Henry Clay
Return to the Senate

Even with Clay out of office, President Jackson continued to see Clay as one of his major rivals, and Jackson at one point suspected Clay of being behind the Petticoat affair, a controversy involving the wives of his Cabinet members. Clay strongly opposed the 1830 Indian Removal Act, which authorized the administration to relocate Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi River. Another key point of contention between Clay and Jackson was the proposed Maysville Road, which would connect Maysville, Kentucky, to the National Road in Zanesville, Ohio; transportation advocates hoped that later extensions would eventually connect the National Road to New Orleans. In 1830, Jackson vetoed the project both because he felt that the road did not constitute interstate commerce, and also because he generally opposed using the federal government to promote economic modernization. While Jackson's veto garnered support from opponents of infrastructure spending, it damaged his base of support in Clay's home state of Kentucky. Clay returned to federal office in 1831 by winning election to the Senate over Richard Mentor Johnson in a 73 to 64 vote of the Kentucky legislature. His return to the Senate after 20 years, 8 months, 7 days out of office, marks the fourth-longest gap in service to the chamber in history.
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