When no candidate secured a majority of the votes, the decision was thrown to the House, where Clay happened to be speaker.Īs we know, Jackson's supporters ended up calling the election result a "Corrupt Bargain" because Clay gave Adams his support, and was nominated as Adams' Secretary of State. Calhoun was also running, but he withdrew his candidacy before the election. Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Treasury Secretary William Crawford, and John Quincy Adams were all running for president in 1824. Clay always found himself in the middle of a rock and a hard place, but to his credit he always managed to get that rock and that hard place to shake hands and reach a compromise. This started a long history of trouble between the two. And trouble also happened to be Andrew Jackson's middle name.įor those of you keeping tabs, go ahead and add Henry Clay to your ever-expanding list of "People Who Hated Andrew Jackson." Clay was one of the men who criticized Jackson after his foray into Pensacola in 1818 despite lack of presidential and congressional authorization. Despite all this, trouble was attracted to Clay like a bear to honey. Calhoun to support a tariff in 1816, and we all know how Calhoun felt about tariffs.
The first instance of this was pushing through the 1819 "Missouri Compromise," which defused some regional arguments about slavery by permitting slavery in Missouri in exchange for prohibitions in other states and territories. You can imagine how Andrew Jackson would feel about this.Ĭlay had made some successful deals early on in his career, earning him the nickname, "the Great Compromiser." He was born into a Virginian slaveholding family, but he spent much of his time as a politician holding off the expansion of the slave system the best he could.
He thought that selling western lands would be a great way to fund these ambitious projects. It involved spending federal funds on internal improvements (roads, canals, etc.), tariffs to protect American manufacturing, and a national bank to stabilize the economy. He called it the "American System" ( source). Clay proposed a sweeping national agenda to coordinate agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce throughout the country. He was a strong supporter of the War of 1812 and took a year off from the Senate to be part of the delegation that signed the Treaty of Ghent ending the War.Īfter the war, Americans were united in national pride and were, for a while at least, able to set aside regional differences. Senate before moving to the House, where he was elected on his first day as Speaker and where he spent the next ten years. He didn't win any friends in Kentucky by pushing for the abolition of slavery while he was Speaker.Ĭlay returned for another year in the U.S. When he got back home to Kentucky, he was elected Speaker of the state House of Representatives. Senate to fill out the term of the man who had resigned the post. In 1806, at the tender age of 29-several months short of the required age to be a senator he was appointed to the U.S.
He was soon elected to the state assembly. When he was three years old, he watched as British troops invaded and plundered his family's home.Ī native Virginian, Clay moved to Kentucky to practice law in 1797 and teach at Lexington's Transylvania University (no, that's not a typo). Otherwise, he was the Great Compromiser, the type of guy that everybody loves.Ĭlay got a taste of politics early. He also wasn't that fond of Martin Van Buren, but that's most likely because Van Buren and Jackson actually got along. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and John Quincy Adamsįoes : Andrew Jackson, of course. Yes, that's 11 children.įriends : John C. He was also the half-brother of Martha Watkins, John Hancock Watkins, Francis Watkins, and Nathaniel Watkins.Ĭhildren : Henrietta Clay, Theodore Clay, Thomas Clay, Susan Clay, Anne Clay, Lucretia Clay, Henry Clay II, Eliza Clay, Laura Clay, James Brown Clay, John Morrison Clay. Siblings : He was the 7th of 9: George Hudson Clay, Betsy Hudson Clay, Molly Clay, Sally Clay, Tom Clay, John Clay, Porter Clay, Henry Clay. Parents : Reverend John Clay and Elizabeth Hudson Occupation : Lawyer (are you starting to see a trend with all these early era politicians?), Kentucky State Legislator, Senator, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and all around nice guy.Įducation : College of William and Mary FAMILY & FRIENDS Hometown : Hanover County, Virginia WORK & EDUCATION Nickname : The Great Compromiser, The Great Pacificator, The Gallant Harry of the West, The Young Commoner, The Millboy of the Slashes, Hassle-Free Hank, One of the "Great Triumvirate"
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