Southern History Series: Sen. Henry Clay Condemns Abolitionism

Editor’s Note: This is a work in progress.

Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky was unquestionably one of the greatest U.S. senators of all time. In the antebellum era, he was considered a member of the “Great Triumvirate” along with Sen. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina and Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. In retrospect, the early 19th century was the Golden Age of the U.S. Senate when the states chose their highest quality leaders.

I’ve written at length about South Carolina and the influence it had on the culture of the Deep South, but Kentucky was the opposite pole. Whereas South Carolina and John C. Calhoun considered slavery a positive good, Henry Clay and Kentucky considered it a curse. Whereas South Carolina and John C. Calhoun favored free trade, Henry Clay and Kentucky championed the American system of internal improvements and protectionism. Whereas South Carolina wanted to reopen the slave trade, Henry Clay was the president of the American Colonization Society and supported resettling free blacks in Africa. Whereas South Carolina seceded from the Union, Kentucky dithered and was occupied by the Union Army.

John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay dominated the Senate during their generation. Clay ran for president three times. He lost to Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory) in the 1832 presidential election as a National Republican. He lost to his successor James K. Polk (Young Hickory) in the 1844 presidential election as the candidate of the Whig Party. For 1806 until 1852, Henry Clay took turns as a representative from Kentucky, a U.S. senator from Kentucky, Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams, Speaker of the House of Representatives and as a major party presidential nominee. It will suffice to say that there has never been a greater and more influential Kentuckian than “Harry of the West.”

The following excerpt comes from a speech by Sen. Henry Clay on the subject of abolitionism and racial equality which was delivered in the U.S. Senate on February 7, 1839: