Henry Clay

Henry Clay linked foreign commerce to the economic development he promoted at home through the American System. A Kentucky lawyer, congressional leader, and Speaker of the House, he had urged war against Britain in 1812 and then helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. John Quincy Adams appointed him Secretary of State in 1825 after Clay supported Adams in the disputed presidential election; Andrew Jackson’s supporters denounced the appointment as a corrupt bargain. ¹

Clay negotiated commercial agreements and sought closer economic relations with the newly independent Latin American republics. He also pursued compensation from Britain for enslaved people who had gained freedom with British forces during the War of 1812. The American delegation to the 1826 Congress of Panama arrived too late to take part, while efforts to purchase Texas from Mexico met resistance. These projects combined the search for markets with demands for territorial expansion. ¹

Relations with Britain remained unsettled at the end of his secretaryship in 1829. An 1827 agreement continued joint occupation of the Oregon country without resolving the competing claims. Clay returned to the Senate and became a central figure in disputes over tariffs, slavery, and the Union, helping frame the Compromise of 1850. His career joined the commercial ambitions of an expanding republic to domestic compromises that repeatedly postponed a confrontation over slavery. ¹