Us from history books as the great compromiser. During his 49year political career, clay served as secretary of state, speaker of the house, and as a u. S. Senator. And he was a contender, making sure president ial bids including the election of 1824. 1832 against Andrew Jackson, and 1844, when he ran against james k. Polk. Tonight we are on location at ashland. Henry clays home in lexington, kentucky. For the next 90 minutes, we will explore the life and legacy of this man. Unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. We are in henry clays parlor. Let me introduce you to jim klotter, 25 years now as kentucky state historian. Jim thanks for being with us. Glad to be here. Why henry clay . Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . Think a couple of counts. First of all, his famous counts, i would rather be right than be president , still speaks to us. Its a clarion call to people across whatever were during. Whether
And now the contenders. Our series on key political figures who ran for president and lost, but who nevertheless changed political history. Tonight we feature former House Speaker henry clay of kentucky, known as the great compromiser. The program was recorded at clays ashland estate in lexington, kentucky, its about 90 minutes. This is an encore presentation of cspans original 14week series which first aired in 2011. This is a portrait of kentuckys henry clay, known to us in our history books as the great compromiser. During his 49year political career clay served as secretary of state, speaker of the house and as a u. S. Senator and he was a contender, making five president ial bids, including the election of 1824, 1832 against Andrew Jackson, and 1844 when he ran against james k. Polk. Tonight we are on location at ashland, henry clays home in lexington, kentucky and for the next 90 minutes we will explore the life and legacy of this man. Unsuccessful in his long quest for the white
Ashland. Henry clays home in lexington, kentucky, and for the next 90 minutes we will explore the life and legacy of this man, unsuccessful in his long quest for the white house, yet having an outsized influence on American History. And we are in henry clays parlor r parlor right now. Let me introduce you to jim plotter, historian. Thank you for being with us. Good to be here. Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . On a couple of accounts, his famous quote, i would rather be right than be president. Its a call to people whatever were doing, which is to do the right thing. In a sense, politicians need to remember the country and sacrifice for the country and i think that is still something that we need to remember, as well and the man known as the great compromiser, and a man that forges these compromises that not only kept the nation together, but were constructive and those are the kinds of things we need to remember about henry clay as well as the things that he did in
Mr. Jon meacham, this book came out in august, congressman lewis passed in july, how long have you been working on this . Is a tricky question to answer, on one level it was 28 years, another level it was about six months. I met congressman lewis in 1992 during a Senate Runoff down in georgia, i was a reporter for the chattanooga times. Began kind of a running episodic about running conversation that we had over the ensuing three decades. I really decided to do it when i was standing with my family and Speaker Pelosi and congressman lewis and about a thousand other people on the pettus bridge in march and i realized watching the congressman that this was almost certainly his last trip there. I very much wanted to pay tribute to him but also wanted to hang a lantern on what had driven him to that bridge as a young man. As an example, and exemplum of how religious faith can be essential to political activists. Did he know you are working on this entity sit down with you . We talked a lot
U. S. Capital Historical Society in 2018. Im going to go ahead and start stuff. Excuse me, welcome to our latest lunchtime lecture. Im chief historian here with the u. S. Capital Historical Society. Welcome. Im really pleased today to introduce you, if you dont already know, jeanne and david heidler. Theyve been speakers before for their book on George Washingtons circle, and today were really honored that were one day in to the official existence of their latest book on Andrew Jackson the rise of Andrew Jackson was just released officially yesterday, so were at the threshold of greatness here with the book, and i hope you all consider buying it. Theyre going to be available afterwards to sign it for anyone whos interested, and i also want to point out that the previous book, i said theyve been here before, was washington circle. Were also selling discounted copies back there. Im told that the hard cover that were selling is 0. 05 more than amazons soft cover. So that sounds like a win