HENRY CLAY

American statesman and attorney Henry Clay represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and he was the seventh House Speaker as well as the ninth Secretary of State. Clay helped established the National Republican Party and the Whig Party, and he was credited with the title of the “Great Compromiser” for his role in defusing sectional crises. Clay won the Kentucky state legislature in 1803, and subsequently, the House of Representatives in 1810. The statesman had a successful run in law and politics throughout his career.

Some of Clay’s eleven children followed in his footsteps and became statesmen and politicians themselves. Thomas Hart Clay became the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua and Honduras, Henry Clay Jr. was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1835, James Brown Clay served in the United States Congress, and John Morrison Clay became a thoroughbred breeder.