Henry Clay

The American Colonization Society was officially established at the Davis Hotel in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1816.

The 16th Congress passed the legislation on March 3, 1820, following the stalemate of the 15th Congress.

No candidate won a majority of the electoral vote in the 1824 election, resulting in an inconclusive outcome.

The House of Representatives held a contingent election on February 9, 1825, to resolve the lack of an electoral majority.

John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as the sixth President of the United States on March 4, 1825.

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing land exchanges and removal west of the Mississippi River.

President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 28, 1830.

Andrew Jackson was re-elected president in the 1832 election, defeating Henry Clay and William Wirt.

The Senate voted 26–20 to censure Jackson for removing federal deposits, marking the only explicit presidential censure resolution.

Jackson protested the censure as unconstitutional, arguing the Senate exceeded its authority by charging him with an impeachable offense.

In January 1837, a Democratic majority voted to expunge the censure, though historians still regard Jackson as censured.

Henry Clay delivered a speech in 1834 comparing Jackson's opponents to British Whigs, establishing the party's name.

William Henry Harrison won the presidential nomination on the fifth ballot, supported by Thaddeus Stevens and Thurlow Weed, defeating front-runner Henry Clay.

The Whig Party held its first national convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from December 4 to 8, 1839, to select the presidential nominee for the 1840 election.

Expansionist Southern Democrats blocked Van Buren's nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, leading to Polk's emergence as a compromise candidate.

Henry Clay won the Whig presidential nomination unanimously, positioning himself as the leading contender against the Democrats.

Clay released the Alabama Letter on July 27, 1844, addressing Texas annexation and slavery expansion.

Polk defeated Clay in the general election, with voting occurring between November 1 and December 4, 1844.

The Whig Party nominated Zachary Taylor for president, defeating Henry Clay and Winfield Scott, despite Taylor's initial reluctance.

Lewis Cass was nominated after Martin Van Buren withdrew, causing a party split over popular sovereignty.

Voting occurred on November 7, 1848, marking the first time all states voted on the same day.

Senator Henry Clay introduced a plan combining major issues to Congress on January 29, 1850, to resolve the deadlock over the Mexican Cession.

Clay openly broke with President Taylor in May 1850 over the approach to admitting California and New Mexico as free states.

Henry Clay became the first leader to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda following his death in 1852.