Clay resigned from the Senate in 1842 and won the 1844 Whig presidential nomination, but he was narrowly defeated in the general election by Democrat James K. Polk, who made the annexation of the Republic of Texas his top issue.

Clay adapted well to his new role, and his handwriting earned him the attention of College of William & Mary professor George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor of Thomas Jefferson, and judge on Virginia's High Court of Chancery.

After apprenticing himself to Kentucky attorneys such as George Nicholas, John Breckenridge, and James Brown, Clay established his own law practice, frequently working on debt collections and land disputes.

In support of Jefferson's policy, which limited trade with foreign powers, Clay introduced a resolution to require legislators to wear homespun suits rather than those made of imported British broadcloth.

Clay quickly emerged as a fierce critic of British attacks on American shipping, becoming part of an informal group of "war hawks" who favored expansionist policies.

[63] His tenure was interrupted from 1814 to 1815 when he was a commissioner to peace talks with the British in Ghent, United Netherlands to end the War of 1812, and from 1821 to 1823, when he left Congress to rebuild his family's fortune in the aftermath of the Panic of 1819.

Clay was exceptional in his ability to control the legislative agenda through well-placed allies and the establishment of new committees and departed from precedent by frequently taking part in floor debates.

[72] Though Clay recognized the dangers inherent in fighting Britain, one of the most powerful countries in the world, he saw it as the only realistic alternative to a humiliating submission to British attacks on American shipping.

Partly due to Clay's hard-line stance, the Treaty of Ghent included relatively favorable terms for the United States, essentially re-establishing the status quo ante bellum between Britain and the U.S.

With the help of John C. Calhoun and William Lowndes, Clay passed the Tariff of 1816, which served the dual purpose of raising revenue and protecting American manufacturing.

Before the House chamber, he compared Jackson to military dictators of the past, telling his colleagues "that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and, that if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors.

[113] Adams and Clay were both wary of forming entangling alliances with the emerging states, and they continued to uphold the Monroe Doctrine, which called for European non-intervention in former colonies.

[114] Clay was rebuffed in his efforts to reach a commercial treaty and a settlement of the Canada–United States border with Britain, and was also unsuccessful in his attempts to make the French pay for damages arising from attacks on American shipping during the Napoleonic Wars.

[134] However, Clay rejected overtures from the fledgling Anti-Masonic Party,[e] and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed, leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different factions.

[141] Clay had initially hoped that the national bank re-charter would work to his advantage, but Jackson's allies seized on the issue, redefining the 1832 election as a choice between the president and a "monied oligarchy.

[145] In response to this Nullification Crisis, Jackson issued his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, which strongly denied the right of states to nullify federal laws or secede.

[147] Though Clay favored high tariff rates, he found Jackson's strong rhetoric against South Carolina distressing and sought to avoid a crisis that could end in civil war.

Clay's role in resolving the crisis brought him renewed national stature in the wake of a crushing presidential election defeat, and some began referring to him as the "Great Compromiser.

[175] Tyler retained Harrison's Cabinet, but the former Democrat and avid follower of both Jefferson's and Jackson's philosophy quickly made it known that he had reservations about re-establishing a national bank, a key priority of Clay's.

[177] After the second veto, congressional Whigs voted to expel Tyler from the party, and on Clay's request, every Cabinet member except for Webster, who wanted to continue negotiating the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain about the border to Canada, resigned from office.

[183] By 1842, most observers believed that Clay would face Van Buren in the 1844 presidential election, as he had still remained as the clear leader of the Democrats and, following the tradition of the founders, wanted a second term.

[184] Hoping to win another term, President Tyler forged an alliance with John C. Calhoun and pursued the annexation of the Republic of Texas, which would add another slave state to the union.

Months after the speech, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory known as the Mexican Cession.

[215] In January 1850, with Congress still deadlocked regarding the status of the Mexican Cession, Clay proposed a compromise designed to organize territory acquired in the Mexican–American War and address other issues contributing to sectional tensions.

Though contemporaries credited Fillmore, Douglas, and Webster for their role in passing the Compromise of 1850, Clay was widely regarded as the key figure in ending a major sectional crisis.

In a speech he gave at Union Chapel there, he told not only of continual sparse food and lack of warm clothing but of 150 lashes from overseer Ambrose Brice for the offense of being an hour late returning from a visit to his wife.

Dupuy's attorney gained an order from the court for her to remain in Washington until the case was settled, and she worked for wages for 18 months for Martin Van Buren, Clay's successor as secretary of state.

[269] In 2015, political scientist Michael G. Miller and historian Ken Owen ranked Clay as one of the four most influential American politicians who never served as president, alongside Alexander Hamilton, William Jennings Bryan, and Calhoun.

Sixteen counties, one each in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, are named for Clay.

Due to his involvement in the American Colonization Society, a town in the newly formed Liberia in West Africa was named Clay-Ashland after Henry Clay and to where the freed slaves from Kentucky emigrated.