Henry Clay
Henry Clay (1777-1852) was born in a district known as the Slashes in Hanover County, Virginia, on April 12, 1777. His parents were the Reverend John Clay and Elizabeth Hudson. His formal education consisted of three years at a log schoolhouse in the Slashes. At the age of fourteen, Clay would move to Richard, Virginia, where he would work briefly as a clerk at a drugstore. In the following year, Clay would work in the office of the clerk of the High Court of Chancery, where Clay would take a liking to the law. Then, at the age of nineteen, Clay became a student of the then Attorney General of Virginia, Robert Brooke. After a year of study, he obtained his license to practice the law in the state of Virginia. Clay then decided to move to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1797, to be closer to his mother, who had moved there earlier in 1792. After his arrival, Clay would establish a legal office in Lexington.
Clay’s career in politics would begin in 1803, when he was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature. In 1806, Clay would then briefly serve in the United States Senate, filling a seat which had been vacated. He would then return to the Kentucky Legislature in 1808, before returning to the Senate in 1810 to fill another vacancy. He would then be elected to the federal House of Representatives in 1811 as a Democratic-Republican, during which time he served a Speaker of the House. Clay would then resign from the House in 1814 to serve as a commissioner at the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. He would return to Congress in 1815, and would remain there until 1825, serving as Speaker of the House for most of that time. He would then run as a Presidential Candidate in 1824, but ended up pledging his electoral votes to John Quincy Adams to prevent a Jackson victory. In return, Clay would be appointed as Adam’s Secretary of State. Clay would then break away from the Democratic-Republicans to form the National-Republicans, which later evolved into the Whig Party. He would then be elected to the United States Senate in 1831, and would serve there until 1842. Clay would also run unsuccessfully in the 1828, 1832, 1836, and 1844 presidential elections. After failing in his 1844 presidential bid, he would return to the Senate in 1849, and would remain there until his death on June 18, 1852.
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Henry Clay would effectively become the political leader of the American Protectionist movement, assuming the mantle left by Alexander Hamilton. Throughout his time in Congress, Clay would give no less than ten speeches involving the topic of protection, internal improvements, and American industry. Clay’s first speech on the subject was delivered to Congress on April 6, 1810, and was entitled On Domestic Manufactures. While Clay does not explicitly endorse tariff protection in the speech, he does present the case for domestic preference in government procurement. Clay would then deliver his speech entitled On Internal Improvement on March 13, 1818, which provides a sophisticated analysis and defence of infrastructure development. His three signature speeches on the subject of protection include On Protection to Home Industry, delivered April 26, 1820; On American Industry, delivered March 30 and 31, 1824; and On the American System, delivered February 2, 3, and 6, 1832. Clay’s last major speech on the tariff, which is of significance more for political than economic reasons, was his speech of February 12, 1833, entitled On the Compromise Tariff. In making this speech, Clay would compromise on the issue of protection by agreeing to a gradual reduction in tariff rates, so as to resolve the nullification crisis which threatened the preservation of the Union.