Henry Clay – 1777-1852

Clay was born in Virginia, but lived most of his life in Kentucky, which sent him to the House of Representative (1811–1814, 1815–1821, 1823–1825) and the Senate (1806– 1807, 1810–1811, 1831–1842, 1849–1852). In a struggle to find a compromise on the slavery issue and thereby avoid civil war, Clay became the chief promoter of the Missouri Compromise (1820), the compromise tariff of 1833 (which ended the Nullification crisis that threatened secession), and the Compromise of 1850, another effort to reconcile the claimed rights of free and slave states.