Fan Mail from a Henry Clay Descendant
July 10, 2015
Readers who are familiar with my books, The Real Lincoln, Lincoln Unmasked, and Hamilton’s Curse know that I am no fan of the nineteenth-century mercantilist Henry Clay, who Lincoln thought of as his political role model, calling him “the beau ideal of a statesman.” Clay was the leader of Lincoln’s beloved Whig Party, the party of government of the plutocracy, for the plutocracy, by the plutocracy. As Edgar Lee Masters wrote in Lincoln the Man, the Whig Party was “the party of plunder” (of the taxpayers) “and nothing else.”
Many Americans are hero worshippers, and in the age of the internet are often quick to compose hate mail for anyone who writes anything negative, no matter how factual, about one of their heroes. Not so for one K. Grant Belcher II, a great grandson of Henry Clay, who wrote me this morning that “I thought you would like to know that you had influenced a grandson of Henry Clay!” with the following email:
“Mr. DiLorenzo,
I just wanted to write and let you know that, during times like these, I appreciate your works more than ever. Reading your books on Lincoln ad Hamilton opened my eyes and have changed the way I view American history. Thank you.”
Then in a second email: “Oh, and btw, I am Henry Clay’s grandson!”
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