Explanation:
Henry Clay rose in the Old Senate Chamber to begin the most important debate of his career and to forge one last compromise. A Whig from Kentucky, the “Great Compromiser” entered the Senate in 1806, served intermittently over four decades, and became a leading voice in the Senate. He resigned in 1842 to run for president but returned in 1849 to seek a compromise solution to the nation’s growing sectional strife—to avoid civil war.
