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Henry Clay was born in Virginia on April 12, 1777. His family was relatively prosperous for their area, but in later years the legend arose that Clay grew up in extreme poverty. Clay's father died when Henry was four years old, and his mother remarried. When Henry was a teenager the family moved westward to Kentucky, and Henry stayed in Virginia.

Henry Clay was appointed Secretary of State by President John Quincy Adams on March 7, 1825. Clay entered his duties on the same day and served until March 3, 1829. Famous as the “Great Pacificator” for his contributions to domestic policy, he emphasized economic development in his diplomacy. Henry Clay, Ninth Secretary of State

Henry Clay engineered three compromises to keep the Union together. He is famously known as the Great Compromiser. The compromises dealt with the expansion of the young nation and slavery’s place in it. The compromises spelled out where slavery could exist and under what terms.

When his father died in 1781, his mother married Captain Henry Watkins, who used his influence to get young Henry a job as a clerk in Peter Tinsley's chancery office. There he earned his license to practice law in Virginia. At the age of 20, Clay moved to Kentucky, where he soon established a reputation as a highly successful trial lawyer.