Henry Clay

(April 12, 1777 - June 29, 1852)

Henry Clay was born in 1777 in Hanover County, Virginia. He failed in his all consuming ambition to become President of the United States. He was an unsucessful candidate in 1824, 1832 and 1844. "I would rather be right than President," was his most famous remark, and probably one of the greatest utterances of political sour grapes of all time. Yet he became perhaps the foremost legislator America ever produced. He was Speaker of the House longer than any man in the 19th Century. In 1957 a Senate committee, headed by John F. Kennedy and charged with the task of honoring it's most distinguished past members, named Clay the greatest Senator in the country's history.

Trivia:

Henry Clay's cousin, Clement Clay, Jr. was very active on the Confederate side of the Civil War and appeared on Confedeate $1.00 notes (1862-1864).