Clement Claiborne Clay (December 13, 1816 – January 3, 1882), also known as C. C. Clay Jr., was a United States Senator (Democrat) from the state of Alabama from 1853 to 1861, and a Confederate States senator from Alabama from 1862 to 1864. His portrait appeared on the Confederate one-dollar note (4th issue and later). Biography Early life Clement Claiborne Clay was born to Clement Comer Clay and Susanna Claiborne Withers, the daughter of well-off planter John Withers, in Huntsville, Alabama. He had a strong political pedigree; he was the oldest son of Clement Comer Clay, a U.S. senator and governor of Alabama. He was also a third cousin of Henry Clay, the noted statesman from Kentucky. Clay attended the Huntsville Green Academy, then studied at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1833–1834. In August 1834, at the age seventeen, he received an A.B. degree. He served as his father's secretary in 1835–1837 after Clement Clay, Sr. was elected as a governor of Alabama. In 1837, he and his brother John Withers Clay both entered the University of Virginia; their brother Hugh Lawson Clay joined them later. In July 1839, Clay obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree after studying with John B. Minor, known for his rigor, and was admitted to the Alabama Bar on October 2, 1839. Marriage and family On February 1, 1843, he married Virginia Tunstall, who was then 18 years old. They had one child, who died stillborn. After Clement's death in 1882, his widow remarried to David Clopton, a judge, and was known as Virginia Clay-Clopton. Clay-Clopton wrote Belle of the Fifties, a memoir with New York journalist Ada Sterling, published in 1904 and re-issued in 1905. Belle was one of three memoirs by southern women particularly recommended by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to its membership for studying. Clay-Clopton's book became part of the discourse about the Lost Cause and the burnished memory of the antebellum South. Career In 1839–1846, Clay practiced law in a family law firm; in 1846–1848 he served as Madison County judge. Clay was a member of the Alabama State House of Representatives in 1842, and in 1844–1845. He ran for the United States Congress in 1850, but did not succeed, losing to an incumbent. In 1853, Clay was elected by the Alabama legislature to serve in the United States Senate in a term beginning March 4, 1853;