in the escape; she was pardoned on February 24, 1845. Also during February, Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years. The Kentucky governor pardoned him in 1849. However, he was imprisoned again in 1852 and served 12 years for aiding in another escape. Lewis Richardson, Clay's self-emancipated slave, gave a speech that belies Clay’s self-portrayal as a "good" master. Richardson had been enslaved at Ashland for 20 years, and after a beating escaped via the Underground Railroad in January, 1846. By May, 1846, Richardson, also became a resident of Amherstburg, Ontario, At Union Chapel there, he tells not only of the continual sparse food and lack of warm clothing, but of 150 lashes from overseer Ambrose Brice for the offense of being an hour late from a visit to his wife. Brice later refutes this and states it was only 16 lashes. Richardson’s speech was published in an abolitionist newspaper, Signal of Liberty. The text of his speech is found in this reference. Legacy Historical reputation Clay's Whig Party collapsed four years after his death, but Clay cast a long shadow over the generation of political leaders that presided over the Civil War. Mississippi Senator Henry S. Foote stated his opinion that "had there been one such man in the Congress of the United States as Henry Clay in 1860-'61 there would, I feel sure, have been no civil war". Clay's protege and fellow Kentuckian, John J. Crittenden, attempted to keep the Union together with the formation of the Constitutional Union Party and the proposed Crittenden Compromise. Though Crittenden's efforts were unsuccessful, Kentucky remained in the Union during the Civil War, reflecting in part Clay's continuing influence. Abraham Lincoln was a great admirer of Clay, saying he was "my ideal of a great man." Lincoln wholeheartedly supported Clay's economic programs and, prior to the Civil War, held similar stances about slavery and the Union. Some historians have argued that a Clay victory in the 1844 election would have prevented both the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. Clay is generally regarded as one of the important political figures of his era. Most historians and political scientists consider Clay to be one of the most influential speakers of the house in U.S. history. In 1957, a Senate Committee selected Clay as one of the five greatest U.S. senators, along with Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Robert La Follette, and Robert A.