Senator Reid explains Democrats negotiation method with Republicans. His role model is Henry Clay

[Better Believe It]

The "Great Compromiser". BBI

Excerpt:

CNN
THE SITUATION ROOM
TRANSCRIPT

Aired April 6, 2011 - 18:00 ET

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is getting ready to make a statement on the looming budget shutdown. He and the House Speaker, they're going to be going over to the White House with some other leaders to meet with the president after 9:00 p.m. Eastern later tonight when the president gets back from his trip to Pennsylvania.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER:

We've been more than reasonable, Mr. President. More than fair. We meet them half way, they say no. We meet them more than half way, they still say no. We meet them all the way, they still say no.

And remember what one of the greatest speakers of all time said. In fact, he was speaker three times Mr. President from the state of Kentucky, Henry Clay. He was known as the great compromiser.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1104/06/sitroom.02.html


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HENRY CLAY

Dubbed the "Great Compromiser," he brokered important compromises during the Nullification Crisis and on the slavery issue, especially in 1820 and 1850, during which he was part of the "Great Triumvirate" or "Immortal Trio," along with his colleagues Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.

Henry Clay helped establish and became president of the American Colonization Society, a group that wanted to send freed African American slaves to Africa and that founded Monrovia in Liberia for that purpose. On the amalgamation of the black and white races, Clay said that "The God of Nature, by the differences of color and physical constitution, has decreed against it."<26> Clay presided at the founding meeting of the ACS on December 21, 1816, at the Davis Hotel in Washington, D.C. Attendees also included Robert Finley, James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Andrew Jackson, Francis Scott Key, and Daniel Webster.

The Missouri Compromise and 1820s

In 1820 a dispute erupted over the extension of slavery in Missouri Territory. Clay helped settle this dispute by gaining Congressional approval for a plan called the "Missouri Compromise". It brought in Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state (thus maintaining the balance in the Senate, which had included 11 free and 11 slave states), and it forbade slavery north of 36º 30' (the northern boundary of Arkansas and the latitude line) except in Missouri.

Slave freedom suit

As Secretary of State, Clay lived with his family and slaves in Decatur House on Lafayette Square. As he was preparing to return to Lexington in 1829, his slave Charlotte Dupuy sued Clay for her freedom and that of her two children, based on a promise by an earlier owner. Her legal challenge to slavery preceded the more famous Dred Scott case by 17 years. The "freedom suit" received a fair amount of attention in the press at the time. Dupuy's attorney gained an order from the court for her to remain in DC until the case was settled, and she worked for wages for Martin Van Buren, the successor to office and Decatur House. Clay returned to Ashland with Aaron, Charles and Mary Ann Dupuy.

The jury ruled against Dupuy, agreeing that any agreement with Condon did not bear on Clay. Because Dupuy refused to return voluntarily to Kentucky, Clay had his agent arrest her. She was imprisoned in Alexandria, Virginia before Clay arranged for her transport to New Orleans, where he placed her with his daughter and son-in-law Martin Duralde. Mary Ann Dupuy was sent to join her mother, and they worked as domestic slaves for the Duraldes for another decade.

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HENRY CLAY 1850