Book excerpt: A story set before, during, and immediately after the Jacksonian Period and the critical years leading up to the Civil War. Former Speaker of the House, Senator, Secretary of State, organizer of the Whig political party, Henry Clay, had lost the race to the White House three times already, and now was his chance to take the Presidency for himself. Zachary Taylor declines to run as the Chief Executive, giving Clay another shot. With the use of the telegraph and help from newspaper editor Horace Greeley, Daniel Webster, and others, the first presidential debate in 1848 between Clay and Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass was set. One of the most popular senators of all time, the Kentuckian Henry Clay goes into the debate with fire and vengeance to make up for his previous losses. Whoever comes out the winner of this historical occasion would go on and follow James Polk to the Presidency, and attempt to delay the inevitable—American Civil War.