Henry Clay - "The Great Compromiser"
Between 1820 and 1850, Henry Clay was a key player in the resolution of three crises that threatened the stability of the Union. After his first appointment to the U.S. Senate in 1806, Clay spent most of the next forty-five years in either that chamber or the House of Representatives. He quickly became a leader in Washington, and when the question of Missouri statehood exposed sectional tensions in 1819, Clay emerged as a spokesman for compromise. He maintained that role until his death in 1852.
 Black & white print of Henry Clay, no date. |
In 1819, Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state. Up to this point, a balanced had been maintained between slave states and free states, which gave the sections equal power in the Senate. However, if Missouri's request was approved, the balance of power would shift in favor of the South. At the same time, Congress was considering a bill proposing that Maine be admitted as a free state. With considerable input from Clay, Congress came to a three part compromise. The bill proposed that both Maine and Missouri would be admitted to the Union and that the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase be divided at 36°, 30' latitude. Slavery would be prohibited north of that line. Upon its passage, most Americans were satisfied that the Missouri Compromise had settled the questions surrounding slavery and its expansion. |
With the slavery question resolved to the satisfaction of most, sectional conflict returned to the most contentious topic of the antebellum era: tariffs. Throughout the antebellum era, southerners resisted the tariffs proposed by the northerners who wanted to protect domestic manufacturing. While the tariffs helped northern manufacturers, they limited foreign markets for southern agricultural products. Matters came to a head in the early 1830s. Following the 1828 "Tariff of Abominations," southerners, particularly John C. Calhoun and his South Carolina constituency, worked diligently to reduce the tariff on foreign imports. The compromise Tariff of 1832 passed Congress, with much support from the South, and was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. Calhoun and his followers were still dissatisfied. In November 1832, a South Carolina state convention declared both tariffs unconstitutional and declared them nullified, effective February 1, 1833. Jackson responded bt attempting to coerce the nullifiers with force, going so far as to threaten to hang Calhoun, and a bill passed by Congress in February 1833 gave him the power to use the army against the rebellious South Carolinians. The crisis was averted, however, when Henry Clay proposed another compromise tariff, which would gradually reduce tariffs over the course of nine years until they returned to the levels established by the Tariff of 1816, which southerners found more tolerable.
Henry Clay addessing the Senate, no date.
Shortly after his return to the Senate in 1849, Clay's negotiation skills were once again called upon. Unlike in the earlier single-issue crises, Clay was forced to negotiate several issues. Clay built his compromise around five issues: the admission of California as a free state; the end of the slave trade in Washington, DC; the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Law; compensation to Texas for relinquishing its claims to territory west of the Rio Grande; and the organization of the Utah and New Mexico territories without prohibition of slavery. Hoping that senators from both sections would accept the compromise for the good of the Union, Clay bundled his proposals in an omnibus bill. Unfortunately, Clay's expectation was the opposite of what actually occurred. Northern and southern senators alike rejected the bill. Rather
than supporting the provisions they favored, they voted against those they opposed. The defeat of the omnibus bill devastated the aging Clay, and he watched from afar as Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas split the bill into its five parts and passed each separately.
Following Clay's death in 1852, other Kentuckians attempted to take up his mantle. The most prominent of these replacements was John J. Crittenden. Crittenden's moment came in the Secession Winter of 1860-1861, when he proposed the Crittenden Compromise in an attempt to prevent civil war. Crittenden's plan offered six constitutional amendments and four pieces of congressional legislation. In short, the compromise permanently reestablished the Missouri Compromise line and rendered slavery unassailable anywhere south of that line. Moreover, the final provision stated that the compromise could not be altered once passed. Crittenden's plan appealed to few outside the South, and both houses of Congress swiftly rejected the bill.
