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Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union

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The New York Times has called Robert V. Remini "our foremost Jacksonian scholar". No matter how one feels about Remini's scholarship or historical interpretations, he is undeniably the most prolific Jacksonian historian of our time - our any other time, for that matter.

In reading his celebrated three-volume biography of Andrew Jackson and other related works, I'd come to think of Remini as something of a "Jackson bigot." The reverence Remini has for Jackson practically oozes from the pages of his books, while the many injustices and dubious actions undertaken by the seventh president throughout his lifetime are treated as the unfortunate, but excusable episodes of a passionate and often impulsive man (some examples might include: the Treaty of Fort Jackson and other Indian treaties; the unauthorized invasion of Florida in 1818 and his conduct during that campaign; the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia; etc.). Indeed, I have often thought that had Remini lived in Jackson's lifetime he may have supplanted Francis Blair as editor of the pro-Jackson newspaper, the Washington Globe. Thus, given such an undisguised admiration for Jackson and his trenchant democratic principles, I was curious to see how Remini would treat his arch-villain: the indomitable Henry Clay of Kentucky.

To my great surprise and pleasure, Remini presents an exceptionally balanced and thorough account of "Prince Hal" and his feud with Andrew Jackson and the Democrats as nominal head of the Whig party. The author pays homage to Clay's tremendous oratorical and political abilities and openly laments the fact that Clay's overweening desire for the presidency ultimately deprived the nation of his services in that office.

Clay's career in national pubic service was long and extraordinarily influential from start to finish. Beginning in 1811, when he was sworn in as a freshman Congressmen, he was immediately elected Speaker of the House owing to his leadership position in a group of young, nationalistic and anti-British Republicans known as the "War Hawks." Remini credits Clay with single handedly changing the fundamental nature of the Speaker's position (which he held for longer than anyone in the 19th century), turning it from that of mundane legislative traffic cop to a leadership role of setting the political agenda and steering national policy. Clay reveled in the rough-and-tumble nature of the House, where his quick wit and speaking abilities were distinct competitive advantages, and openly preferred it to the more rarified and sedate proceedings of the Senate. And when circumstances ultimately brought Clay's talents to the US Senate, he again shaped that body in his own image, ushering in a period of great political debate that is still considered its "golden era."

In the end, Clay failed in his endeavor to shape national domestic policy to include federally funded internal improvements and, much to his chagrin and Remini's, he never had the opportunity to leave his imprint on the executive branch. Nevertheless, as Remini's superb biography makes clear, the legislative branch was Henry Clay's domain, and during his remarkable career in that body (off and on from 1811 to 1852) he did more to refine and redefine the tone, process and importance of Congress than any other American statesman in history.

Robert Remini is far better known as the biographer of Henry Clay's great enemy, Andrew Jackson. But in turning to a biography of Henry Clay, who lost every presidential race he entered, Remini has found a subject just as worthy of attention. Both Clay and Jackson belonged to the generation of American leaders who succeeded those Founding Fathers; like their contemporaries Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren and John C. Calhoun, they charted the course of the United States from its roots as a rather elitist republic into a more democratized republic. Benefiting from the expansion in the franchise following the War of 1812, all five of these men vied for the Presidency at one time or another, and all five were involved in the greatest debates of the antebellum world: slavery, abolition, the formation of the second party system of the Whigs and the Democrats, the expansion westward, and the attempts to steer a course away from civil war. In order to understand Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, one needs to know the life of his great hero, Henry Clay. There is simply no substitute for this book, and Remini tells his story with gusto and intelligence. I knew from the first page that it would be fascinating, as Remini tells the deathbed story of Andrew Jackson. Someone asked Jackson if he had left anything undone. Jackson supposedly replied, "Yes. I didn't shoot Henry Clay, and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun." A great story, about an era when politicians were also statesmen.

Over the past year, I've read biographies of all the presidents from Washington to Polk, plus biographies of other important figures of the revolutionary through the antebellum period and this book is simply the best I've read! Robert Remini is by far the best historian of the period and his writing style should be the model for all students of history. I thoroughly enjoyed his biography of Andrew Jackson and his monograph "Van Buren and the Making of the Demoncratic Party". But this biography of Henry Clay is, to me, his masterpiece! It's more than just a history of Henry Clay's life...it is an encyclopedia of all the major events in American History from 1800 to 1850. Clay was by far the most important figure of the 1st half of the 19th Century. There is not one event or issue that Henry Clay did not affect...either in his opposition to or support for. Remini lays Clay's life bare. All his faults (and there were many!) and all his strengths. Remini's Jackson came off as a very mean spirited and unsympathetic figure. Remini's Clay came off as very mean spirited, but extremely likeable. Remini's reference to Clay as the "Statesman for the Union" is a very fitting moniker.

Simply the best biography of an American political figure I've ever read. Remini, the preeminent Jacksonain scholar today, combines first-rate historical research with wonderful anecdotes that flow seamlessly in and out of the larger historical context of the Antebellum era. Not merely a terrific, well written biography of one figure, Remini's work also draws the larger issues of Clay's era into sharp focus: from the early American republic and the nationalistic fervor that followed the War of 1812, through the Bank War of the Jackson administration, to the crisis over slavery and sectionalism. Remini's mastery of the issues of the Jacksonian era and the political titans that populated that exciting time in America's history makes for wonderful reading. Although I disagree with some of Remini's interpretations, his biography of Henry Clay should be considered the definitive work on the subject for decades to come. I only hope Remini continues to produce fine biographies like this one of Clay, and his other fine works on Jackson and Daniel Webster.

At almost 800 pages and about a relatively obscure period in American history, reading this book is no light endeavor. Yet, it is extremely readable and replete with fascinating information about a very important period in our nation's history: that between the presidencies of the Virginia dynasty and the Civil War. Among the many larger-than-life characters of those days, few commanded a greater presence than Henry Clay. In a long-storied congressional career, this man did as much as any president to direct the nation's course and avoid Civil War for as long as it was possible.

Knowing that the author has written extensively on Andrew Jackson, I wouldn't have been surprised if this biography might have been somewhat biased against Clay, one of Jackson's deadliest enemies. It was a very nice surprise to see that Remini was extremely balanced in this study, perhaps reflecting the way most people of that day reacted to Clay themselves. Perhaps one wanted to hate him and his policies and his unabashed ambition to be president, yet on a personal level, the man was impossible not to like (except for a few hard cases like Jackson). To read about the Golden Age of our Senate, when giants trod the earth, is kind of saddening when we see what has become of that institution since then.

In the days of Clay and Jackson, Remini shows us the beginnings of constitutional issues that we may take for granted now but were of intense importance in those days. Issues like the federal government's role in financing infrastructure and the chartering of a national central bank were issues that decided and ended political careers back then.

Certainly slavery, its expansion and the desire to abolish is what we are most familiar with about this period. Remini does an excellent job in outlining all the positions that were taken by the abolitionists, the southern leadership and those caught in-between masterfully. Even many who advocated abolition were not necessarily doing it with the best interests of the slaves themselves in mind. Clay's own position against slavery, clearly stated by himself and the author, would be less than pleasing to today's reader, but it was not uncommon.

There is a lot to learn in this book and it will give the reader a new appreciation for one of the giants this country has produced.

Remini provides a fascinating, detailed account of the early republic's leading nationalist, covering the totality of the subject - his personal and political life. The honest analysis of the personal weaknesses of the ambitious politician explains how the Whig Party leader of 20 years could be the most popular statesman in the country, yet not be trusted and rewarded by the public with the reigns of executive authority. The reader is struck with Clay's brilliance and steady optimism, even with the unquenched ambition and through his agonizingly slow death. A great read for antebellum history buffs!

Although I wouldn't necessarily agree with a previous reviewer that Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky was the most important failed politician in US History (he probably was for the nineteenth century, but I would rate William Jennings Bryan as the most important "failed" presidential candidate of the twentieth), there's no denying that Robert Remini has written the definitive biography of a man who has been consistently rated as one of the three greatest congressional leaders in history. There is some irony here, as Remini is well-known as the definitive biographer of Andrew Jackson, Clay's greatest rival and enemy (in his prologue Remini notes amusingly that an elderly lady who worked for the Jackson Historical Society told him that Mr. Jackson "might shoot you" for writing a biography of Clay). Yet despite his admiration for President Jackson (which I do not share), Remini is admiringly objective and fair-minded in this biography. Clay was a poor Virginia boy who traveled to Kentucky at a young age and made a fortune as a lawyer, planter and slaveowner. At the age of 34 he was elected to Congress and was immediately chosen as the Speaker of the House, and he remains the only Congressman to achieve the Speakership so quickly. Clay soon became one of the nation's leading politicians, and he would eventually become a kind of "living legend", and would maintain that status until his death in 1852. Handsome, charming, witty, and brave (like Jackson, he fought several pistol duels in defense of his "honor", a prized asset in the antebellum South), Clay was also calculating, conniving and extremely ambitious, which proved to be his undoing. He ran for President three times and lost each time (much to Jackson's delight), yet this never lowered the affection and esteem in which he was held by his many admirers and fellow politicians. Clay's primary role throughout his career was in working out compromises between the Northern and Southern states over problems such as slavery, tarriffs, and states' rights - all issues which threatened to tear the nation apart. Indeed, had Clay not risen from his deathbed in 1850 and helped to secure the "Compromise of 1850", the Civil War might have happened a decade earlier. Clay's presence in Congress - and his skills in keeping the North and South together as one nation - probably prevented the Civil War for thirty or more years, and it is no accident that following his death in 1852 the two sections became increasingly divided and bitter towards one another, with a Civil War soon to follow. Abraham Lincoln called Clay his "beau ideal of a statesman" and used Clay's passion for keeping the Union together as an inspiration for fighting the Civil War. I must confess that I was a great admirer of Clay long before I read this biography, and it only confirmed my belief that Clay was far better qualified to be President than almost anyone who actually held the office at the time (including Jackson). Unlike Jackson, Clay was willing to protect the Cherokee Indians and other tribes of the Southeast instead of forcing them on a death march to Oklahoma (the infamous "trail of tears"); and unlike Jackson, Clay developed a plan, called the "American System", to develop America's resources and businesses by building new roads and canals and funding men who wanted to set up corporations (Jackson consistently vetoed such ideas). And unlike his two great rivals in Congress, Clay had neither the narrow-minded rigidity and fondness for slavery of John C. Calhoun (even though he was a slaveowner himself, Clay opposed its spread to the Western territories and he seriously considered notions of its eventual abolition); or the dark moods, cynicism, and overall grimness of Daniel Webster. If you want to read an engrossing biography of one of America's greatest statesmen - a man who showed what the "Art of American Politics" is all about, then Robert Remini's "Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union" will not be a disappointment. Highly Recommended!

Remini's book on Henry Clay is an excellent look at American life from the end of the Jeffersonian era into the time of Lincoln. An engaging biography, Remini does an excellent job of weaving straitforward history with anecdotes and personality sketches. As the consummate Jacksonian, Henry Clay's life provides the perfect backdrop for learning about this time period and all of its nuances.

Henry Clay by Robert V. Remini is an encompassing work on the life of one of America's most preeminant statesman. A man who came from Virginia and made a successful life in Kentucky. A man who was known to be a powerful orator, no less than that of Daniel Webster or John C. Calhoun. But his most accomplished work was that of Speaker of the House, where his presence was most felt. A job well suited for the aspirations of Henry Clay who championed the compromise of 1850.

Henry Clay would try for the Presidency three times, but those were failures, only to further him on States Rights. By avoiding the split of the United States Clay must have felt well to preserve the Union. We find Henry Clay throughout this book as the tides ebbing and flowing, rise to prominence and later to defeat.

We get to see the human side of Clay in this book... odd for an author most notably for the works on Clay's arch enemy Andrew Jackson. We see Clay as a womanizer and who could drink with the best of them...but all the time we preceive his ambition and intellegence. Personal pain of the family he so loved, but his duties carrying from home makes you feel for Clay.

This book is engaging, well researched, and with a believable narative. For those who are reading about the early years of the United States and the men who saw her through tough times, this is an excellent book.

The Great Compromiser is found here... read it.

The title of this review says it all. Robert V. Remini's bio is a detailed - sometimes too much so - recounting of one of the most fascinating politicians in American history. Although a Jacksonian scholar, Remini does a credible job in his bio of Andrew Jackson's political and personal enemy and Abraham Lincoln's idol, Henry Clay. Remini is a scholar who writes like a popular writer - that is a good thing - and captures Clay's persona and ambition dead on. This is nearly a five-star book, its one negative being that it is overly long at more than 700 pages of relatively small print. Judicious editing could have cut at least 50 pages without skipping one event. Removal of the insignificant and redundant could have severed another 25 and perhaps more. Its length notwithstanding, the book is highly recommended.