Call Number:

C0404

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.45 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Sidney P. Clay Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1783-1846 (inclusive) and 1800-1844 (bulk)

Creator:

Clay, Sidney P. (Sidney Payne) (1800-1834)

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century, Documents. -- 19th century, Family papers. -- 19th century, Pamphlets., and Wills.

Abstract:

The Sidney P. Clay Collection consists of correspondence, documents, and photographs of Clay (Princeton Class of 1821) and members of his family, and includes some correspondence of the Reed family.

Sidney P. Clay was born in Madison County, Kentucky, in 1800. He attended but did not graduate from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1821. In 1822, he married Nancy B. Keen, with whom he had one daughter, and they moved to Bourbon County. She died shortly thereafter, and he remarried Isabella E.J. Reed, with whom he had four children, Sidney R. G. Isabella E., Elias D., and Green. Sidney Clay died in 1834.

Henry Clay was an American statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He was a dominant figure in both the First and Second Party System and the founder and leader of the Whig Party. Henry Clay was also a leading advocate of programs for modernizing the economy, especially tariffs to protect industry, a national bank, and internal improvements to promote canals, ports and railroads. Clay was a war hawk and, and was very much responsible for the War of 1812. Although his multiple attempts to become president were unsuccessful, to a large extent Clay defined the issues of the Second Party System. He was a major supporter of the mercantile American System, and had success in brokering compromises on the slavery issue, especially in 1820 and 1850.

The collection consists of correspondence, documents, pamphlets, and other miscellaneous material of Sidney Clay and his family, as well as some correspondence of the Reed family. There is correspondence between Sidney Clay and his father, General Green Clay, and his mother, Sally Clay, written while he was a student at St. Thomas's College in Springfield, N.Y., (1817), and at Princeton (1818-1820), as well as correspondence with his brothers and sister Cassius, Brutus, and Paulina, and his famous cousin, Henry Clay. There are letters of Sidney Clay written in Kentucky to his second wife, Isabella Reed Clay, as well as Reed family letters. Also included in the collection are wills and correspondence with other relatives and friends. In addition, there are typescripts of a large number of the original letters and a typescript containing selections from Sidney Clay's correspondence with editorial comments by his great grandson, Clay Judson. There is a letter from Henry Clay to General Green requesting a letter of recommendation for Clay's son to be given to Rev. John Witherspoon at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University.) Another letter is to Albert Baldwin Dod, a professor at the College of New Jersey, with an introductory letter for Clay's son. Other correspondents of Henry Clay include J. D. Hammond, J. G. Rowland, and John Scott.

Among the documents are 1818 circulars of Harvard and Princeton, describing the respective courses of study and expenses at these educational institutions, and a large broadside (1818) catalog of the officers and students of Princeton on which someone (Clay?) has identified the members of the Whig and Cliosophic Societies.