Henry Clay, one of America’s greatest legislators and orators, lived from 1777 to 1852. In his lifespan, Henry was a very successful attorney, a well respected farmer, a horse race enthusiast, and a “Great Compromiser”. The name “Great Compromiser” comes from the fact that Clay was very good at negotiation. With this skill at hand, Henry was able to avoid the Civil War until it could not be adverted.
Born on April 12, 1777, Henry Clay was raised in Hanover Country, Virginia. His father, a Baptist minister who went by the name Sir John, owned 22 slaves, which made him part of the “planter” class, (class of men who owned 20 or more slaves). Henry’s father died when he was 4 years old, and left Henry an inheritance of 2 slaves. Henry was the 7th born of of 9 children. He grew up in an above average house, and his mother owned 18 slaves and 474 acres of land after her husbands death.
Henry’s stepfather got him a job in the office of the Virginia Court of Chancery. This job got Henry interested in Law. While on the job, Clay met a man named George Wythe. George Wythe had a crippled hand, so he appointed Clay as his secretary. After about four years of working under Wythe, Clay started “reading the law”, by working and studying with Wythe and Robert Brooke. Henry was allowed to practice law in 1797.
After beginning his career in law, Clay married a woman named Lucretia Hart. Together, they had 11 children, (5 sons and 6 daughters). Out of all 11 of his children, 7 died before him and his wife. Henry’s wife died in 1864 at 83 years old.
Henry moved to Lexington, Kentucky in November 1797. He quickly gained a reputation for his legal skills. His clients would pay him with land and horses. After awhile he owned a few town lots and the...
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...ds ceded to the U.S. by Mexico.
After his re-election, Clay kept serving the Union and his home state of Kentucky. On June 29th, 1852, He died of Tuberculosis in Washington D.C. at the age of 75. Henry was the first person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. (tradition where coffin is placed on view to allow the public at large to pay their respects to the deceased). He was buried in the Lexington Cemetery, where Theodore Frelinghuysen gave the eulogy. His headstone reads, “I know no North - no South - no East - no West.”. Henry’s will freed all the slaves he held, and gave his two surviving sons, James Brown Clay, and John Morrison Clay, portions of the Ashland estate for use. Today the Ashland estate is maintained and operated as a museum, and includes 17 acres of the original estate grounds. It is located on Richmond Road in Lexington and is open to the public.
John Marshall was born in Virginia in 1755. Stites describes him as a Virginian "by birth, upbringing, disposition, and property (Stites 1)." His father, Thomas Marshall, was one of the most prominent and ambitious men of his time, and had a major impact on John. At age nineteen, John Marshall made his first impression when he joined the Fauquier County Militia as a lieutenant to fight in the American Revolution. Marshall's education included three months of law study at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Even though his education was limited, it was better than most of the political figures of his time. Marshall obtained his license to practice law on August 28, 1780 in Fauquier County.
As the author of Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication, James C. Curtis seems to greatly admire Andrew Jackson. Curtis pointed out that Jackson was a great American general who was well liked by the people. As history shows, Andrew Jackson had his flaws; for example, he thought the National Bank of the United States was going to kill him but he was determined to kill it first. He resented the Bank because he thought it was the reason for the Panic of 1819. Andrew Jackson was elected to the presidency in 1824 after first being nominated in 1822. He was sixty-one when he was elected the seventh president of the United States.
Throughout the course of American political history rarely has there ever been a rivalry as fierce and contested as that of the one between Tennessee’s Andrew Jackson, and Kentucky’s Henry Clay. During their extensive political careers the two constantly seemed to cross paths differing in terms philosophically and ideologically. Simply put, these two men profoundly shaped the American Antebellum period, specifically involving the 1820’s to the 1840’s. Their notions of what was best for the country became the basis for their respective parties and consequently their differences in methodology facilitated countless battles in the American political atmosphere. The most significant issues that centered on these types of political skirmishes involved
Before he moved, Deere married his first wife Demarius Lamb in 1827 where they soon had five kids. After Demarius’ death, Deere married again to another woman named Lucinda Lamb in 1867, having four children with her.
Thomas Morton came to the New England in the year 1622. Morton was educated for the law at Oxford. Upon his arrival to Plymouth people had already heard he came with shady past. He had come by his inheritance from which he was “plaintiff, lawyer, and beneficiary” (McWilliams pg 5).
Andrew Jackson was born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1776. His parents, who were Scotch-Irish people. They came to America two years before Andrew was born. His mother was widowed while pregnant with him. At age thirteen, Andrew joined the patriotic cause and volunteered to fight the British. He and his brother were both captured and imprisoned together by the British. Their mother got them released by a prisoner exchange, but his brother died on the long trip home from smallpox. During his independent days, he lived in a tavern with other students.
Considered more of a personal vendetta then a legitimate case, the Aaron Burr Treason Trial cultivated how judges and lawmakers defined treason based on the Constitution and what executive power the president has when a part of law case that still hold true in America today.
Andrew Jackson was a very influential, and controversial, president and Great American. Andrew Jackson was born on March 15th, 1767. He died on June 8th, 1845(“History.net”). He was 6’1” and weighed 145lbs(“History.net”). He also was the first president to try to be assassinated(“waltercoffey.wordpress.com”).
During his entire life, James Madison, who is one of the founding fathers, contributed many dedications to the States, especially when creating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As the fourth president of the U.S, he consciously chose to create a new model of presidential power that he thought would fit better with the system of the separation of powers after seeing “the danger overwrought executive power poses to republican constitutionalism” (Kleinerman). Despite of having such good intention, some of his actions led the country through some significant suffers.
Shortly after the American Revolution, the United States entered an era of profound economic and social change that was dominated first by the Market Revolution and subsequently by Andrew Jackson’s skillful use of the power of the presidency to crack down on capitalist exploitation. Jackson’s first biographer, James Parton, however, describes the legacy of the seventh President’s administration as one fraught with controversy, “Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint.” Many people argue that Jackson, having turned the federal
Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaw settlement, a community of Scotch-Irish immigrants along the border between north and south Carolina. As far as I know they are still disputing his place of origin. he claimed that his place of origin was actually south Carolina though in my opinion if he said he was from there he was from that location. His father had died before his birth Andrew’s mother had three sons and was living with her Crawford relatives. Jackson was attending local schools and received an elementary education.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on April 13, 1743 and grew up on the family plantation at Shadwell in Albermarle County, Virginia. His father was Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres and like his fathers before him, was a justice of the peace, a vestryman of his parish and a member of the colonial legislature. The first of the Virginia Jefferson's of Welsh extraction, Peter in 1738 married Jane Randolph. Of their ten children, Thomas was the third. Thomas inherited a full measure of his father's bodily strength and stature, both having been esteemed in their prime as the strongest men of their county. He also inherited his father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for literature and his aptitude for mathematics. The Jefferson's were a musical family; the girls sang the songs of the time, and Thomas, practicing the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent performer.
Patrick Henry, the author of the “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Speech and the famous American Framer, attorney, and ex-governor of Virginia, was born on May 29, 1736 in Hanover County, VA (Fowler). Henry was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and was chosen to be a delegate to the 1st Continental Congress (Fowler). Henry was known for being a fiery orator and speaker, and he proved himself to be a knowledgeable lawyer and politician (Fowler). Patrick Henry was usually reported as being six feet tall, long-limbed, with “sparkly cobalt eyes and auburn hair” (Fowler). But early in life, Henry was common man. Henry was a clerk who worked for a local business run by his father and, for the most part, educated by his father, who attended a Scottish university. He was musically inclined, playing the fiddle and flute, and during most of his adulthood Henry took active roles in the military skirmishes and disputes between the colonies and the Britain (Fowler).
Andrew Jackson is one of the most controversial presidents. Many regard him as a war hero, the father of the Democratic Party, an inspiring leader, and a spokesman for the common man. While there is plenty to praise about the seventh president, his legacy is tarnished by his racism, disregard for the law of the land, cruelty towards the Native Americans, and ruthless temper. Jackson was an intriguing man who was multi-faceted. One must not look at a singular dimension, and cast judgment on him as a whole. To accurately evaluate one of the most complex presidents, it is crucial to observe Jackson from all possible angles. Prior lifestyle, hardships in life, political ideology, lifestyle of the time, political developments, and his character
“[T]he man on the ten-dollar bill is the father of the American treasury system, a signer of the Constitution, one of the primary authors of the Federalist Papers, and the loser of the infamous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton's earlier career as a Continental Army officer is less well known. Yet Hamilton's first experience in public service is important, not only because it was the springboard to his later career, but because it also deeply influenced his values and thinking” (Hamilton).