‘The Great Compromiser’: The Forgotten Legacy of Henry Clay

The Kentucky statesman believed that civility could bring two fractious sides together to preserve our country’s union.

A detail from "The United States Senate, A.D. 1850," circa 1855, drawn by Peter F. Rothermel and engraved by Robert Whitechurch. Library of Congress. Henry Clay, "the Great Compromiser," introduces the Compromise of 1850 in his last significant act as a senator. Public Domain

In the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird,” an angry Scout Finch returns home from her first morning at school. She’s upset that her teacher wants her to stop learning to read every night with her father, Atticus. In tears, she refuses to go back to school, at which point Atticus, a prominent attorney in town, takes her into his arms and says of the teacher: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

“But if I keep going to school,” Scout says, “we can’t ever read anymore.”