Clement Claiborne Clay

Clement Clay
Confederate States Senator fromAlabama
In office February 18, 1862 – February 17, 1864
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Richard Walker
United States Senator fromAlabama
In office November 29, 1853 – January 21, 1861
Preceded by	Jeremiah Clemens
Succeeded by	Willard Warner
Personal details
Born	Clement Claiborne Clay (1816-12-13)December 13, 1816 Huntsville, Alabama,US
Died	January 3, 1882(1882-01-03)(aged 65) Gurley, Alabama,US
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Virginia Tunstall
Alma mater	University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa University of Virginia

Clement Claiborne Clay(December 13, 1816 – January 3, 1882), also known asC. C. Clay Jr.,was aUnited States Senator(Democrat) from the state ofAlabamafrom 1853 to 1861, and aConfederate States senatorfromAlabamafrom 1862 to 1864. His portrait appeared on the Confederate one-dollar note (4th issue and later).

He and hisfather,who served as a governor of Alabama and was also a U.S. senator, were among the state's most prominent enslavers, according to theWashington Post.Together the two men enslaved 87 people on four Alabama plantations as recorded in the 1860 census.

Biography

Early life

Clement Claiborne Clay was born toClement Comer Clayand Susanna Claiborne Withers, the daughter of well-off planter John Withers, inHuntsville, Alabama.He had a strong political pedigree as the oldest son of U. S. Senator and Alabama Governor Clement Comer Clay. He was also athird cousinofHenry Clay,the noted statesman from Kentucky.John Withers Clay,proprietor and editor of theHuntsville Weekly Democrat,and Hugh Lawson Clay, who served in the military, were his brothers.

Clay attended theHuntsville Green Academy,then studied at theUniversity of Alabama at Tuscaloosain 1833–1834. In August 1834, at the age seventeen, he received anA.B. degree.He served as his father's secretary in 1835–1837 after Clement Clay, Sr. was elected as a governor of Alabama. In 1837, he and his brother John Withers Clay both entered theUniversity of Virginia;their brother Hugh Lawson Clay joined them later. In July 1839, Clay obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree after studying withJohn B. Minor,known for his rigor, and was admitted to the Alabama Bar on October 2, 1839.

Marriage and family

On February 1, 1843, he marriedVirginia Tunstall,who was then 18 years old. They had one child, who died stillborn.

After Clement's death in 1882, his widow remarried toDavid Clopton,a judge, and was known asVirginia Clay-Clopton.Clay-Clopton wroteBelle of the Fifties,a memoir with New York journalist Ada Sterling, published in 1904 and re-issued in 1905.Bellewas one of three memoirs by southern women particularly recommended by theUnited Daughters of the Confederacyto its membership for studying.Clay-Clopton's book became part of the discourse about theLost Causeand the burnished memory of theantebellum South.

Career

Clay depicted on a Confederate$1 banknotefrom 1864

In 1839–1846, Clay practiced law in a family law firm; in 1846–1848 he served asMadison Countyjudge. Clay was a member of theAlabama State House of Representativesin 1842, and in 1844–1845. He ran for theUnited States Congressin 1850, but did not succeed, losing to incumbentWilliamson Robert Winfield Cobb.

In 1853, Clay was elected by the Alabama legislature to serve in theUnited States Senatein a term beginning March 4, 1853; and was re-elected in 1857. Due to the legislature's delay in filling the position, he served from November 29, 1853, to January 21, 1861. In the Senate, he defended the state's rights during the political debates of the time, and opposedHenry Clay.After the1860 presidential election,Alabamaseceded from theUnionon January 11, 1861, before theAmerican Civil Warbroke out. On January 21, six men, including Clay, resigned their seats in the United States Senate. Most made brief and temperate speeches.

Clay, however, delivered an impassioned justification for secession and a denunciation of the Northern anti-slaveryRepublican Party.He denounced its resistance to theFugitive Slave Actand the spread of slavery into the territories. "No sentiment is more insulting or more hostile to our domestic tranquility, to our social order, and to our social existence, than is contained in the declaration that our negroes are entitled to liberty and equality with the white man," Clay said. He described the election ofAbraham Lincolnto the presidency as a hostile act against the Southern people which left them with no recourse other than secession in order to defend their liberty, honor, and safety.

Clay was subsequently elected by the Alabama Confederate legislature as Senator in theFirst Confederate Congress.He served there from 1862 until 1864 acting as a supporter ofJefferson Davis.

Along withJacob Thompson,Clay was a part of the Confederate War Department effort to create anetwork of secret agentsto conductespionageandsabotage.

In May 1864, president Davis sent Clay to Canada with a secret mission to coordinate activities of theSouthern sympathizersin the Great Lakes area, including members of theOrder of the Sons of Libertyand theKnights of the Golden Circle.Clay took part in a secret meeting withJohn Hay,President Abraham Lincoln's aide, atNiagara Falls, Canada.

It was suspected that Thompson and Clay had employedJohn Wilkes Boothfor some services before he assassinated PresidentAbraham Lincoln.PresidentAndrew Johnsonsigned an order to arrest Clay. After learning from a newspaper that a reward was issued for his capture, Clay, who initially planned to escape toMexico,turned himself in to GeneralJames H. WilsoninMacon, Georgia,in May 1865. He was arrested and held inFort Monroein Hampton, Virginia, until April 1866.Former Confederate presidentJefferson Daviswas also held inFort Monroe,but was never tried; he was released in 1867.

Postwar years

Graves of Clement Claiborne Clay and Virginia Clay-Clopton at Maple Hill Cemetery

Clay was imprisoned by the United States government under impression that he was involved in the plot to assassinate PresidentAbraham Lincoln.Virginia Clayplayed some role in her husband's release as she went toWashington, D.C.,and personally pleaded with President Johnson.

A viewpoint that Johnson's role in Clay's release was an act worthy of being among the charges forimpeachingJohnson was voiced in the December 1867Thomas Williams-authored majority report ofHouse Committee on the Judiciarypublished at the conclusion offirst impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson.

The Clays returned to Alabama and struggled to rebuild their lives living on a farm. Clay tried to practice as an attorney and entered insurance business in Huntsville, however without much success due to poor health, ultimately returning to his farm in January 1882. He died later that year inMadison County,besieged by debts and health problems, and is interred atMaple Hill Cemetery.

Works

• Clay, C.C., and William M. K. Gwin.Invasion of Harper's Ferry: Dangers and Duties of the South.Washington: Printed at the Congressional Globe Office, 1859.
• Speech of the Hon. C.C. Clay Jr. of Alabama, on the Contest in Kansas, and the Plans and Purposes of Black Republicanism: Delivered in the United States Senate, April 21, 1856.
• Speech of C. Clay Jr. of Alabama, on the Bill to Admit Kansas: Southern Rights, How Menaced by Northern Republicanism, Delivered in United States Senate, March 19, 1858.
• Speech of Hon. C. C. Clay Jr. on slavery issues. Delivered at Huntsville, Alabama, September 5th, 1859.

Bibliography

• Pollard, Edward A.(1867) [1866].The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates: Comprising a Full and Authentic Account of the Rise and Progress of the Late Southern Confederacy – the Campaigns, Battles, Incidents, and Adventures of the Most Gigantic Struggle of the World's History.New York, NY: E.B. Treat & Co., Publishers.

Further reading

• Clay-Clopton, Virginia.A Belle of the Fifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853–66,New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905. (Full text available atDocumenting the American Southwebsite, University of North Carolina.)
• Nuermberger, Ruth K.The Clays of Alabama: A Planter-Lawyer-Politician Family.Le xing ton: University of Kentucky Press, 1958.
• Thornton, J M.Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800–1860.Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978.
• Tidwell, William A.April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War.Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995.
• Wiley, Bell Irvin.Confederate Women.New York: Greenwood Press, 1975.

External links

• United States Congress."Clement Claiborne Clay (id: C000480)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Virginia Clay,Civil War Women
• Short biography on Political Graveyard