Clement Claiborne Clay, Jr.
| Clement Clay | |
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Confederate States Senator from Alabama |
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In office February 18, 1862 – February 17, 1864 |
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| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Richard Walker |
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United States Senator from Alabama |
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In office November 29, 1853 – January 21, 1861 |
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| Preceded by | Jeremiah Clemens |
| Succeeded by | Willard Warner |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 13, 1816 Huntsville, Alabama, US |
| Died | January 3, 1882 (aged 65) Gurley, Alabama, US |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Virginia Tunstall |
| Alma mater |
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa University of Virginia |
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).
Clement Claiborne Clay was born to Clement Comer Clay and Susanna Claiborne Withers, a 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.
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, Virginia remarried to David Clopton, a judge, and was known as Virginia Clay-Clopton. Virginia 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. Her book became part of the discourse about the Lost Cause and the burnished memory of the antebellum South.
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