“Constitution Day” at Hopkinsville Community College took on a deeper meaning Tuesday afternoon in the Emerging Technologies Anderson Room, as newly-hired American History instructor Luke Bendick hosted a full audience — and put forth a deep look at former legendary legislator and Kentuckian Henry Clay, former popular U.S. President and Tennessean Andrew Jackson, and their contrasting looks at the U.S. Constitution during the 1840s.
In granular nature, Bendick noted that Clay — once the nation’s great “pacificator, compromiser and orator” — often drew the ire of Jackson, who during his two terms vetoed more bills than his eight previous presidents combined, almost single-handedly caused a dark chapter in “The Trail of Tears” march of Native Americans from their homelands…and generally loathed the idea of a National Bank, Kentucky’s ties to a national road, and the proposal of tariffs on international goods.
Clay, Bendick urged, had much grayer views on those matters — but owned strong convictions of the Constitution’s task to harness the effects of the Declaration of Independence.
A servant of the Kentucky legislature who practiced law in Lexington, Benick said Clay was then elected to the U.S. Senate at the age of 29 — which, ironically, wasn’t legal at the time.
He would later serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, before eventually earning Speaker of the House and U.S. Secretary of State, and he would thrice unsuccessfully run for U.S. President, and twice more be denied his party’s presidential nomination.
Bendick noted Clay’s polarizing nature didn’t stop there, when noted abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass called Clay “the most popular man in America,” who then wouldn’t use his popularity to emancipate his own slaves.
But Clay, Bendick added, was instrumental in Missouri’s admission to the Union, the agreement of tariffs during the nullification crises in the 1820s and 1830s, and the ultimate “Compromise of 1850” before his 1852 death from tuberculosis.
Meanwhile, Jackson left his office as one of the most revered politicians in American history — most notably for his successful military background, and his lifting of the nation’s top position from figurehead status to one of more authoritative stature.
Why, then, would a federal government place the face of a man who hated banking on the $20 bill? Bendick said he didn’t have a good answer.
Bendick’s full context can be found here:
