Clay, Henry

Life Span
to
Full name
Henry Clay
Place of Birth
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
1
No. of Children
11
Family
John Clay (father), Elizabeth Hudson (mother), Lucretia Hart (wife, 1799), Henry Clay, Jr. (son)
Occupation
Politician
Diplomat
Attorney or Judge
Educator
Church or Religious Denomination
Episcopalian
Political Parties
Whig
Government
Diplomat
US Senate
US House of Representatives
State legislature

Henry Clay (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
CLAY, Henry,  (father of James Brown Clay), a Senator and a Representative from Kentucky; born in the district known as “the Slashes,” Hanover County, Va., April 12, 1777; attended the public schools; studied law in Richmond, Va.; admitted to the bar in 1797 and commenced practice in Lexington, Ky.; member, State house of representatives 1803; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Adair and served from November 19, 1806, to March 3, 1807, despite being younger than the constitutional age limit of thirty years; member, State house of representatives 1808-1809, and served as speaker in 1809; again elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Buckner Thruston and served from January 4, 1810, to March 3, 1811; elected as a Democratic Republican to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses and served from March 4, 1811, to January 19, 1814, when he resigned; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses); appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1814; elected as a Democratic Republican to the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Congresses (March 4, 1815-March 3, 1821); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses); elected to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Congresses and served from March 3, 1823, to March 6, 1825, when he resigned; again served as Speaker of the House of Representatives (Eighteenth Congress); appointed Secretary of State by President John Quincy Adams 1825-1829; elected as a National Republican to the United States Senate on November 10, 1831, to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1831; reelected as a Whig in 1836 and served from November 10, 1831, until March 31, 1842, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Twenty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Democratic Republican Party in 1824, of the National Republican Party in 1832, and of the Whig Party in 1844; again elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1849, until his death in Washington, D.C., June 29, 1852; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, July 1, 1852; funeral services held in the Senate Chamber; interment in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Ky.
"Clay, Henry," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000482.
Date Title
Abraham Lincoln to Williamson Durley, Springfield, Illinois, October 3, 1845
Abraham Lincoln to Andrew Johnston with Poem, April 18, 1846
Debate Over Increase of the Army, House of Representatives, January 9, 1847
New York Herald, “Mr. Clay's Compromise, and the Cabinet,” February 1, 1850
Abraham Lincoln, Eulogy on Henry Clay, July 6, 1852
Debate over the Estimates for Rivers and Harbors, House of Representatives, January 6, 1854
New York Herald, “The Kansas Question and the Anti-Slavery Disorganizers,” May 15, 1855
Charles H. Ray to Abraham Lincoln, July 27, 1858
B. Lewis to Abraham Lincoln, August 25, 1858
Joseph Medill to Abraham Lincoln, August 27, 1858
Recollection by Usher F. Linder, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
New York Times, “Opposition Ratification Meeting in Philadelphia,” September 16, 1858
New York Evening Post, "Senatorial Canvas in Illinois," September 18, 1858
Chicago (IL) Times, “The Campaign – The Last Joint Debate,” October 17, 1858
Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Revival of the Whig Party,” November 8, 1858
Newark (OH) Advocate, “Henry Clay’s Resolution,” December 29, 1858
New York Herald, “The Presidential Question,” January 24, 1859
New York Herald, “The Late Scattering Elections,” April 6, 1859
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Columbus, Ohio, September 16, 1859
Abraham Lincoln's Speech at Beloit, Wisconsin, October 1, 1859
New York Herald, “The New York Herald in the South,” December 18, 1859
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Crittenden,” December 24, 1859
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Abraham Lincoln’s Speech,” March 2, 1860
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Lincoln as He Is,” May 23, 1860
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “The Astounding Impertinence of Douglas,” September 17, 1860
Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing,” September 29, 1860
New York Herald, “The Trip to Virginia,” October 7, 1860
John P. Verree to Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1861
Israel Washburn Jr. to Abraham Lincoln, January 21, 1861
Campbell Kinnear to Abraham Lincoln, January 29, 1861
Cleveland (OH) Herald, “President Lincoln’s Car,” February 11, 1861
Chicago Style Entry Link
Schurz, Carl. Life of Henry Clay. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1887. view record
Van Atta, John R. "'A Lawless Rabble”: Henry Clay and the Cultural Politics of Squatters’ Rights, 1832–1841." Journal of the Early Republic 28, no. 3 (2008): 337-378. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Clay, Henry," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/12273.