Henry Clay was born into a middle class family in Hanover County, Virginia. He studied law with the noted George Wythe, mentor of Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. At age twenty, Clay moved to Kentucky and quickly established himself as a successful lawyer. His oratorical skills, friendly manner and inclinations to engage in gambling and drinking made him immensely popular. Clay served at various times in the Kentucky state legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

As Speaker of the House Clay was a prominent War Hawk, pushing for expansion and war with Britain. He also served as a peace commissioner in Ghent in the negotiations ending the War of 1812.

Clay’s efforts to forge the Missouri Compromise (1820) were the first of several such ventures dealing with expansion and the spread of slavery. Clay was himself a slave owner, but he favored the emancipation of slaves and their resettlement in Africa.

The Election of 1824 was decided in the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams won the presidency and selected Clay as his Secretary of State—a move which encouraged critics to claim a "corrupt bargain." Clay gained widespread support in his home state and throughout the West for advocacy of the American System.

In 1831, Clay returned to the Senate and emerged as the leader of the National Republican party, which later became the Whig Party. He lost a bid for the presidency in 1832, but played prominently in the Bank Crisis and Tariff of 1833.

Clay’s perhaps most notable achievement came in the Compromise of 1850, in which the “Great Pacificator” or “Great Compromiser” managed temporarily to tame sectional passions. The Whig Party lasted only a short while following Clay’s death, but their ideas, particularly the American System, were taken over by the new Republican Party.