Kentucky's Clay Family-- Part 3: Henry Clay "The Great Compromiser"

Henry Clay and Illinois Senator Jesse  B. Thomas were authors of the Missouri Compromise, averting a slavery-non-slavery showdown in 1820.  He proposed that Maine and Missouri enter the Union at the same time with Maine a free state and Missouri  a lave one.  But slavery would be prohibited north of the  36 degrees 30 parallel.  This temporarily, at least, solved tensions over the issue.

Clay also played a big role in what is known as the Compromise of 1850 which helped soothe tensions between the North and South over the increasingly tense slavery issue.  This helped delay secession and the Civil War until the 1860s

--Old Secesh