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He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life mirrors the story of America from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol to the young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at last in this rich and sweeping biography. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler present Clay in his early years as a precocious, witty, and optimistic Virginia farm boy who at the age of twenty transformed himself into an attorney. The authors reveal Clay’s tumultuous career in Washington, including his participation in the deadlocked election of 1824 that haunted him for the rest of his career, and shine new light on Clay’s marriage to plain, wealthy Lucretia Hart, a union that lasted fifty-three years and produced eleven children. Featuring an inimitable supporting cast including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is beautifully written and replete with fresh anecdotes and insights. Horse trader and risk taker, arm twister and joke teller, Henry Clay was the consummate politician who gave ground, made deals, and changed the lives of millions.
From New York Times bestselling historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how, in nineteenth-century America, a new set of political giants battled to complete the unfinished work of the Founding Fathers and decide the future of our democracy In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of Kentucky, as dashing as he was ambitious, embodied the hopes of the rising West. South Carolina's John Calhoun, with piercing eyes and an even more piercing intellect, defended the South and slavery. Together these heirs of Washington, Jefferson and Adams took the country to war, battled one another for the presidency and set themselves the task of finishing the work the Founders had left undone. Their rise was marked by dramatic duels, fierce debates, scandal and political betrayal. Yet each in his own way sought to remedy the two glaring flaws in the Constitution: its refusal to specify where authority ultimately rested, with the states or the nation, and its unwillingness to address the essential incompatibility of republicanism and slavery. They wrestled with these issues for four decades, arguing bitterly and hammering out political compromises that held the Union together, but only just. Then, in 1850, when California moved to join the Union as a free state, "the immortal trio" had one last chance to save the country from the real risk of civil war. But, by that point, they had never been further apart. Thrillingly and authoritatively, H. W. Brands narrates an epic American rivalry and the little-known drama of the dangerous early years of our democracy.
This dual biography with documents is the first book to explore the political conflict between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay - two explosive personalities whose contrasting visions of America's future shaped a generation of power struggle in the early Republic. ln a clear, even narrative that outlines the economic, social, technological, and political dynamics of the early nineteenth century, Watson examines how Jackson and Clay came to personify the opposition between democracy and development. Following the biographies are twenty-five primary documents - including speeches from the Senate floor, letters to the new president, and Jackson's famous bank veto - that parallel the narrative's organization and immerse students in the debates of the day. Also included are headnotes to the documents, two maps, portraits of both figures, a chronology, a selected bibliography, and an index.
This third volume in the ten-volume series covers the career of Henry Clay from the Second Session of the Sixteenth Congress, where he engineered the second Missouri Compromise, to the presidential election of 1824, when he found himself eliminated as a candidate. Upon his return from Congress in 1821, Clay practiced law and interested himself in Transylvania University, among other things. Elected again to the House of Representatives and to the Speakership in the Eighteenth Congress, Clay resumed his leadership in national affairs; his concerns at this period were principally with the Monroe Doctrine, the Spanish and Greek revolutions, and internal improvements and the tariff. A continuing thread in the volume is the presidential campaign of 1824. Clay's correspondence illustrates the changes in political techniques brought about by the emergence of the Jacksonian type of campaign. Sectionalism, already revealed as a danger to the Union, continued as an important issue. Clay's optimistic anticipation of his election of course proved incorrect, and the volume ends with Clay in the powerful but uncomfortable position of being able, by throwing his support to one of three candidates before the House of Representatives, to choose the next President of the United States. Publication of this book was assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
This fourth volume in the ten-volume series covers the career of Henry Clay during his first year as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President John Quincy Adams. Within a month after taking office, Henry Clay described the Department of State as "no bed of roses." Even though routine papers bearing his signature have been omitted by the editors, the 950 pages of documents included in this volume show that many duties filled Clay's days and nights. The evidence in autograph drafts and the meagerness of revision in the official documents indicate the need for major reconsideration of Clay's role in United States foreign relations during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. The range of issues emerging in these papers is broad, and the duties were obviously more than the limited staff of the Department of State could satisfactorily perform. But if, as a result, the United States suffered a major diplomatic defeat during the British revision of trade regulations, Clay's instructions to the Panama mission marked him as a statesman of world stature. Publication of this book was assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
A new edition of the notorious carpetbagger's personal and political memoir A memoir of the ambitious life and controversial political career of Louisiana governor Henry Clay Warmoth (1842-1931), War, Politics, and Reconstruction is a firsthand account of the political and social machinations of Civil War America and the war's aftermath in one of the most volatile states of the defeated Confederacy. An Illinois native, Warmoth arrived in Louisiana in 1864 as part of the federal occupation forces. Upon leaving military service in 1865, he established himself in private legal practice in New Orleans. Taking full advantage of the chaotic times, Warmoth rapidly amassed fortune and influence, and soon emerged as a leader of the state's Republican Party and, in 1868, was elected governor. Amid an administration rife with scandal and corruption, the Louisiana Republican Party broke into warring factions. Warmoth survived an impeachment attempt in 1872, but a second attempt in 1873 culminated with his removal from office. This fall from Republican grace stemmed from his allegiance with white conservatives, remnants of the old guard, and staunch opponents of those Republicans who sought a wider role for African Americans in Louisiana's changing political landscape. Never again to hold political office, Warmoth remained in his adopted Louisiana, enjoying the fruits of his investments in plantations and sugar refineries. In 1930, the year before his death, he published War, Politics, and Reconstruction, a vindication of his public life and a rebuttal of his reputation as an opportunistic carpetbagger. Despite Warmoth's obvious self-serving biases, the volume offers unparalleled depth of personal insight into the inner workings of Reconstruction government in Louisiana in the words of one of its key architects. A new introduction by John C. Rodrigue places Warmoth's memoir within the broader context of evolving perceptions and historiography of Reconstruction. Rodrigue also offers readers a more balanced portrait of Warmoth by providing supplemental information omitted or slighted by the author in his efforts to cast his actions in the most positive light.
Written by a close friend, this is the story of the industrialist, art collector, and benefactor.
Returning to Kentucky in the spring of 1829 after four years as secretary of state in the administration of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay quickly regained the political dominance at home that would carry him to the U.S. Senate in 1831. Assuming leadership of the anti-Jackson forces, Senator Clay in 1832 mounted a spirited campaign for the presidency, advocating recharter of the national bank, high protective tariffs, and internal improvements, and alleging the administrative incompetence of Jackson and his cronies. Clay's defeat by the popular military hero was probably foreordained, but he emerged with sufficient national prestige to play the leading role in mediation of the nullification crisis of December 1832-March 1833. The battle over the constitutionality of the protective tariff, during which the words secession, invasion, and civil war were freely used, pitted Jackson and the power of the federal government against the states' rights politicians of South Carolina. Clay's masterful legislative compromise of 1833 defused a tense situation and brought him national applause as savior of the Union. Continuing his efforts to form a political coalition strong enough to defeat the Jacksonians, Clay was successful in a Senate resolution to censure the president for unconstitutional exercise of power in removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States. But as the election of 1836 drew near it became evident that the emerging coalition could not defeat Democrat Martin Van Buren, Jackson's hand- picked candidate; as the Reign of Jackson drew to a close, Clay could only view the national scene with dismay. Publication of this book was assisted by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.