Cassius Marcellus Clay "The Lion of Whitehall"

One of the most colorful and interesting figures from history is also one of the least well known. Cassius Marcellus Clay, one of the founders of the Republican Party, is a movie character waiting to be discovered, he was a real life action hero. Clay had a reputation as a rebel and a fighter. There were so many threats to his life that he carried two pistols and a Bowie knife everywhere he went. In addition he used a cannon to protect his home and office. His family home was nicknamed White Hall, and he was known as The Lion of White Hall.

Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is a much more well known name, later known as Muhammad Ali, he was named for his father Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., whose grandfather grew up on the property of Cassius Clay for whom he was named. Ali, was quoted that he changed his name and "denounced his slave name." What he may never have known was the story of the man he was named for and why. It was Clay who freed Ali's grandfather who named his son born in freedom in his honor. I wonder if he might have a different thought if he knew the story of who he was named for.

A soldier in The War of 1812, later fought in the Mexican American War where he was captured as a prisoner of war. Elected to Kentucky State Legislature, news paper editor, and one of the leading forces in the anti-slavery movement.
Clay was appointed Minister to Russian in 1861 came home in 1862 to the Civil War, but went back to St. Petersburg in 1863 and stayed until 1869, where he was instrumental in clearing the way for America's purchase of Alaska. He came home to become a general in the U.S. Army in the Civil War but resigned his post when the Lincoln administration failure to immediately proclaim emancipation of all slaves in the South. He then formed the "Strangers Guard in Washington at the beginning of the Civil War. It had the special responsibility of protecting the White House, the Navy Yard, and cleared the city of masses of Southern sympathizers.

Clay was the son of Revolutionary War General Green Clay, who was a contemporary of Daniel Boone. Green Clay amassed great wealth from property in Madison County, Kentucky, and as a slave holding plantation owner. Cassius "Cash" was also cousins with the famed politician Henry Clay,known as one of the greatest Senators of all time, and personal hero of Abraham Lincoln. Cash was also a friend and one of the co-founders of the Republican Party with Lincoln with the goal of ending slavery.

Cash attended Yale where in 1832 he was impressed by an anti-slavery speech by the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. From then on, Cassius Clay spent his life opposing slavery and working for its end. Clay was an emancipationist, not an abolitionist, where he sought to eliminate slavery by gradual, legal means, while abolitionists wanted slavery to end by any means possible. Their methods sometimes included violence and a disregard for the law of the United States. Clay and the emancipationists, including his cousin Senator Henry Clay, "The Great Compromiser," and Lincoln hoped to maintain the law and the Constitution while ridding the country of slavery by peaceful means. Of course those high hopes would eventually prove futile as America and these men were drawn into the Civil War.

Cash entered politics was elected to state representative from Madison County in 1835, lost the next year, and then elected again in 1837. His speeches won him praise for his speaking skills, but made many enemies for their content speaking against slavery in Central Kentucky. He was threatened often and fought many duels.

Once during the Wickliffe-Garret Davis debate at Russell's Cave Spring in 1843, Clay was attacked by a hired assassin named Samuel Brown. Brown shot Clay in the chest, but Clay defended himself with a Bowie knife, cutting off Brown's nose, ear, and gouging out Brown's right eye. Clay then picked up Brown and threw him over a wall down an embankment. The helpers who carried Clay away were astonished to find that Clay's knife scabbard, which he kept strapped to his chest, had stopped Brown's bullet. Clay was charged with Mayhem, but the charges were later dropped.

A few years later, on June 15, 1849, Clay traveled to Foxtown, Ky to speak out against slavery at a local political meeting. He was then a member of the Liberal Party, which hoped to elect anti-slavery delegates to the upcoming state constitutional convention. As Clay stepped down from the podium, Cyrus Turner, the son of a pro-slavery candidate, called him a liar and struck him. Clay drew his knife but was surrounded by a crowd, who disarmed him and began clubbing him. Clay was stabbed in the lung, and his breastbone was severed.

Badly wounded, Clay grabbed his knife and wrestled it away from an attacker, cutting his own fingers to the bone. He then found Turner in the crowd and stabbed him. Clay's 14 year old son, Warfield Clay, handed him a pistol, but Cash was beginning to lose consciousness from his loss of blood. One of Turner's relatives tried to shoot Clay in the head, but the gun misfired. As he passed out, Cash was reported to have said, "I died in defense of the liberties of the people." The statement was a bit premature, Clay didn't die. Turner however, did a few days later.

Clay's reputation from his many duels was so intense, that one man who was scheduled to duel Clay the next day, committed suicide the night before!

Clay started an anti-slavery newspaper in Lexington, KY, called "The True American," but in it's first year his office and printing presses were wrecked by a mob of 60 men. After this he moved his paper to Cincinnati, OH and later yet moved it back to Louisville and renamed it the Examiner.

Historian William Ritchie wrote; "After the election of Lincoln, Clay hoped that the portfolio of war was assured him. When strong opposition developed against him, Clay sought the assistance of other men of influence, such as (Salmon) Chase, and (Carl) Schurz. Clay failed to secure the appointment to the cabinet. He blamed William Seward, who said that Clay's appointment would constitute a declaration of war on the South." Clay took his case directly to Lincoln, but Lincoln was quick to reject his claim with "Who ever heard of a reformer reaping the rewards of his work in his lifetime? I was advised that your appointment as Secretary of War would have been considered a declaration of war upon the South. I have no objection to your return to St. Petersburg. I thought that you had desired to return home; at least (Secretary of State) William H. Seward so stated to me."

While Clay was commander of the Clay Battalion, of The Stranger's Guard in D.C. he was colorfully described by Clay biographer, David Smiley. "As commander, Clay enlivened the atmosphere at his headquarters in Willard's Hotel with his braggadocio. With three pistols strapped to his waist, and an elegant sword hanging from his side, he talked to anyone who would listen about his Mexican War exploits and his political battles."

A few months before Cash Clay died at 93 years old, while still a young man of 92, three men broke into his home late one evening trying to either rob, or attack the old warrior. However, he still had plenty of fight left in him. Clay shot one, eviscerated a second, and seriously injured the third before the intruder escaped.

This guy's life is begging to be made into an action hero movie.