Born in 1777, during the Revolution, Clay was the seventh of nine sons of John and Elizabeth Clay. “Sir John,” a Baptist minister, died in 1781, leaving Henry two slaves in his will.

Clay was the master craftsman of the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 as well as the founder of the Whig Party and the chief advocate of the “American System,” which called for ...

Log-in to bookmark & organize content - it's free! Fergus Bordewich talks about the Compromise of 1850 and its significance to the North winning the Civil War more than a decade later. Fergus ...

University of California law professor Joel Richard Paul talked about the debate over the Compromise of 1850 during Daniel Webster's time in political office and its impact on his political career.