Daguerreotype, ca. 1850
Around the time this daguerreotype was created, Clay, at the age of 70, was again acting as compromiser, this time with resolutions between North and South. Senator Clay is credited with the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state; ended the slave trade in Washington, D.C.; established Utah's government; amended the Fugitive Slave Act; and settled the boundary between Texas and New Mexico.
Details on the Compromise of 1850 can be found at the Library of Congress.
