnings by Southern Whigs such as Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens that such a move would cause the entire South (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky) to rush to Texas' aid and that Texans cause would be Southerners cause (see America's Great Debate, On the Brink of Civil War, Prologue to Conflict, and Henry Clay: The Essential American: "where mounting Texas anger over the border and the presence of federal troops in Santa Fe moved the region closer to armed conflict... The country confronted the sobering potential for civil war to break out in the arid Southwest. If many southerners were to be believed, it would spread eastward) also other Southern states made moves to possible secession Virginia and South Carolina spent hundreds of thousands of dollars arming and training troops, Georgia considered a national dissolution and Governor John A. Quitman said that Mississippi citizens should "look to secession" if nothing was resolved and promised Texas Governor Peter H. Bell 5,000 troops to assist him in any armed struggle against the United States government, when the original Compromise bill was up to vote as an Omnibus Bill it failed the second time however as divided by Stephen A. Douglas helped it pass and thus avert potential armed conflict. Unlike the previous two compromises, Clay was nearing the end of his life only a few years before his death in 1852 by New Years Eve 1850 he suffered from chronic coughing and was ill when cobbling together the Compromise he survived though.
Clay's compromises also was part of the Great Trimuvirate a group of three U.S. politicians that included himself, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun each representing a specific section and involved in crises.
Clay was a Unionist (in Civil War terms) and one who helped prevent civil war from breaking out much earlier and stopped the Federal government from firing the first shots he also helped keep the Union long enough to paraphrase Robert V. Remini's At the Edge of the Precipice for 11 more years to build up its might and as Fergus M. Bordevich notes in an interview with NPR in 2012 about his new novel: "In 1850, the North wasn't ready to fight a civil war" he also stated "the North would have lost the Civil War" if secession/civil war occurred much earlier considering that the East and West (especially the far west) were less connected, railroads weren't developed that much, technology is slightly less advanced, and there was no Morrill Grant Act to develop roads and universities and especially had U.S. troops got into a fight with Texas militia then it would cause secession to explode much earlier and Union sentiment less popular in the border states of Kentucky and Missouri, and Fillmore (or whoever takes the presidency like say Fremont) is a very different leader from Lincoln.
If you want to credit someone for helping the Union you can credit this Kentucky politician.
Although Clay was a Southerner he had ties with Northerners from the Northeast/New England and Northwest/Midwest such as President John Quincy Adams and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and a certain lawyer and Senator named Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, he was also a big JQA supporter an advocate for the American System which supported a national bank, federal spending/internal improvements on roads, canals, and infrastructure, and a tariff, despite his planter roots and slaves he was not an enthusiastic proslavery advocate in fact he saw it as an evil and was involved in an unsuccessful effort to bring about gradual emancipation of Kentucky's slaves in the 1840s and 1850s in his home state and wanted blacks back to Africa (a popular idea at the time).
The first time Clay was faced with a potential Union-breaking crisis was over whether Missouri should become a Northern or Southern state between 1819-1820 on one hand James Tallmadge of New York wrote a self-titled amendment that would have banned slavery there which actually passed the House of Representatives but narrowly failed in Senate there had even been a warning by Tallmadge himself that there would civil war and disunion to which Howell Cobb of Georgia responded to him that he was it became a bit of a stalemate afterwards eventually Clay would propose an amendment admitting Missouri alongside Maine which became the basis of the Missouri Compromise alongside Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois.
The second time Clay was involved in a major compromise was the Compromise Tariff of 1833 unlike with what happened in Missouri this was less of a sectional issue and more of a South Carolina issue between them and Andrew Jackson as the other Southern states generally did not approve of SC's Nullification doctrine (see The Union at Risk) so he was able to cooperate with John C. Calhoun (an influential senator and progenitor of Southern secession) to get this pass thus ending the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833.
The third and final time Clay would be in a major sectional crisis/compromise was between 1849-1850 when the Northern and Southern states fought each other over the status of newly acquired Western territory from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) the crisis even when as far as Texas (a newly-admitted state) threatening to reinforce its claims on New Mexico by force and sending an expedition led by Robert S. Neighbors in June of course Zachary Taylor was willing to use force against the Texas militia as was his successor Millard Fillmore despite repeated warnings by Southern Whigs such as Robert Toombs and Alexander Stephens that such a move would cause the entire South (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky) to rush to Texas' aid and that Texans cause would be Southerners cause (see America's Great Debate, On the Brink of Civil War, Prologue to Conflict, and Henry Clay: The Essential American: "where mounting Texas anger over the border and the presence of federal troops in Santa Fe moved the region closer to armed conflict... The country confronted the sobering potential for civil war to break out in the arid Southwest. If many southerners were to be believed, it would spread eastward) also other Southern states made moves to possible secession Virginia and South Carolina spent hundreds of thousands of dollars arming and training troops, Georgia considered a national dissolution and Governor John A. Quitman said that Mississippi citizens should "look to secession" if nothing was resolved and promised Texas Governor Peter H. Bell 5,000 troops to assist him in any armed struggle against the United States government, when the original Compromise bill was up to vote as an Omnibus Bill it failed the second time however as divided by Stephen A. Douglas helped it pass and thus avert potential armed conflict. Unlike the previous two compromises, Clay was nearing the end of his life only a few years before his death in 1852 by New Years Eve 1850 he suffered from chronic coughing and was ill when cobbling together the Compromise he survived though.
Clay's compromises also was part of the Great Trimuvirate a group of three U.S. politicians that included himself, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun each representing a specific section and involved in crises.
Clay was a Unionist (in Civil War terms) and one who helped prevent civil war from breaking out much earlier and stopped the Federal government from firing the first shots he also helped keep the Union long enough to paraphrase Robert V. Remini's At the Edge of the Precipice for 11 more years to build up its might and as Fergus M. Bordevich notes in an interview with NPR in 2012 about his new novel: "In 1850, the North wasn't ready to fight a civil war" he also stated "the North would have lost the Civil War" if secession/civil war occurred much earlier considering that the East and West (especially the far west) were less connected, railroads weren't developed that much, technology is slightly less advanced, and there was no Morrill Grant Act to develop roads and universities and especially had U.S. troops got into a fight with Texas militia then it would cause secession to explode much earlier and Union sentiment less popular in the border states of Kentucky and Missouri, and Fillmore (or whoever takes the presidency like say Fremont) is a very different leader from Lincoln.
If you want to credit someone for helping the Union you can credit this Kentucky politician.
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