All 19 Uses of
Henry Clay
in
Profiles in Courage
- We may remember how John Quincy Adams became President through the political schemes of Henry Clay, but we have forgotten how, as a young man, he gave up a promising Senatorial career to stand by the nation.†
Chpt 0.1Henry Clay = U.S. politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states
- Henry Clay, who should have known, said compromise was the cement that held the Union together:All legislation ....is founded upon the principle of mutual concession......Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, "I never will compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.†
Chpt 0.1
- Among the acquaintances and colleagues who march across the pages of his diary are Sam Adams (a kinsman), John Hancock, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lafayette, John Jay, James Madison, James Monroe, John Marshall, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Hart Benton, John Tyler, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Lincoln, James Buchanan, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew Johnson, Jefferson Davis and many others.†
Chpt 1.2
- In 1820 a law was passed to admit Maine and Missouri into the Union together, one free, the other slave, as part of Henry Clay's first great compromise.†
Chpt 2.0 *
- We shall note well the courage of Webster, Benton and Houston; but if we are to understand the times that made their featsheroic, we must first note the leadership of the two Senate giants who formed with Webster the most outstanding triumvirate the Senate has ever known, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.†
Chpt 2.0
- Henry Clay of Kentucky—bold, autocratic and magnetic, fiery in manner with a charm so compelling that an opponent once declined a meeting which would subject him to the appeal of Harry of the West.†
Chpt 2.0
- Not even John Calhoun, who had fought him for years, was impervious to his fascination: "I don't like Henry Clay.†
Chpt 2.0
- Though he lacked the intellectual resources of Webster and Calhoun, Henry Clay nevertheless had visions of a greater America beyond those held by either of his famous colleagues.†
Chpt 2.0
- He was six feet, two inches tall; a graduate of Yale University; a Member of Congress at the age of twenty-nine; a War Hawk who joined Henry Clay in driving the United States into the War of 1812; a nationalist who turned sectionalist in the 1820's as the economic pressures of the tariff began to tell on the agricultural economy of South Carolina.†
Chpt 2.0
- That secession did not occur in 1850 instead of 1861 is due in great part to Daniel Webster, who was in large measure responsible for the country's acceptance of Henry Clay's compromise.†
Chpt 2.0
- But wheezing and coughing fitfully, Henry Clay made his way through the snowdrifts to the home of Daniel Webster.†
Chpt 2.3
- But Henry Clay had a plan—a plan for another Great58 Compromise to preserve the nation.†
Chpt 2.3
- For the Compromise of 1850 added to Henry Clay's garlands as the great Pacificator; but Daniel Webster's support, which insured its success, resulted in his political crucifixion, and, for half a century or more, his historical condemnation.†
Chpt 2.3
- The man upon whom Henry Clay called that wintry night was one of the most extraordinary figures in American political history.†
Chpt 2.3
- With all his faults and failings, Daniel Webster was undoubtedly the most talented figure in our Congressional history: not in his ability to win men to a cause—he was no match in that with Henry Clay; not in his ability to hammer out a philosophy of government—Calhoun outshone him there; but in his ability to make alive and supreme the latent sense of oneness, of Union, that all Americans felt but which few could express.†
Chpt 2.3
- And thus Henry Clay knew he must enlist these extraordinary talents on behalf of his Great Compromise.†
Chpt 2.3
- How could Henry Clay then hope to win approval to such a plan from Daniel Webster of Massachusetts?†
Chpt 2.3
- And thus on that fateful January night, Daniel Webster promised Henry Clay his conditional support, and took inventory of the crisis about him.†
Chpt 2.3
- And when the Boston Whigs urged that the party platform take credit for the Clay Compromise, of which, they said, "Daniel Webster, with the concurrence of Henry Clay and other profound statesmen, was the author," Senator Corwin of Ohio was reported to have commented sarcastically, "And I, with the concurrence of Moses and some extra help, wrote the Ten Commandments."†
Chpt 2.3
Definition:
U.S. politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states (1777-1852)