Author

Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster

The Senate's 'Great Triumvirate', whose speeches framed the Compromise of 1850

Portrait of Henry Clay.
Portrait of Henry Clay. Source · Public domain

About Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster

Henry Clay (1777-1852), born in Hanover County, Virginia, made his career in Kentucky and served as Speaker of the House, Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams, and Senator; three times a presidential nominee, he was known as the Great Compromiser for his part in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the compromise tariff of 1833. John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) of South Carolina, a Yale graduate, was Secretary of War, Vice President under Adams and Jackson, Secretary of State, and Senator, and the leading Southern theorist of state sovereignty; he died on March 31, 1850, four weeks after his last speech was read. Daniel Webster (1782-1852) of New Hampshire and Massachusetts was the foremost constitutional lawyer and orator of his day, a Senator and twice Secretary of State, the second time under President Fillmore from July 1850.

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“War and dissolution of the Union are identical and inevitable, in my opinion. There can be a dissolution of the Union only by consent or by war.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Clay's speech, February 5-6, 1850, peroration
“I implore, as the best blessing which Heaven can bestow upon me, upon earth, that if the direful event of the dissolution of this Union is to happen, I shall not survive to behold the sad and heart-rending spectacle.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Clay's speech, February 5-6, 1850, last sentence
“The cords that bind the States together are not only many, but various in character.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Calhoun's speech, March 4, 1850, on the bonds of union
“The South asks for justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to take.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Calhoun's speech, March 4, 1850, final section
“I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the Senate of the United States.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Webster's Seventh of March speech, opening sentence
“There can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility.”
Speeches on the Compromise of 1850, Webster's Seventh of March speech, on secession

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Speeches on the Compromise of 1850

Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster

1850 · 19th Century · Oratory

These three Senate speeches were the central statements in the long debate of 1850 over the lands won from Mexico, and the last great addresses of the three statesmen of their generation. The Mexican War had added California and the Southwest.

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