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Historical person

Henry Clay

1777–1852

Henry Clay was an American lawyer and statesman whose congressional career made him one of the most influential politicians of the early nineteenth century. Born in Virginia in 1777, he established himself in Kentucky and repeatedly served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. As Speaker of the House he supported the War of 1812 and later promoted the American System of protective tariffs, a national bank and federally supported internal improvements intended to bind the country’s regional economies together.

Clay became known as the Great Compromiser because he played central roles in major settlements over sectional conflict, including the Missouri Compromise, the compromise tariff of 1833 and the measures that became the Compromise of 1850. Yet these agreements postponed rather than resolved the conflict over slavery. A founder and leading figure of the Whig Party, Clay sought the presidency several times and lost the 1844 election narrowly to James K. Polk. He died in Washington in 1852 while still serving in the Senate.

In Barbara Hambly’s Death and Hard Cider, The investigation draws January into disputes among supporters of Harrison, Henry Clay and President Martin Van Buren, where campaign spectacle, personal rivalry and the protection of powerful families matter more than evidence.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Henry Clay (1 series)

Benjamin January Mysteries in Order

by Barbara Hambly 21 books 4.2(19,232)

Benjamin January is a free man of colour, a trained surgeon and a professional musician living in New Orleans during the decades before the American Civil War. His investigations move through Creole drawing rooms, music halls, hospitals, plantations, riverboats and slave quarters, where formal law is shaped by…

All books in this series