Henry Clay's Birthplace

Henry Clay was born on 12 Apr. 1777 about two miles northwest of here. His family's house, built in the mid-18th century, burned in 1870. Clay studied law in Richmond and moved to Kentucky in 1797. During half a century in public life, he served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State. He championed the American System, a plan for national economic development, and negotiated the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 in an attempt to defuse conflict between North and South. Clay, a three-time candidate for the presidency of the United States and a leader of the Whig Party, died in 1852 and is buried in Lexington, Kentucky.