ABSTRACT
Ironically, the original Clay, son of a wealthy slaveowner, gained the title of “Champion of Liberty” while fighting to free Ali’s ancestors some 100 years before Ali was born. From the 1830s through the outbreak of the Civil War, slavery shared top billing with politics in many newspapers. Cassius Clay, youngest of seven children of Green and Sally Clay, was born October 9, 1810, in a stately mansion. After establishing himself as the creator of the American System and a distinguished statesman, Henry Clay was nominated as the Whig presidential candidate in 1844. The voice of The True American was temporarily silenced, but the newspaper reappeared on September 30, 1845, bearing a Lexington dateline but printed in Cincinnati. Circulation of The True American dropped after its suppression, and Clay tried to increase readership by offering the paper to non-slaveholders for half price. Clay struggled for years to convince Kentuckians the economic and moral welfare of the state demanded emancipation.
