in Fort Monroe, but was never tried; he was released in 1867. Postwar years Clay was imprisoned by the United States government under impression that he was involved in the plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Virginia Clay played some role in her husband's release as she went to Washington, D.C. and personally pleaded with President Johnson. A viewpoint that Johnson's role in Clay's release was an act worthy of being among the charges for impeaching Johnson was voiced in the December 1867 Thomas Williams-authored majority report of House Committee on the Judiciary published at the conclusion of first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson. The Clays returned to Alabama and struggled to rebuild their lives living on a farm. Clay tried to practice as an attorney and entered insurance business in Huntsville, however without much success due to poor health, ultimately returning to his farm in January 1882. He died later that year in Madison County, besieged by debts and health problems, and is interred at Maple Hill Cemetery. Works Clay, C.C., and William M. K. Gwin. Invasion of Harper's Ferry: Dangers and Duties of the South. Washington: Printed at the Congressional Globe Office, 1859. Speech of the Hon. C.C. Clay Jr. of Alabama, on the Contest in Kansas, and the Plans and Purposes of Black Republicanism: Delivered in the United States Senate, April 21, 1856. Speech of C. Clay Jr. of Alabama, on the Bill to Admit Kansas: Southern Rights, How Menaced by Northern Republicanism, Delivered in United States Senate, Mar. 19, 1858. Speech of Hon. C. C. Clay Jr. on slavery issues. Delivered at Huntsville, Alabama, September 5th, 1859. References Bibliography Further reading Clay-Clopton, Virginia. A Belle of the Fifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853–66, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905. (Full text available at Documenting the American South website, University of North Carolina.) Nuermberger, Ruth K. The Clays of Alabama: A Planter-Lawyer-Politician Family. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1958. Thornton, J M. Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800–1860. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978. Tidwell, William A. April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995. Wiley, Bell Irvin. Confederate Women. New York: Greenwood Press, 1975. External links Virginia Clay, Civil War Women Short biography on Political Graveyard |- 1816 births 1882