Cassius Clay

Also known as "the Lion of White Hall'" he was an emancipationist from Richmond, Ky. He was the cousin to Senator Henry Clay. Clay started and wrote an anti-slavery newspaper called True American in 1845. A month later, a mob broke in and destroyed his equipment forcing him to move the paper from Lexington, Ky to Cincinnati, Oh. In 1846, he became a Colonel in the Mexican American War, but since he could speak spanish, he helped save his group on many occasions which resulted him in becoming a Major General by the end of the war. President Lincoln sent Clay as Minister to Russia at the start of the Civil War. While over there, he helped persuade the Russian's to help out the Union cause in the states. Confederate states already talked the British and French help their cause if the war came to that. The Union now had Russia on their side. Luckily, the war never came to that. When Clay returned to the states, he helped convince Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. He is buried in Richmond Cemetery in Richmond, Ky.

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