And now we are going to kick off our weekend with historian unger talking about henry clay. Our topic for today is henry clay, americas greatest statesman. Mr. Unger is a veteran journalists, historian, former distinguished writer and mr. Unger has appeared on History Channel and cspans book tv and spoke many times at yorktown and many Historic Sites he spent many years as an american analyst. Two of his three most recent books, mr. President and John Marshall reveal how George Washington constructed the executive and judicial branches of the government athat that we know today. Please join me in welcoming me Charles Unger to the National Archives. [applause] thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, its a privilege to be here at the National Archives specially since the government tends to be in a state of flux right now. If i had to choose one word that summarizes the basis of our nations survival for more than 200 years, it will not be patriotism or National Resources because thats two words. [laughter] but they also contributed. Land, courage, all contributed to the nations growth and survival, but thats not the one single factor that has held us all together for all these years. This nation was founded and built on compromise. The declaration of independence was a compromise. Half of the people who signed it wanted to stay british. The constitution was a come compromise between slave states, urban states. Five major compromises worked out by one man, the man i call americas greatest statesman henry clay of kentucky. Americans in his day called him great compromise. A little more than two centuries ago henry clay, the young henry clay walked into the house of representatives and found almost every member carried a pistol. Just about everybody in the house of representatives did. Members fought on the floor wrestling and then step outside and fight a dual and shoot each other. One member brought a pair of vicious hunting dogs to protect himself and intimidate opponents. Clay was the youngest speaker and only freshmen elected to that post. They picked up the gavel and pounded into order and turned the house of representatives into what the framers had intended when they wrote the constitution. In doing so, he became the greatest speaker in american history. He layed down the rules of conduct for the house and for every speaker who followed. And i can sum up all of those rules with that one word, compromise. I was stunned a few weeks to read in a major daily newspaper an editorial that praised our current Speaker John Boehner for having, and this is a quote from this newspaper perfected the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable. Thats not the job of the speaker. Hes not there to be to be disagreeable or to disagree. The art of the great speakers in american history, the art of henry clay perfected is that of compromising, not disagreeing. The great speakers who followed model themselves after clay, all perfected the art of compromising. Now, most americans dont realize that the speaker of the house of representatives is the second most powerful elected official of the land after the president. And like the president , he is the only oh other official in the federal government elected by all americans, by the entire nation, by we the people. Now, sometimes it seems that neither the president nor the speaker listens to any of us. But thats because we the people dont speak with a single voice. Americans are diversified people with a country whose size and geography make solutions impossible. We all disagree and each of us have rights to do so and pursue interest with benefits ourselves and unwelcomed effects on others, but remain united as a nation each of us and our elected representatives in Congress Must compromise and make personal and collective sacrifices. Thats what the speakers job is. Thats what hes supposed to manage, compromises. Hold the nation together. In the 225 years since the First Congress convened, the members of every house of representatives have elected one member to do that job, to reconcile our conflicting interests. They call him the elect of the elect, the elected leader of the elected representatives of we the people. Most people think those speaker is elected by the Majority Party in the house of representatives. Thats not true. Hes nominated by the Majority Party and he belongs to that party once dominated, but the entire membership of the house must elect, in other words, all of the representatives of all the people must elect the speaker and they called him then and some people still call him the elect of the elect. The speakers powers are second to the president himself. Resident controls the executive process, he puts the laws into effect and enforces the law. The speaker of the house is the man who controls the legislative process. He names the chairs of all the committees and influences the appointment of the membership of each committee. He through these committees, he controls whether and when a bill can come to the floor for a vote. He selects which members can speak and for how long. He selects those who can speak for a bill and against a bill. In the early 1800s one elderly congressman spoke well beyond, spent a lot in the time, henry clay brought his gavel down like thunder to stop the old man from talking. But i speak to prosperity, yes, sir, clay responded, but you seem resolve to speak till the audience arrives and i wont allow it. [laughter] thats why henry clay is on the cover of my book and the reason im here today. Clay not only refined and defined that role and those powers, he became the greatest speaker in american history. Sadly, our most recent speaker either didnt understand the role or refused to accept it. He put interest of his ohio districts and the interest of his Political Party ahead of the nations interest, which would be fine if he were an ordinary congressmen, but he wasnt. Once the house of representatives elect its speaker, that person is no longer committed to debate or even to vote in the house. He is no longer there to agree or disagree. He is there to engineer compromises that will bring a majority of congress, a majority of americans together in the interest of our nation. Now, we are often a very Difficult People to bring together, which is why in the more than 200 years since First Congress convened, the house has only enacted 5 of all proposed legislation. 5 . 95 of most laws are rejected. Some say thats dysfunctional. [laughter] if a new law helps you and doesnt hurt me, i may be for it, but if it hurst me, im against it. So congress is not dysfunctional , congress reflects the views of people like you and me. Thats what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the constitution. And that means few new laws would ever get passed. Thats not dysfunction. Thats democracy. Alexander hamilton said that if you want a government that acts quickly, efficiently and does things absolutely perfectly, get a dictator. Otherwise, embrace the system we have. Few new laws will ever get passed, and those that do will mean huge sacrifices for some and benefits for others. The laws that get passed will be huge compromises that will seldom satisfy everyone. A lot of people get a little, very few people get a few they want. James madison helped write the constitution and explained the interest, and these are madisons words, not the rich more than the poor, not the heirs of distinguished name, nor the humble names, the electors are to be the great body of the people of the united states. And thats what we had in the house of representatives, and the person who is supposed to reconcile the conflicting views of that great both of people is the speaker of the house. As i said, henry clay was the greatest statesmen in american history. And americans in his day called him the great compromiser. He was both speaker of the house at fist first and then became majority leader for later in his life. He saved this nation by engineering five monumental compromises between divided congressmen and he started with the missouri compromise in 1820. And like his other compromises, the majority compromises prevented succession of the south. And by postponing for that long a period of time, he allowed the nation to mature and survive the civil war that eventually came. When missouri applied for statehood in 1819, it applied as a slave state and had it entered the union at the time would have actually threatened national existence. It would have given slave states a majority for the very first time in the congress and the power to pass laws perpetuating slavery in the united states. A few northerners werent going to happen. New york representative james demanded a writer, he wanted to band entry of slaves in the country. In other words, the writer would have converted missouri into a free state and given the free states a majority and the power in congress to emancipate all the slaves in the nation forever. Now the southerners rose in outrage. George thomas shouted back let it be so. Civil war has come. I can only say, let it come. Only speaker henry clay remained calm in this storm. His wife almost from ear to ear made him look like he was grinning. He knew the desolution would not lead to civil war, certainly not over slavery. John brown was only 20 years old. Hehe just got married. He was thinking about making babies and not the war. They would not have gone to war and certainly not risk death to free a bunch of black people in the south. Northerners had many slaves as southerners did. New york wouldnt emancipate slaves until 1827 and mobs there rioted. All had entered state trade and blocked of private property without due process. So clay did not fear civil war in 1820, but what he did fear was the breakup of his dream and that of president monroe at the time. His dream was to see this potentially huge american empire stretch from sea to shining sea and become the richest grandest freest nation in the world. Had the south succeeded at the time, it would have broken up the nation into two parts and possibly three parts because the Central States might have succeeded as well. And these three small volnarable little nations would be open to conquest by anyone of the ambitious world powers at the time, france, spain, and great britain. So as the debate over Missouri State hood raised, clay sought and pounded an opportunity for compromise. He offered main a chance to separate from massachusetts and join the union as a free state by linking its admission of that of missouri and no Strings Attached to it. He allow it had allowed missouri compromise and continue living together in peace in the same union. Compromise and the importance of clays compromise didnt begin to come clearer until more than a decade later when a new Younger Generation of northern began to emerge. They had been raised without slaves, schools by preachers who taught them to detest slavery as sinful. As abolishist grew, many called for a war. The compromised of 1833, originally tried to tie northern states with southern states. Northerners has imposed high protective tariffs on goods coming in from the south, goods that were made with slave labor and priced so low that northern goods couldnt compete. Northern goods manufacturers were producing goods by workers paid by the peace. They couldnt compete with free slave labor. So they slapped what they thought was a killing high tariff on them. 20 on all southern goods regardless whether they came from the south of other countries like england who took cheap southern cotton and converted to textiles. Tariff was so high. Southern congressmen began to threaten succession again until civil war until clay came in instead of forcing south to choose between high tariffs and low tariffs. He proposed a gradual approach. That would give each side partial protection for a long enough period of time for their production to adjust to the tariff changes and to keep trading with each other and stay in the union, which is all he wanted there. The next compromise came three years later in 1836 after texas rebelled and declared independence from mexico and it applied to be anexed. Texas statehood would have given majority in congress. It might have provoked mexico to declare war in the united states. Clay had to work out another compromise more complicated this time. Any compromise had to maintain senate to keep them all in the union. And also avoid war with mexico which claimed texas had its own and had not recognized texas independence. Clays compromise rejected texas texas would not be part of the union. Now, he had to satisfy the southerners. He did so not by recognizing texas but by granting letting it be and granting all the privileges of statehood. He opened the borders and people go back and forth just like they would in any other state line. Texas was not a slave state or free state, it was nothing. As with all other state compromises, the compromise in 1836 had nothing to do with slavery, it had to be with preserving the union by extending the peaceful existence and integrity of the union, clay was now able to put translate his dream into action. His dream was economic and social scheme, in american history. In transfer with john boehner that couldnt work with one president that he didnt like, clay worked with ten different president s, many of them bitter political foes and with feuding states across the nation to bring all these feuding entities, federal and state officials together to make the u. S. The worlds most prosperous nation, to fulfill his dream. Under clays leadership, they built a network of roads, canals into a huge transportation network, until then everybody had to go on horseback. No one crossed state lines. The average american would say virginia, new york, delaware. Now suddenly vast numbers of people and businesses could move about the union freely and easily. They had established agricultural, commercial, financial, political and social connections that soon made the 20 states of the union one. Thousands, tens of thousands moved west but returned regularly to visit families they had left behind and vice versa. Businesses and banks had branches in different states. Had important clients and sources of supply in states other than their own. They were not about to let a handful of southern plantation owners destroy businesses and livelihoods. Clays last compromise, compromise of 1830 admitted california as a free state and finally texas as a slave state. The balance remained equal. Among other things the compromise of 1850, expanded the number of free states linked by the american system to 20 states with more than 20 million people. That compared to only 5 and a half million in the 11 southern states. Unionist, whatever their states of origins had now become americans. Clay explained the purpose of his life, and by the way, he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency four times. That wasnt his primary goal to become president. He explained his lifes goal very simply, if anyone desires to know, these are henry clays words, if anyone desires to know, the object of my public life, the preservation of the union was the key. Abraham lincoln used clays words to express his own views. This islingon talking. I can express all my views by quoting henry clay. I worshiped him as a teacher and leader, he loved his country and gave the death to paternal stripe and peace to a distracted land. Again, Abraham Lincoln talking. Another fact that most americans dont realize, abraham inlaws were close to the clays. And then married mary todd. Clay became lincolns friend and mentor. Now clay died before the war began, but when he died, lincoln gave this stirring looking to having and cocking his ear. Lincoln said, i recognize clays voice speaking today for the union, for the constitution, for the freedom of men and when lincoln sent forces to war, he explained why in words that might have been easily those of henry clay. My paramount object is to save the union, president lincoln explained. It is not either to save or destroy slavery, if i could save the union without freeing any slave i would do it. If i would save it by freeing all the slaves, i would do it, and if i would free it by leaving some alone, i will also do it. What i do for slavery is because i believe it helps to save the union and what i dont do is because i do not believe it would help to save the union. Abram ham lincoln listened to henry clay throughout his political life as have all the great statesmen in american history. We must now pray, hope that congress will elect a speaker who will do the same and help save and preserve our union and bring us together as the people instead of dividing us. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. God bless you all and god bless america. [applause] thank you very much. I am open to questions and i will be signing books a little later on. Yes, sir. Its interesting to hear you compromises foundational value that underpins the constitution and as Founding Fathers because today the word compromise is branded as a weapon against democrats and republicans who seek to compromise that they are not acting with a purpose on behalf narrow constituencies, what can the country do, what can citizens do those who oppose compromise do not believe in the american way. Our are enemies of this country, on the borde of treason. That selfish group should dictate to the majority. Thats communism. Thats not american democracy. Thats not what this republic was built on. A strong speaker should get these people under control. He has failed to do that. Thats why we need a good speaker now who will unit us with the people and dismiss extremists and we have president s that faced this, eisenhower faced it and dismissed them from Political Party. Roosevelt united us as a people, lincoln united members of the union, at least, the states of the union, so weve had great leaders in both executive and legislative branch that truly believe in the values of this country and bring us together as people. What would it take for a people to assert that principle without being driven out . Remember that speakers are elected by the entire house. Hes nominated by his Political Party. The force of his personality is basically no one should run for speaker unless they know they can unit people. I mean, what was it that general was able to do to brin