Henry Clay by Matthew Harris Jouett (c. 1818), courtesy of Wikipedia
Clay’s early career finds him rising from being a self-proclaimed “Mill Boy of the Slashes” to being elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Along the way, he obtains an education in the law in Richmond before moving to Lexington, Kentucky where he starts a family and sets off on his lengthy political career. In this, the first in a series of episodes on the man who would become known as the Great Compromiser, we get a glimpse of some of the political divides that would ultimately lead into the Second Party System as well as the growing public discussion and debate over the issue of slavery which would define so much of both Clay’s public and private life. Resources used in this episode can be found at http://whhpodcast.blubrry.com.