henry clay: part 2 kentucky studies 2012-2013. agenda: 11/26/12 bellwork intro to paper assignment!...
TRANSCRIPT
HENRY CLAY: PART 2
Kentucky Studies 2012-2013
AGENDA: 11/26/12
Bellwork
Intro to paper assignment!
PPT/Notes: Henry Clay Part 2
Exit Slip
Learning Target: I will identify and describe
BELLWORK
Henry Clay once wrote: "I know of no South, no
North, no East, no West to which I owe my
allegiance. The Union is my country.“
What does this statement mean?
HENRY CLAY
Compromise of 1820
Compromise of 1833
Compromise of 1850
War Hawk; War of 1812 Negotiator
“Great Compromiser,” the “Great Pacificator.”
CLAY
After receiving a law license in his native Virginia, Clay
moved to Lexington, Kentucky to establish a practice.
He was a renowned criminal defense attorney and a
prosperous estate owner. Clay did not hesitate to voice his
social and political views, and he soon gained a reputation as a
skilled orator.
In 1803, he was elected to the Kentucky House of
Representatives and, five years later, he was chosen as speaker.
CLAY
In the early 19th century, American exports fell victim to economic
sparring between Britain and France. American vessels were seized
by the warring European nations and the British navy regularly
impressed (abducted) American sailors.
Clay and a group of strident young men known as the War Hawks
were outraged by these repeated violations of American neutrality.
The War Hawks were fed up with the plodding diplomatic tactics
of Jefferson and Madison and they were convinced that a
declaration of war against Britain was the only honorable response.
CLAY
Shortly after his arrival in the House, Clay was chosen
to be speaker. He played this supervisory role well,
although he frequently left the Speaker's chair to
participate in debates.
Clay, a consummate politician, also spent considerable
time developing new coalitions and ensuring that fellow
War Hawks chaired the key naval and foreign relations
committees.
CLAY
A Federalist politician once commented that
"Henry Clay was the man whose influence and power
more than that of any other produced the War of
1812."
CLAY
By 1814, even the radical War Hawk was ready for
the war to end.
Clay accepted a position on the five-member
American delegation sent to Europe to negotiate
peace. Although he did not always see eye-to-eye
with the other U.S. diplomats, Clay was a shrewd
and stubborn spokesman for the American position.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY
You will complete the handout, “Henry Clay’s
accomplishments.”
Go from station to station and find the information
for each event (3 events); fill in the chart.
Turn in B1 when finished.
COMPROMISE OF 1820
1820
In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820,
tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery
factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They
reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for
admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to
upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states.
To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part
compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting
Maine as a free state.
1820
It also passed an amendment that drew an
imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory,
establishing a boundary between free and slave
regions that remained the law of the land until it was
negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
1820
To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-
part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but
also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed
an amendment that drew an imaginary line across
the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a
boundary between free and slave regions that
remained the law of the land until it was negated by
the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
1820
"The Great Compromiser" proposed that Missouri be
admitted to the Union as a slave state, which was how the
state constitution was written by the Missouri convention.
To pacify the North, Clay proposed that the southern
boundary of Missouri be extended throughout the rest of
the western territory and that slavery would be forbidden
forever, north of that line. This became known as the
Missouri Compromise.
1833
On December 10, 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued a
proclamation to the people of South Carolina that disputed a
states' right to nullify a federal law. Jackson's proclamation
was written in response to an ordinance issued by a South
Carolina convention that declared that the tariff acts of 1828
and 1832 "are unauthorized by the constitution of the United
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and
are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State."
1833
Led by John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president at
the time, the nullifiers felt that the tariff acts of 1828
and 1832 favored Northern-manufacturing interests
at the expense of Southern farmers. After Jackson
issued his proclamation, Congress passed the Force
Act that authorized the use of military force against
any state that resisted the tariff acts
1833
In 1833, Henry Clay helped broker a compromise
bill with Calhoun that slowly lowered tariffs over the
next decade. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was
eventually accepted by South Carolina and ended
the nullification crisis.
1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws
passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the
issue of slavery. In 1849 California requested
permission to enter the Union as a free state,
potentially upsetting the balance between the free
and slave states in the U.S. Senate.
1850
Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of
resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to
seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North
and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the
Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade
in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
1850
Furthermore, California entered the union as a
free state and a territorial government was created
in Utah. Also, an act was passed settling a boundary
dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also
established a territorial government in New Mexico.
HOW GREAT OF A SPEAKER?
“I am far from surveying the vast maritime power of Great
Britain with the desponding eye with which other gentlemen
behold it. I cannot allow myself to be discouraged at the
prospect even of her thousand ships. This country only requires
resolution, and a proper exertion of its immense resources, to
command respect and to vindicate every essential right. If we
are not able to meet the wolves of the forest, shall we put up
with the barking of every petty fox that trips across our way?”
SPEAKER CLAY
“Mr. President, I have said that I want to know whether we are bound
together by a rope of sand or an effective capable government competent
to enforce the powers therein vested by the Constitution of the United
States. And what is this doctrine of Nullification, set up again, revived,
resuscitated, neither enlarged nor improved, nor expanded in this new
edition of it, that when a single state shall undertake to say that a law
passed by the twenty-nine states is unconstitutional and void, she may
raise the standards of resistance and defy the twenty-nine. Sir, I denied
that doctrine twenty years ago—I deny it now—I will die denying it. There
is no such principle. . . .”
SPEAKER CLAY
“The public attention has been drawn to the
approaching arrival of the Hornet, as the period
when the measures of our government would take a
decisive character, or rather their final cast. We are
among those who have attached to this event a high
degree of importance, and have therefore looked to
it with the utmost solicitude.”
SPEAKER CLAY
“Let war therefore be forthwith proclaimed against England.
With her there can be no motive for delay. Any further
discussion, any new attempt at negotiation, would be as
fruitless as it would be dishonorable. With France we shall still
be at liberty to pursue the course which circumstances may
require. The advance she has already made by the repeal of her
decrees; the manner of its reception by our government; and
the prospect which exists of an amicable accommodation,
entitle her to this preference…”
EXIT SLIP
Henry Clay was one of the greatest statesmen of
his time and in American history; yet he never
served as President of his country. Abraham Lincoln
regarded Henry Clay as the greatest statesman the
nation had ever produced, calling him “my beau
ideal of a statesman.”
Do you agree with Lincoln’s description of Clay?
Why? Why not? Provide details from your notes.