1777-1852

Chronicles the life and career of congressman Henry Clay, the youngest congressman to be elected to the Speaker of the House and who established the Speaker as the most powerful elected official after the President.

The riveting story of how, in nineteenth-century America, a new set of political giants battled to complete the unfinished work of the Founding Fathers and to decide the future of our democracy. In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of Kentucky, as dashing as he was ambitious, embodied the hopes of the rising West. South Carolina's John Calhoun, with piercing eyes and an even more piercing intellect, defended the South and slavery. Together these heirs of Washington, Jefferson and Adams took the country to war, battled one another for the presidency, and set themselves the task of finishing the work the Founders had left undone. Each in his own way sought to remedy the two glaring flaws in the Constitution: its refusal to specify where authority ultimately rested, with the states or the nation; and its unwillingness to address the essential incompatibility of republicanism and slavery. They wrestled with these issues for four decades, arguing bitterly and hammering out political compromises that held the union together, but only just. Then, in 1850, when California moved to join the union as a free state, "the immortal trio" had one last chance to save the country from the real risk of civil war. But, by that point, they had never been further apart. Thrillingly and authoritatively, H. W. Brands narrates an epic American rivalry and the little-known drama of the dangerous early years of our democracy.

Looks at the Mexican-American war and its divisive role in United States politics, evaluates its impact on the careers of James Polk, Henry Clay, and Abraham Lincoln, and how it set the stage for the American Civil War.

Contains biographies of Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, describes their opposing attitudes regarding democracy and economic development in America, and presents twenty-five primary documents.

Profiles the American statesman known for his initiation and support of political compromise to keep the Union together during the first half of the 19th century.

A biography of Henry Clay, focusing on his activity as a lawyer in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and discussing his role in the development of American legal practices.

A biography of the American statesman best remembered for his initiation and support of political compromise to keep the Union together during the first half of the nineteenth century.

A biography of the senator, Speaker of the House, and secretary of state who presented several great compromise plans to save the Union.