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
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. Thanks for being with us. Glad to be here. Why henry clay . Why is he relevant to americans living in our time . I think a couple of counts. First of all, his famous counts, famous comment, i would rather be right than be president , still speaks to us. Its a clarion call to people across whatever were doing. Whether were in politics or Something Else, to do the right things. He also said, you know, that in a sense, that the politicians need to remember the country and sacrifice for the country. I think that is still something we need to remember, as well. The man known as the great
Stage devoted to the 1820s and 1860s. Among many of his accomplishments, too many that i could go to tonight. High seeked and difference and desires of americans. Hes working with cureuating new exhibits and portraying americas workers 1750, 2015. Speaking directly to his talk tonight, david has his fourth scene on view now, it is calling dark field of the republican. Alexander garner photograph 1857 to 1872. Which in multitude severals lincoln paragraph. This i mage was the you my remember last year walt wittman was a theme of our lincoln event. I may mention that along the way, with his work of the National Gallery of david ward is a poet and an editor and a literally critic. His poetries was published in 2011 called internal difference. David earned his bachelors degree from the university of rochester and Yale University and england. Please join me in welcoming david ward. [ applause ] thank you, brian, thank you all, i am delighted to be here. We ai want to congratsulatioe portrai
Test test test test captioning performed by vitac how did henry clay enhance the powers of the speaker . The force of his personality. No one wanted to debate him, certainly he had the force to win the argument. I think that alone had great influence in power. I dont know if in other speaker would be comparative. He understood as the power of committee assignments. The committee is basically he understood that the speaker had the power to put the people he wanted ton the committees and want something important he was known to be a fair man, the speaker and that was very important. Both sides of the aisle respected him and respected his opinions. Never overwritten in his rulings and was fair in the makeup of the companies, when he knew there was a certain issue coming up, you can see a slight inclination that he wanted the issue to go a certain way. He understood early and changed the rules with his backing and gave the speaker more power and cut off debate to limit debate and allowed h
Team here at csis. I also want to thank our panelists, bryan clark, steve mccarthy, olga oliker. Please feel free to follow up with our Research Team if you have further questions. Please, join me in thanking our panelists. Now the contenders. Our series on key political figures who ran for president and lost but nevertheless changed political history. Next, 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, and is about 90 minutes. This 14week series is airing at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, august 1 through august 14th here on American History tv on cspan3. This is a portrait of kentuckys henry clay, known to 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,