TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary of the Collection
 |
Inventory of the Henry Clay Letters, 1825-1851
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Jane Venanzi, 2009. ©2009. |
Descriptive Summary of the Collection |
|
| Creator | Clay, Henry, 1777-1852 |
| Title | Henry Clay Letters |
| Dates | 1825-1851 |
| Extent | 0.2 linear feet (1 box) |
| Abstract | Letters of Henry Clay, prominent statesman and orator, during his career as US Senator, concerning political topics which include the election of Jackson, secession, the temperance movement, and slavery. |
| Language | Materials are in English. |
| Repository | Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections |
| Collection Call Number | Midwest MS Clay |
| Collection Stack Location | 3a 38 4 |
Administrative Information
Cite As
Henry Clay Letters, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Provenance
Gift, Herbert Strauss, 1965.
Processed by
Jane Venanzi, 2009.
Access
The Henry Clay Letters are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 5 folders at a time maximum, and items in each folder will be counted before and after delivery to the patron (Priority I).
Ownership and Literary Rights
The Henry Clay Letters are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
Return to the Table of Contents
Biography of Henry Clay
Statesman, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, founder of the Whig party and a five time Presidential candidate.
Henry Clay was born on April 12, 1777 in Hanover County, Virginia. His family, which grew to include sixteen children, would move to Versailles, Kentucky to run a tavern, leaving the young Clay in the care of a boy’s club. When he was sixteen, he was hired as a secretary by the lawyer George Wythe, who went on to teach him law at the College of William and Mary. Clay was admitted to the bar in 1797 and began practicing in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1799, he married Lucretia Hart, starting a family of six daughters and five sons.
In 1811, Clay was elected to the House of Representatives and was immediately voted Speaker of the House and changed that position from one of rule enforcement and mediation to one of power. He appointed members of the War Hawk faction to all committees, thus giving him control of the House and facilitating the War of 1812. Praised for his skills as an orator, Clay was highly influential and supported such policies as the American System, which featured tariffs and improvements to infrastructure, and the Missouri Compromise. He ran for President several times. Though successful in none of them, he was influential in John Quincy Adams' 1824 election, and the President immediately appointed him Secretary of State. Clay created the Whig Party in 1836 and as a Senator continued to influence policy, handling the Nullification Crisis in 1833 and helping to work out the Compromise of 1850. Clay was still a Kentucky Senator when he died in Washington, DC, June 29, 1852 at the age of 75.
Return to the Table of Contents
Scope and Content of the Collection
Letters regarding various aspects of Clay’s political career, including his opposition towards Andrew Jackson and Jacksonism and details of his race against Zachary Taylor to be nominated for Whig Presidential candidate. The letters express opinions on South Carolina’s 1830 threat of secession, the Bank of the U.S., candidates for the vice presidency, the temperance movement, and slavery. Though Clay writes a letter lauding the laws which suppress the African slave trade, in another he refutes a conversation in which he purportedly admitted to the aim of pitting slave labor against free labor to make slavery expensive and impractical, reminding his correspondent that he is a slaveholder himself and an “adversary to abolition.” Letters of introduction and suggestions as to what to say in speeches and who to nominate show Clay’s large political influence. The last letter provides a description of the life, career, and death of George Wythe, who had employed the young Clay as a secretary in his old age. Correspondants include: Matthew Carey, Lewis Tappan, Francis Taliaferro Brooke, John Leeds Kerr, Edward C. Delavan, Kenneth Rayner, H. H. Dearborn, Phillip Phoenix, H. Holley, and Benjamin Blake Minor.
Return to the Table of Contents
Arrangement
Materials arranged chronologically.
Return to the Table of Contents
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.
Names
- Bank of the United States (1816-1836)
- Brooke, Francis Taliaferro, 1763-1851
- Carey, Matthew, 1760-1839
- Clay, Henry, 1777-1852
- Clay, Henry, 1777-1852 -- Correspondence
- Dearborn, H. H.
- Delavan, Edward C. (Edward Cornelius), 1793-1871
- Kerr, John Leeds, 1780-1844
- Minor, Benjamin B. (Benjamin Blake), 1818-1905
- Phoenix, Phillip
- Rayner, Kenneth, 1808-1884
- Tappan, Lewis, 1788-1873
- Whig Party (U.S.)
- Wythe, George, 1726-1806
Subjects
- Legislators -- United States -- Correspondence
- Correspondence -- 1801-1850
- Correspondence -- 1851-1900
- Manuscripts, American
- Nullification (States' rights)
- Politicians -- Kentucky -- Correspondence
- Presidential candidates
- Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1828
- Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1848
- Secession--South Carolina
- Slavery -- United States -- Public opinion
- Slavery--Law and legislation--United States
- Temperance -- United States -- History -- 19th century --Sources
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861 -- Sources
Return to the Table of Contents
Container List |
|||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Letter to H. Holley, Sep. 8, 1825 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Letter to F. T. Brooke, Nov. 24, 1827 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Letter to Matthew Carey, Dec. 25, 1830 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Letter to John Leeds Kerr, May 16, 1834 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Letter to Lewis Tappan, Mar. 29, 1836 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Letter to Edward C. Delavan, Aug. 20, 1838 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Letter to Francis T. Brooke, Oct. 9, 1838 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Letter to Kenneth Rayner, Jun. 2, 1839 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Letter to H. H. Dearborn, Jul. 13, 1842 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Letter to Phillip Phoenix, Nov. 7, 1843 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Letter to K. Rayner, Apr. 12, 1848 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Letter to B. B. Minor, May 3, 1851 | |||||||||