Clement Claiborne Clay

Clement Claiborne Clay (December 13, 1816 – January 3, 1882), also known as C. C. Clay Jr., was a United States senator from the state of Alabama from 1853 to 1861, and a Confederate States senator from Alabama from 1862 to 1864. His portrait appeared on the Confederate one-dollar note (4th issue and later). He was a member of the Democratic Party.

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

Early life Clement Claiborne Clay was born to Clement Comer Clay and Susanna Claiborne Withers, the daughter of well-off planter John Withers, in Huntsville, Alabama. He had a strong political pedigree as the oldest son of U. S. senator and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay. He was also a third cousin of Henry Clay, the noted statesman from Kentucky. John Withers Clay, proprietor and editor of the Huntsville Weekly Democrat, and Hugh Lawson Clay, who served in the military, were his brothers.

Clay attended the Huntsville Green Academy, then studied at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1833–1834. In August 1834, at the age seventeen, he received an A.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 the University of Virginia; their brother Hugh Lawson Clay joined them later. In July 1839, Clay obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree after studying with John 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 married Virginia Tunstall, who was then 18 years old. They had one child, who died stillborn. Clay-Clopton's book became part of the discourse about the Lost Cause and the burnished memory of the antebellum South.

Career

In 1839–1846, Clay practiced law in a family law firm; in 1846–1848 he served as Madison County judge. Clay was a member of the Alabama State House of Representatives in 1842, and in 1844–1845. He ran for the United States Congress in 1850, but did not succeed, losing to incumbent Williamson Robert Winfield Cobb.

In May 1864, president Davis sent Clay to Canada with a secret mission to coordinate activities of the Southern sympathizers in the Great Lakes area, including members of the Order of the Sons of Liberty and the Knights of the Golden Circle. Clay took part in a secret meeting with John Hay, President Abraham Lincoln's aide, at Niagara Falls, Canada.

It was suspected that Thompson and Clay had employed John Wilkes Booth for some services before he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. President Andrew Johnson signed an order to arrest Clay. After learning from a newspaper that a reward was issued for his capture, Clay, who initially planned to escape to Mexico, turned himself in to General James H. Wilson in Macon, Georgia, in May 1865. He was arrested and held in Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, until April 1866.

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 in Madison County, besieged by debts and health problems, and is interred at Maple 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.