Donald Trump says he wants Canada as our 51st state. But he’s not the first American politician who’s yearned to unfurl the Stars and Stripes over our northern neighbor. Two centuries ago, Henry Clay, Kentucky’s greatest statesman, was gung ho for invading Canada, then a British possession.   “It is hard to escape the belief that Clay was the chief agent in forming the public opinion of the West in favor of a Canadian invasion,” wrote Ellery L. Hall in the October 1930 issue of the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.  Canada would be a pushover, the British-bashing Clay bragged in a U.S. Senate speech in February 1810. Bluegrass State troops could do the job by themselves, he claimed. Hall quoted Clay: “I trust I shall not be deemed presumptuous when I state I verily believe, that the militia, that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.” Portrait of Henry Clay, undated. (National Archives) With Clay’s blessing, American armies, which included a slew of eager Kentucky volunteers, marched into Canada during the War of 1812.  Clay apparently believed most Canadians would welcome the invaders as their liberators from British rule. They didn’t.  Canadian militiamen, some of whom were American loyalists who fled north during the Revolutionary War, were all too happy to help His Majesty’s regulars thrash the unwelcome Yankees and send them home. Last month, Trump claimed on Truth Social that “many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state,” according to The Hill. Canadian polling suggests otherwise. In a recent Leger survey, 82% of respondents said they didn’t want to join the U.S., while only 13%t said they did, The Miami Herald reported.  At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is sticking to his vow that his nation won’t become a U.S. state. “It’s not going to happen,” he warned.  Meanwhile, after filling out an unexpired Senate term, Clay, from Lexington, got elected to the U.S. House and became speaker. He led the War Hawks, a group of mostly young, Western and Southern congressmen who were spoiling for war against Great Britain.  Clay came to regret his boast about the Kentucky militia, according to Kentucky state historian and author James C. Klotter. “After several embarrassing defeats early in the conflict — mainly to a mix of British and Native forces, Kentuckians finally won a battle in Canada, at the [1813] Battle of the Thames, where the Indian leader Tecumseh was killed. But the invasion went no farther than a few miles inside the country,” Klotter said recently in an email. Klotter, a Clay biographer, added that the ill-fated Canadian foray helped turn “War Hawk Clay into a dove. He joined [future president] John Quincy Adams [and other U.S. emissaries] in the peace commission that ended an unpopular war.”  The Treaty of Ghent signed by U.S. and British representatives in Belgium on Christmas Eve in 1814, left Canada British. The “status quo antebellum” pact helped unify Canada, and Mother Britain gave up trying to force her wayward former American colonies back into the imperial family. After the war, Clay swore off saber-rattling. “Never again would he advocate for war as the best answer, and would, in fact, bitterly oppose the Mexican War,” Klotter said. (Henry Clay Jr. was killed in the 1846-1848 conflict.)  In addition, Clay brokered three compromises to preserve the Union and stave off civil war. Dubbed “‘the Great Compromiser,” he “died as the most respected political figure of his  generation,” Klotter said.  The historian declared that Trump is no Henry Clay, whose estate Ashland is preserved in his hometown where he is buried in the Lexington Cemetery. “Clay sought compromise, while Trump eschews it; Clay supported a union of all the American people, while Trump seems to be for only his supporters,” Klotter said. “Clay was a statesman, while Trump’s place in history remains uncertain.  “What is indisputable, however, is the fact that the nation could benefit from another Henry Clay.” The post Trump is not the first U.S. politician with designs on Canada appeared first on The Lexington Times.