Jackson administration, 1829–1837 Return to the Senate Even with Clay out of office, President Jackson continued to see Clay as one of his major rivals, and Jackson at one point suspected Clay of being behind the
Petticoat affair, a controversy involving the wives of his Cabinet members. Clay strongly opposed the 1830
Indian Removal Act, which authorized the administration to relocate Native Americans to land west of the
Mississippi River. Another key point of contention between Clay and Jackson was the proposed
Maysville Road, which would connect
Maysville, Kentucky, to the National Road in
Zanesville, Ohio; transportation advocates hoped that later extensions would eventually connect the National Road to
New Orleans. In 1830, Jackson vetoed the project both because he felt that the road did not constitute interstate commerce, and also because he generally opposed using the federal government to promote economic modernization. While Jackson's veto garnered support from opponents of infrastructure spending, it damaged his base of support in Clay's home state of Kentucky. Clay returned to federal office in 1831 by winning election to the Senate over
Richard Mentor Johnson in a 73 to 64 vote of the Kentucky legislature. His return to the Senate after 20 years, 8 months, 7 days out of office, marks the fourth-longest gap in service to the chamber in history.
Bank War and the 1832 presidential election With the defeat of Adams, Clay became the de facto leader of the National Republicans, and he began making preparations for a presidential campaign in the
1832 election. In 1831, Jackson made it clear that he was going to run for re-election, ensuring that support or opposition to his presidency would be a central feature of the upcoming race. Jackson's Democrats rallied around his policies towards the national bank, internal improvements,
Indian removal, and
nullification, but these policies also earned Jackson various enemies, including Vice President John C. Calhoun. However, Clay rejected overtures from the fledgling
Anti-Masonic Party, and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed, leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different factions. Inspired by the Anti-Masonic Party's national convention, Clay's National Republican followers arranged for a
national convention that nominated Clay for president. As the 1832 election approached, the debate over the re-authorization of the national bank emerged as the most important issue in the campaign. By the early 1830s, the national bank had become the largest corporation in the United States, and
banknotes issued by the national bank served as the de facto legal tender of the United States. Jackson disliked the national bank because of a hatred of both banks and paper currency. The bank's charter did not expire until 1836, but bank president
Nicholas Biddle asked for renewal in 1831, hoping that election year pressure and support from Secretary of the Treasury
Louis McLane would convince Jackson to allow the re-charter. Biddle's application set off the "
Bank War"; Congress passed a bill to renew the national bank's charter, but Jackson vetoed it, holding the bank to be unconstitutional. Clay had initially hoped that the national bank re-charter would work to his advantage, but Jackson's allies seized on the issue, redefining the 1832 election as a choice between the president and a "monied oligarchy". Ultimately, Clay was unable to defeat a popular sitting president. Jackson won 219 of the 286 electoral votes and 54.2% of the popular vote, carrying almost every state outside of New England.
Nullification Crisis The high rates of the
Tariff of 1828 and the
Tariff of 1832 angered many Southerners because they resulted in higher prices for imported goods. After the 1832 election, South Carolina held a state convention that declared the tariff rates of 1828 and 1832 to be nullified within the state, and further declared that federal collection of import duties would be illegal after January 1833. In response to this
Nullification Crisis, Jackson issued his
Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, which strongly denied the right of states to nullify federal laws or
secede. He asked Congress to pass what became known as the
Force Bill, which would authorize the president to send federal soldiers against South Carolina if it sought to nullify federal law. Though Clay favored high tariff rates, he found Jackson's strong rhetoric against South Carolina distressing and sought to avoid a crisis that could end in civil war. He proposed a compromise tariff bill that would lower tariff rates, but do so gradually, thereby giving manufacturing interests time to adapt to less protective rates. Clay's compromise tariff won the backing of both manufacturers, who believed they would not receive a better deal, and Calhoun, who sought a way out of the crisis but refused to work with President Jackson's supporters on an alternative tariff bill. Though most members of Clay's own National Republican Party opposed it, the
Tariff of 1833 passed both houses of Congress. Jackson simultaneously signed the tariff bill and the Force bill, and South Carolina leaders accepted the new tariff, effectively bringing the crisis to an end. Clay's role in resolving the crisis brought him renewed national stature in the wake of a crushing presidential election defeat, and some began referring to him as the "Great Compromiser".
Formation of the Whig Party Following the end of the Nullification Crisis in March 1833, Jackson renewed his offensive against the national bank, despite some opposition from within his own Cabinet. Jackson and Secretary of the Treasury
Roger Taney pursued a policy of removing all federal deposits from the national bank and placing them in state-chartered banks known as "
pet banks". Because federal law required the president to deposit federal revenue in the national bank so long as it was financially stable, many regarded Jackson's actions as illegal, and Clay led
the passage of a Senate motion
censuring Jackson. Nonetheless, the national bank's federal charter expired in 1836, and though the institution continued to function under a Pennsylvania charter, it never regained the influence it had had at the beginning of Jackson's administration. The removal of deposits helped unite Jackson's opponents into one party for the first time, as National Republicans, Calhounites, former Democrats, and members of the Anti-Masonic Party coalesced into the
Whig Party. The term "Whig" originated from a speech Clay delivered in 1834, in which he compared opponents of Jackson to the
Whigs, a British political party opposed to
absolute monarchy. Neither the Whigs nor the Democrats were unified geographically or ideologically. However, Whigs tended to favor a stronger legislature, a stronger federal government, a higher tariff, greater spending on infrastructure, re-authorization of the Second Bank of the United States, and publicly funded education. Conversely, Democrats tended to favor a stronger president, stronger state governments, lower tariffs,
hard money, and expansionism. Neither party took a strong national stand on slavery. The Whig base of support lay in wealthy businessmen, professionals, the professional class, and large planters, while the Democratic base of support lay in immigrant
Catholics and yeomen farmers, but each party appealed across class lines. Partly due to grief over the death of his daughter, Anne, Clay chose not to run in the
1836 presidential election, and the Whigs were too disorganized to nominate a single candidate. Three Whig candidates ran against Van Buren: General
William Henry Harrison, Senator
Hugh Lawson White, and Senator Daniel Webster. By running multiple candidates, the Whigs hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Clay personally preferred Webster, but he threw his backing behind Harrison who had the broadest appeal among voters. Clay's decision not to endorse Webster opened a rift between the two Whig party leaders, and Webster would work against Clay in future presidential elections. Despite the presence of multiple Whig candidates, Van Buren won the 1836 election with 50.8 percent of the popular vote and 170 of the 294 electoral votes.
Van Buren administration, 1837–1841 , but
William Henry Harrison ultimately won the party's presidential nomination. Van Buren's presidency was affected badly by the
Panic of 1837, a major recession that badly damaged the Democratic Party. Clay and other Whigs argued that Jackson's policies, including the use of pet banks, had encouraged speculation and caused the panic. He promoted the American System as a means for economic recovery, but President Van Buren's response focused on the practice of "strict economy and frugality". As the
1840 presidential election approached, many expected that the Whigs would win control of the presidency due to the ongoing economic crisis. Clay initially viewed Webster as his strongest rival, but Clay, Harrison, and General
Winfield Scott emerged as the principal candidates at the
1839 Whig National Convention. Though he was widely regarded as the most qualified Whig leader to serve as president, many Whigs questioned Clay's electability after two presidential election defeats. He also faced opposition in the North due to his ownership of enslaved people and lingering association with the Freemasons, and in the South from Whigs who distrusted his moderate stance on slavery. Clay won a plurality on the first ballot of the Whig National Convention, but, with the help of
Thurlow Weed and other backers, Harrison consolidated support on subsequent ballots and won the Whig presidential nomination on the fifth ballot of the convention. Seeking to placate Clay's supporters and to balance the ticket geographically, the convention chose former Virginia Governor and Senator
John Tyler, a personal friend of Clay, whose previous career in the Democratic Party had practically come to an end, as the vice-presidential nominee. Clay was disappointed by the outcome but helped Harrison's ultimately successful campaign by delivering numerous speeches. With Whigs also winning control of Congress in the
1840 elections, Clay saw the upcoming
27th Congress as an opportunity for the Whig Party to establish itself as the dominant political party by leading the country out of recession.
Harrison and Tyler administrations, 1841–1845 President-elect Harrison asked Clay to serve another term as Secretary of State, but Clay chose to remain in Congress. Webster was instead chosen as Secretary of State, while
John J. Crittenden, a close ally of Clay, was chosen as Attorney General. As Harrison prepared to take office, Clay and Harrison clashed over the leadership of the Whig Party, with Harrison sensitive to accusations that he would answer to Clay. Just a month into his presidency, Harrison died of an illness and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler. Tyler retained Harrison's Cabinet, but the former Democrat and avid follower of both Jefferson's and Jackson's philosophy quickly made it known that he had reservations about re-establishing a national bank, a key priority of Clay's. Clay nonetheless initially expected that Tyler would approve the measures passed by the Whig-controlled Congress; his priorities included the re-establishment of the national bank, higher tariff rates, a national bankruptcy law, and an act to distribute the proceeds of land sales to the states for investments in infrastructure and education. Clay and his congressional allies attempted to craft a national bank bill acceptable to Tyler, but Tyler vetoed two separate bills to re-establish the national bank, showing that he in fact had no will to reach a solution for the party's issues. Clay and other Whig leaders were now outraged not only by Tyler's rejection of the Whig party platform but also because they felt that Tyler had purposely misled them into thinking that he would sign the bills. After the second veto, congressional Whigs voted to expel Tyler from the party, and on Clay's request, every Cabinet member except for Webster, who wanted to continue negotiating the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain about the border to Canada, resigned from office. This made Tyler increasingly move closer to his former Democratic Party and, with Webster still serving in the Tyler administration, Clay emerged as the clear leader of the Whig Party. In early 1842, Clay resigned from the Senate after arranging for Crittenden to succeed him. Though he vetoed other Whig bills, Tyler did sign some Whig priorities into law, including the
Preemption Act of 1841, which distributed the proceeds of land sales to the states, and the Bankruptcy Act of 1841, which was the first law in U.S. history that allowed for voluntary bankruptcy. Facing a large budget deficit, Tyler also signed the
Tariff of 1842, which restored the protective rates of the Tariff of 1832 but ended the distribution policy that had been established with the Preemption Act of 1841.
1844 presidential election President Tyler's break with the Whig Party, combined with Webster's continuing affiliation with Tyler, positioned Clay as the leading contender for the Whig nomination in the
1844 presidential election. By 1842, most observers believed that Clay would face Van Buren in the 1844 presidential election, as he had still remained as the clear leader of the Democrats and, following the tradition of the founders, wanted a second term. Hoping to win another term, President Tyler forged an alliance with John C. Calhoun and pursued the
annexation of the
Republic of Texas, which would add another slave state to the union. After President Tyler concluded an annexation treaty with Texas, Clay announced his opposition to annexation. He argued that the country needed "union, peace, and patience", and annexation would bring tensions over slavery and war with Mexico. The same day that Clay published a letter opposing the annexation of Texas, Van Buren also came out against annexation, giving similar reasons that Clay did, so that slavery and especially expansionism seemed to play no role in the next election. Clay unanimously won the presidential nomination at the
1844 Whig National Convention, but a minority of expansionist Southern Democrats, encouraged by Tyler's alternative outline, blocked Van Buren's nomination at the
1844 Democratic National Convention for countless ballots, until Van Buren withdrew, making place for an unexpected compromise candidate: The party nominated former Speaker of the House
James K. Polk of Tennessee, who favored annexation, but in order to calm anti-expansionists, promised to just run for a single term. Following the nomination of a pro-annexation Democrat, Tyler soon withdrew his incipient independent bid for re-election and endorsed Polk. Clay was surprised by Van Buren's defeat but remained confident of his chances in the 1844 election. Polk was the first "
dark horse" presidential nominee in U.S. history, and Whigs mocked him as a "fourth rate politician". Despite his relative lack of national stature, Polk proved to be a strong candidate capable of uniting the factions of the Democratic Party and winning the support of Southerners who had been reluctant to support Van Buren. Clay's stance on slavery alienated some voters in both the North and the South. Pro-slavery Southerners flocked to Polk, while many Northern
abolitionists, who tended to align with the Whig Party, favored
James G. Birney of the
Liberty Party. Clay's opposition to annexation damaged his campaign in the South, as Democrats argued that he worked in unison with Northerners to stop the extension of slavery. In July, Clay wrote two letters in which he attempted to clarify his position on the annexation of Texas, and Democrats attacked his supposedly inconsistent position. Polk narrowly won the election, taking 49.5% of the popular vote to Clay's 48.1% and winning 170 of the 275 electoral votes. Birney won several thousand anti-annexation votes in New York, and his presence in the race may have cost Clay the election. Most of Clay's contemporaries believed that annexation had been the decisive issue in the race, but Polk's savvy campaigning on the tariff may have also been decisive, as he narrowly won pro-tariff Pennsylvania after downplaying his anti-tariff views. After Polk's victory and the final indirect success of Tyler's strategy, Congress approved the annexation of Texas, which was signed by Tyler on his last day in office, and Texas gained statehood in late 1845.
Polk administration, 1845–1849 , but
Zachary Taylor ultimately won the party's presidential nomination. After the 1844 election, Clay returned to his career as an attorney. Though he was no longer a member of Congress, he remained closely interested in national politics. In 1846, the
Mexican–American War broke out after American and Mexican forces clashed at the disputed border region between Mexico and Texas. Initially, Clay did not publicly oppose the war, but privately he saw it as an immoral war that risked producing "some military chieftain who will conquer us all." He suffered a personal blow in 1847 when his son, Henry Clay Jr., died at the
Battle of Buena Vista. In November 1847, Clay re-emerged on the political scene with a speech that was harshly critical of the Mexican–American War and President Polk. He attacked Polk for fomenting the conflict with Mexico and urged the rejection of any treaty that added new slave territory to the United States. Months after the speech, the Senate ratified the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory known as the
Mexican Cession. By 1847, General
Zachary Taylor, who commanded the American forces at Buena Vista, had emerged as a contender for the Whig nomination in the
1848 presidential election. Despite Taylor's largely unknown political views, many Whigs believed he was the party's strongest possible candidate due to his martial accomplishments in the Mexican–American War. One of Clay's most trusted allies and advisers, John J. Crittenden, was Taylor's de facto campaign manager. Clay had initially told his allies that he would not run in the 1848 presidential election, but he was unwilling to support Taylor, a "mere military man". On April 10, 1848, he announced his candidacy for the Whig nomination. Although Webster and Winfield Scott each commanded a limited base of support in the party, Taylor and Clay each saw the other as their lone serious rival for the Whig nomination. As Taylor commanded the support of most Southern Whigs, Clay focused his efforts on courting Northern Whigs, emphasizing his opposition to the Mexican–American War and his life-long support for the gradual emancipation of enslaved people in Kentucky. Clay presented a strong challenge to Taylor at the
1848 Whig National Convention, but Taylor won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot. Partially in an attempt to please the Clay wing of the party, the convention nominated
Millard Fillmore as Taylor's running mate. Clay was embittered by his failure at the convention, and he did not campaign on behalf of Taylor. Nonetheless, Taylor won the election, taking 47.3 percent of the popular vote and 163 of 290 electoral votes.
Taylor and Fillmore administrations, 1849–1852 Increasingly worried about the sectional tensions arising over the issue of slavery in newly acquired territories, Clay accepted election to the Senate in 1849. Having refused to campaign for Taylor, Clay played little role in the formation of Taylor's Cabinet or in determining the new administration's policies. In January 1850, with Congress still deadlocked regarding the status of the Mexican Cession, Clay proposed a compromise designed to organize territory acquired in the Mexican–American War and address other issues contributing to sectional tensions. His legislative package included the admission of
California as a free state, the
cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief, the establishment of
New Mexico and
Utah territories, a ban on the importation of enslaved people into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent
fugitive slave law. Though it faced opposition from Southern extremists like Calhoun and Northern abolitionists like
William Seward, Clay's proposal won the backing of many Southern and Northern leaders. President Taylor, who favored the immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states without any attached conditions, opposed the plan, and Clay openly broke with the president in May 1850. Debate over Clay's proposal continued into July when Taylor unexpectedly died of an illness. After Taylor's death, President Fillmore, who supported Clay's compromise bill, consulted with Clay in appointing a new Cabinet. Exhausted by the debate in the Senate, Clay took a leave of absence shortly after Taylor's death, but Fillmore, Webster, and Democratic Senator
Stephen A. Douglas took charge of pro-compromise forces. By the end of September 1850, Clay's proposal, which became known as the
Compromise of 1850, had been enacted. Though contemporaries credited Fillmore, Douglas, and Webster for their role in passing the Compromise of 1850, Clay was widely regarded as the key figure in ending a major sectional crisis. ==Death==