Lexington, KY - Earlier in the year, Shaye Rabold, the executive director of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship, was reading David and Jeanne Heidler's new biography on her organization's namesake -
Henry Clay. One fact jumped out at her: The Great Compromiser was first elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in 1811 (Clay was elected to the post three times).
That was 200 years ago, and unbeknownst to her, an auspicious anniversary was quickly approaching.
Taking advantage of the occasion, Rabold coordinated with Debra Korb, the executive director at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate, to arrange an oft-discussed idea which had never materialized in the past, Henry Clay Week. (The idea has long been the brainchild of Bill Giles, the president of the Henry Clay Memorial and co-chair of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship.)
For the past four years, Ashland's annual lawn party has been the springboard of events for the center for statesmanship's student congress' visit to Lexington. As part of the center's programming, each year 51 college students (one from each state and Washington D.C., all nominated by their states' senior U.S. senator or university or college officials) come to Lexington for a week-long diplomacy bootcamp.
This year, the lawn party, on June 18, will launch the inaugural Henry Clay Week.
"I think the reason behind it is to really elevate what Lexington has in being the home of Henry Clay. I think a lot of Lexingtonians take it for granted," Rabold said. "I think a lot of people don't know a lot about Henry Clay, other than that we have a high school here and we have Ashland. We wanted to celebrate what we already have, but we also wanted to find a way to open up the legacy of Henry Clay to the public."
As a celebration of the history of Clay, the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation and the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship will be making a bit of history themselves with the week's capstone event -
The Role of the Speaker of the House: A Tribute to Henry Clay. This event will include a non-political, non-partisan discussion with four of the six living speakers of the house: John Boehner (current speaker), Nancy Pelosi (2007 - 11), Dennis Hastert (1999 - 2007) and Jim Wright (1987 - 89).
Upon being elected speaker of the house in 1811, Clay was the first and only speaker who was elected unanimously the first day representatives brought the position up for a vote. Historians often cite Clay as the leader who transformed the role of speaker from a procedural one to a position of considerable power and influence.
Rabold said the idea to gather these Congressional leaders to pay homage to Clay, in part, came from a reference Boehner made to Clay when he first addressed Congress as speaker of the house in January of 2011.
"Here we've got the speaker of the house referring to Henry Clay from 200 years ago to this new class of elected officials. He's still relevant," Rabold said. "The word relevant is really what I've tried to focus on. He is more relevant today, his legacy is more relevant today than perhaps any other time. Looking at him and what he did, we can learn so much about what we need to do now."