Henry Clay Sr. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and Democrat John C. Calhoun.

While Clay never believed in the equality of the races, he did say that slavery was wrong. He called it “a curse on the master” and a “grievous wrong on the slave.” He said that slaves were “rational beings.” In the 1830s, he wrote a friend: “That slavery is unjust and a great evil are undisputed axioms.

We believe that his contradictory positions – privately denouncing slavery, yet openly enslaving people, and privately denigrating Native Americans, yet openly championing their rights – provide useful allegories for examining and ultimately remedying the inherent contradictions in the foundation of this country.

1. Henry Clay was “The Great Compromiser.” As a statesman for the Union, his skills of negotiation and compromise proved invaluable in helping to hold the country together for the first half of the 19th century. His compromises quelled regionalism and balanced states' rights and national interests.