Abstract

Kimberly Shankman has written the first full-length study of the political thought of early American statesman Henry Clay. In Compromise and the Constitution, Shankman seeks to understand Clay's approach to republican statesmanship by carefully considering the context in which he developed and articulated his programs and policy prescriptions. Because Clay was policy-oriented and very seldom addressed politics from a theoretical perspective, there has been a tendency to dismiss him as motivated primarily, if not exclusively, by expedience and ambition. Shankman demonstrates, however, that Clay's reticence about first principles was in fact an integral part of his conception of an appropriate republican politics: one based on prudence, interest, and compromise rather than on principle, passion, and adamancy. This book is crucial reading for scholars of American history, early American political thought, and the Constitution.