After reading the book, Henry Clay and the Art of American Politics, it is my knowledge that Clement Eaton was trying to inform people how Henry Clay inspired the upbringing of American politics as well as to brief readers on this man's life as he grew more instrumental in his causes. Eaton's perceptive account reveals the life of Henry Clay in relation to the developing life of the nation.
             The book started off in the autumn of 1797, where twenty year old Henry Clay, who had just been issued a license to practice law by the Virginia courts, entered the Promised Land of Kentucky to begin a promising and great career in American politics. Clay's career was not only spectacular but also captivated in colorfulness and longevity. As eloquent a speaker as Clay was, he was also a man of boldly definite mind and was an enthusiast for all that concerned the West and its future. He was exactly suited to the mood of his adopted region. When Clay first entered as Speaker of the House in 1811, the North, South, and the West were characterized by differing interests. Clay was a guiding spirit of the anti-British War Hawks, and he identified himself very passionately with the prevailing nationalist attitude of the West.
             However, Clay was not essentially a warlike man. Throughout most of his career he labored to reduce internal friction that threatened civil war as well as tried to prevent foreign wars. He earned the title of "the Great Pacificator" which was popularly bestowed on him even despite the fact that he was on occasion fiery of speech and that he fought two duels. As sectional conflicts grew deeper and clearer cut in the first half of the nineteenth century, so did the party system evolve. This evolution provided both the means of stating conflicts and the means of making adjustments and compromises to complement them. Perhaps, more than any man in his career, Henry Clay developed the necessary art of comp...