Cassius Marcellus Clay
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Categories: 1810 births | 1903 deaths | American abolitionists | People from Madison County, Kentucky | Yale University alumni | United States ambassadors to Russia
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This article is about Cassius Marcellus Clay. For the boxer Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., see Muhammad Ali.
Image:Cassius Marcellus Clay abolitionist - Brady-Handy.jpg
Cassius Marcellus Clay
Cassius Marcellus Clay, nicknamed "The Lion of White Hall" (October 19, 1810 – July 22, 1903) was an abolitionist from Madison County, Kentucky, and a second cousin of famous politician Henry Clay.
AbolitionistCassius Clay was a paradox in history, as a wealthy Southerner from Kentucky who became a prominent anti-slavery crusader in the 1830s and 1840s. Ironically, he was the son of Green Clay, one of the wealthiest landowners and slaveholders in Kentucky. After witnessing injustice to his best friends, both slaves, a teenage Clay vowed that one day all slaves would be free. He worked tirelessly toward that goal, eventually as a Kentucky state representative and a founder of the Republican Party. The personal cost was high: he was the target of assassination plots and his young son was murdered in an attempt by wealthy slaveowners to silence the abolitionist. Through helping to create an anti-slavery newspaper and founding an interracial college, Clay joined others in the cause of of abolitionism. Education was something central to the life of Clay and as a result he incorporated education into his approach toward abolitionisn. Clay donated land and founded the town of Berea, where he established an interracial school called Berea College in 1885. Berea opened as the first college in America founded for the specific purpose of educating black and white students together. Clay believed the school would provide an excellent education for men and women of all races, encouraging them to be advocates of equality. Clay, himself attended Transylvania University, and then graduated from Yale College in 1832, three years later he was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly. He opposed the annexation of Texas, yet served in the Mexican-American War. Unlike Henry Clay but like one of his inspirations, William Lloyd Garrison, Cassius Clay supported the immediate abolition of slavery.[1] Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison gave a lecture that impelled Clay to join Garrison in speaking out against slavery. Garrison’s arguments were to him “as water is to a thirsty wayfarer” (Brennan 20). Yet he was also politically pragmatic, supporting any necessary means, including gradual legal change if it was practical. This led to some later biographers confusing the views of Cassius Clay with those of Henry Clay. Cassius Clay was among the founders of the Republican party, a leader of its antislavery wing, and a friend of Abraham Lincoln, whom he also supported for the presidency. 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 barricade the doors of his newspaper office for protection. On an occasion when Clay was ill, a mob of about sixty men, members of the local opposition, broke into his office and seized his printing equipment. Clay was forced to relocate the paper office to Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, Clay changed the name of the newspaper to The Examiner when he moved the operation to Louisville, Kentucky. He survived repeated assassination attempts and beatings by mob, causing him to be a hero of the antislavery crusade. Despite the resistance that Clay faced in battling slavery in the press and education, he was undoubtedly a crusader of abolitionism. In Clay's later years, he and his wife divorced and he became burdened with a tremendous amount of debt, causing him to sell much of his property. These events led to depression, which caused Clay to become eccentric, obsessed with the delusion that someone was trying to kill him. As a result, Clay greeted visitors to his estate with weapons drawn. Clay died on July 22, 1903, at the age of ninety-three, an ageless and colorful abolitionist legend, who challenged the moral injustice of slavery in many avenues. Minister to RussiaAfter the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, President Lincoln nominated Clay for the post of ambassador to Spain, but Clay declined the appointment.[2] Instead, from 1861 to 1862 he was Minister to Russia, where he witnessed the Czar's emancipation edict. After being recalled to the United States to accept a commission as Union major general from Lincoln, he publicly refused to accept the commission unless Lincoln would sign an emancipation proclamation. Lincoln, who did not entirely support emancipation at that time, discussed it with Clay, and sent Clay to Kentucky to assess the mood for emancipation there and in other border states. Clay returned, reported that it was fine, and Lincoln issued the proclamation a few weeks later.[3] Clay subsequently returned to Russia from 1863 to 1869, again as Minister, where he was influential in the negotiations to purchase Alaska. Upon his return he founded the Cuban Charitable Aid Society to help aid the Cuban independence movement of Jose Marti. He also began speaking out against robber barons and in favor of nationalizing the railroads. He left the Republican Party, in part, due to President Grant's military interference in Haiti.[4] Clay sponsored his friend Rev. John G. Fee's abolitionist ministry in Madison County, Kentucky, and contributed money and land to Fee's founding of the town of Berea and of Berea College. Clay died July 22, 1903. Survivors included his daughters, the women's rights activists Laura Clay and Mary Barr Clay. His family home, White Hall, is now maintained by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as White Hall State Historic Shrine. The world-famous professional boxer Muhammad Ali was originally named Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., who was named for the emancipationist. References
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