Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster were all great leaders who were major contributors to American politics for over thirty years. All had many strengths, but I believe out of the three, Henry Clay would have made the best President of the United States. Even though he owned slaves he favored gradual emancipation and stipulated in his will that his slaves be freed. He was the only one among them who took a strong stance in his speeches against slavery. In fact when told that speeches he was making against slavery would ruin his chance to become President he said "I would rather be right than President." I admire that, slavery was cruel and a terrible part of the history of our country. If John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster had been elected President perhaps slavery would still be in some states today. It could have changed the entire relationship between the North and the South, which may have changed who was elected after them, even changing the country more.
Henry Clay, Chairman of the Select Committee on th...
English: Henry Clay addressing the U.S. Senate, Da...
English: Henry Clay. Engraving by John Sartain.Henry Clay had many other great qualities that would have made a fine President. His best known nicknames were "the great compromiser" and "the great pacificator" and was one of the "War Hawks" a group of men who were upset about the ways the British treated the colonies and helped bring about the war of 1812.
One of the reasons Henry Clay was nicknamed the "great compromiser" was because he created the Missouri Compromise when slavery was a huge issue between the Southern States and Northern States. The country had an equal balance between slave states and free states. There were eleven free states and eleven slave states. To keep the balance of power in the Senate, Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as...