continued into July when Taylor unexpectedly died of an illness. After Taylor's death, President Fillmore, who supported Clay's compromise bill, consulted with Clay in appointing a new Cabinet. Exhausted by the debate in the Senate, Clay took a leave of absence shortly after Taylor's death, but Fillmore, Webster, and Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas took charge of pro-compromise forces. By the end of September 1850, Clay's proposal, which became known as the Compromise of 1850, had been enacted. Though contemporaries credited Fillmore, Douglas, and Webster for their role in passing the Compromise of 1850, Clay was widely regarded as the key figure in ending a major sectional crisis. Death In December 1851, at the age of 74, with his health declining, Clay announced that he would resign from the Senate the following September. Clay never recovered from his illnesses, and died of tuberculosis aged 75 in his room at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 1852. He was the first person to lie in state in the United States Capitol rotunda. Clay's headstone reads: "I know no North—no South—no East—no West". Hymn writer Fanny Crosby penned this line of lament on Clay's death: Ideology and slavery American System Throughout most of his political life, Clay promoted his American System as both an economic program and a means for unifying the country. Clay's American System rejected strict constructionism in favor of an activist government that would help ensure a fairer and more efficient distribution of economic gains. The American System had four key tenets: high tariffs, a stable financial system, federal investment in internal improvements, and a public land sale policy designed to raise revenue and provide for carefully managed expansion into the American frontier. Through high tariffs, Clay hoped to free the United States from dependence on foreign imports, especially from Britain. Clay sought to ensure a stable financial system through support for the national bank, which regulated the country's banking system and helped ensure a consistent supply of credit. Clay's support for federally financed internal improvements stemmed from his belief that only the federal government could construct the transportation system necessary for uniting the country commercially and culturally. His land policy focused on using revenue from land sales to fund money to the states, which could then invest that money in education, infrastructure projects, and other priorities. Slavery and the Dupuy case Clay inherited slaves as