Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)

This article is about the 19th-century emancipationist. For the boxer born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., see Muhammad Ali.

Cassius Marcellus Clay
Personal details
Born	(1810-10-19)October 19, 1810 Madison County, Kentucky
Died	July 22, 1903(1903-07-22) (aged 92)
Children	Elisha Warfield Clay, Green Clay, Mary Barr Clay, Sally Clay, Laura Clay, Brutus J. Clay, Anne Clay, Henry Launey Clay (adopted)
Occupation	Lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher, soldier, farmer
Known for	A leading Southern emancipationist and American Ambassador to Russia

Cassius Marcellus Clay (October 19, 1810 – July 22, 1903), nicknamed "The Lion of White Hall", was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States who served as the American minister to Russia. He was a cousin of Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay.

Emancipationist

Cassius Clay was a pioneer, a southern aristocrat who became a prominent anti-slavery crusader. He was a son of Green Clay, one of the wealthiest landowners and slaveholders in Kentucky. Clay worked toward emancipation, both as a Kentucky state representative and as an early member of the Republican Party. He spent 25 years of his life publishing "The True American" before Lincoln tapped him and asked, "Tell me about your Proclamation of Emancipation."

Clay attended Transylvania University and then graduated from Yale College in 1832. While at Yale, he heard abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison speak, and Garrison's lecture inspired Clay to join the antislavery movement. Garrison’s arguments were to him “as water is to a thirsty wayfarer.” Clay was politically pragmatic, supporting gradual legal change rather than the immediacy of the Garrisonians.

Clay served three terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives, but he lost support among Kentucky voters as his platform became more focused on ending slavery. His anti-slavery activism won him enemies. During a political debate in 1843, he survived an assassination attempt by a hired gun, named Sam Brown, and despite being shot in the chest, and being restrained by the attacker's confederates, he defended himself, seriously wounding his attacker with his Bowie knife and throwing him over an embankment.

In 1845, he began publishing an anti-slavery newspaper called the True American in Lexington, Kentucky. Within a month he received death threats, had to arm himself, and had to barricade the doors of his newspaper office for protection. Shortly after, a mob of about sixty men broke into his office and seized his printing equipment, which they shipped to Cincinnati, Ohio. Clay continued publication there.

Again in 1849 while making a speech for slave emancipation he was attacked by the six Turner brothers, who beat, stabbed and attempted to shoot him, in the ensuing fight Clay fought off all six and killed Cyrus Turner after regaining his Bowie knife that had been taken from him earlier in the fight.

In 1853, Clay granted 10 acres to John G. Fee, an abolitionist, who founded the town of Berea, Kentucky, and in 1855, Berea College.

Even though he opposed the annexation of Texas, Clay served in the Mexican-American War. His connections to the northern antislavery movement remained strong, and he was a founder of the Republican party and a friend of Abraham Lincoln, supporting him for the presidency. Clay was briefly a candidate for the vice presidency at the 1860 Republican National Convention, but lost the nomination to Hannibal Hamlin.

Minister to Russia

When the Civil War began in April 1861, Lincoln nominated Clay as ambassador to Spain, but Clay declined.

Clay accepted the post of Minister to the Russian court at St. Petersburg. The Civil War erupted before he left for Russia. As there were no Federal troops in Washington at the time, Mr. Clay organized a group of 300 volunteers to protect the White House and US Naval Yard from a possible Confederate attack. These men became known as Cassius M. Clay's Washington Guards. For this service President Lincoln gave Clay a presentation Colt revolver. When Federal troops arrived, Clay and his family embarked for Russia.

As Minister to Russia, he witnessed the Tsar's emancipation edict. Recalled to the United States to accept a commission as a major general from Lincoln, Clay publicly refused to accept it unless Lincoln would sign an emancipation proclamation. Lincoln sent Clay to Kentucky to assess the mood for emancipation there and in the other border states. Following Clay's return, Lincoln issued the proclamation.

Clay returned to Russia in 1863 and remained until 1869. He was influential in the negotiations for the purchase of Alaska. LOVED HIS WIFE

Later political activities

Later, he founded the Cuban Charitable Aid Society to help the Cuban independence movement of Jose Marti. He also spoke out against robber barons, and in favor of nationalizing the railroads. In 1869, Clay left the Republican Party. This was partly due to President Grant's military interference in Haiti. He also disapproved of the Republican reconstruction policy.

In 1872, he was one of the organizers of the Liberal Republican revolt, and was largely instrumental in securing the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency. In the political campaigns of 1876 and 1880, he supported the Democratic Party candidate, but rejoined the Republican party in the campaign of 1884.

Later years

Clay had a reputation as a rebel and a fighter. There were threats on his life, compelling him to carry two pistols and a knife for protection; in addition, he used a cannon to protect his home and office. As he aged, Clay became increasingly eccentric and paranoid.

In 1878 after 45 years of marriage Clay divorced his wife, Mary Jane Warfield Clay, daughter of Dr. Elisha Warfield, for abandonment after she could no longer tolerate his marital infidelities. In 1894, the 84-year old Clay married Dora Richardson, the 15-year old daughter of one of his sharecropping tenants and a domestic servant. The scandalous marriage provoked national headlines and was much against the latter's will as Clay had to keep the girl locked in a room in his Whitehall mansion to prevent her from running away. She reportedly attempted suicide once by trying to jump out the window. A few years later, Clay finally divorced his bride.

Cassius Clay died at his home on July 22, 1903 of "general exhaustion." Survivors included his daughters, women's rights activists Laura Clay and Mary Barr Clay.

Legacy

His family home, White Hall, is maintained by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as White Hall State Historic Shrine.

A California legend arose that, during the Civil War, Russia and the Union came to an alliance, where Russia threatened Britain and France with war should they join the Confederacy against the Union. The myth held that Clay was instrumental in Russia signing this alliance. The myth grew on account of Russian ships that made their way to Californian harbors for repairs during the war, and that the welcome they received was a sign of a possible alliance. The legend has since been debunked by the historical community.

Cassius Marcellus Clay, father of boxer Muhammad Ali, was named after the politician and he gave the same name to his son, who changed it when he converted to Islam.

See also

• Lucy Walker steamboat disaster

References

Attribution

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clay, Cassius Marcellus" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Books

• The Life, Memoirs. Writings, and Speeches of Cassius Marcellus Clay (Cincinnati, 1896), his autobiography
• The Writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay (edited with a Memoir by Horace Greeley. New York, 1848).
• The Other Cassius Clay (Kalamazoo: Brian Tice, 2002), an original musical stage production based on his life.
• Cassius M. Clay: Freedom's Champion (Turner Publishing Company Keven McQueen, 2001), A look at the life of Cassius Clay by fellow Kentuckian, researcher, and former tour guide of Whitehall, Keven McQueen.
• A Man Seen But Once: Cassius Marcellus Clay by Betty Boles Ellison (AuthorHouse, 2005)
• Cassius Marcellus Clay: Firebrand of Freedom by H. Edward Robinson (University Press of Kentucky, 1976)
• The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay by Fletcher Brennan (Negro Universities Press, 1970)
• Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 744–745. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
• "Kentucky Lion: The True Story of Cassius Clay" (Morrison McNae Publishing, 2007) authored by Richard Kiel and Pamela Wallace [1]
• Kirchner, Paul (2010), Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques, Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, ISBN 1-58160-742-3

External links

• On-line version of the Columbia Encyclopedia 6th Edition
• Anna Rohleder. "Muhammad Ali's Boxing Day Gloves". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 2008-08-06. on the origin of boxer Muhammid Ali's birth name
• Whitehall
• Cassius M. Clay biography (maintained by Kentucky Educational Television)