Henry Clay

Henry Clay

Henry Clay
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	high interest, readability grades 4 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.48

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		successful, slavery, committee, born, solution, treaty, civil, easily, slave, health, lawyer, allow, bitter, history, middle, delay
	content words:		Henry Clay, In Kentucky, United States, If Missouri, When Maine, Missouri Compromise, Mexican War, Stephen Douglas, United States Capitol, Lexington Cemetery

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Henry Clay
By Cathy Pearl

¹     Henry Clay was born in Virginia in 1777. His parents were middle class. Clay went to school and studied to be a lawyer. When he was twenty, he moved to Kentucky. In Kentucky he became a successful lawyer. He was well liked by many people.

²     In 1811, he was elected to Congress. He was voted Speaker of the House. Clay supported the War of 1812. He also helped write the treaty that ended the war.

³     Clay would spend more than thirty years in Congress. While there, he was a strong defender of the Union. While he was in Congress, slavery began to tear the United States apart. He helped to end arguments and keep the country together.

⁴     The first was when Missouri tried to become a state. They wanted to allow slavery. The Northern states did not like this idea. At the time, there were eleven free states and eleven slave states. If Missouri became a state, there would be more slave states. The slave states would control Congress.

⁵     Congress members from Northern states would not let Missouri become a state. When Maine tried to become a state, members from the South would not let it join. Neither side would change its mind.

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