Van Buren, Martin

Van Buren, Martin (1782–1862), eighth president of the United States.Born in Kinderhook in New York's Hudson Valley, Martin Van Buren attended the local school and took a traditional path into public life, clerking for a judge. While he worked as a lawyer, his true profession became politics. By his early thirties he had twice won election to the state senate.

Settling in Albany, Van Buren zestfully joined the factional battles that marked New York politics in the 1820s. Active in the so‐called Albany Regency opposed to Governor DeWitt Clinton, he won election to the U.S. Senate in 1821 and reelection in 1828. In the Senate he supported state‐financed improvements and opposed the Bank of the United States, positions consistent with Andrew Jackson's politics. In a rapid series of changes he resigned his Senate seat, was elected governor of New York (1828), but resigned in 1829 to become Jackson's secretary of state, a post he filled successfully. In 1831 Jackson appointed him ambassador to Great Britain, but the Senate failed to confirm him. He was elected vice president in 1832, replacing John C. Calhoun, who had resigned amid political and personal differences with Jackson. A master of the spoils system in New York, he urged the patronage system on Jackson as well. Winning the 1836 Democratic presidential nomination, he defeated the Whig William Henry Harrison and three other Whig candidates.

As president, Van Buren sought to keep the Democratic party's northern and southern wings united amid rising antislavery agitation. He opposed ending slavery in the District of Columbia and any federal interference with slavery in the territories. Despite the clamor of southerners, however, he opposed the annexation of Texas, fearing war with Mexico. His wife Hannah having died in 1819, his daughter‐in‐law Angelica Van Buren served as White House hostess.

The severe depression of 1837 defined Van Buren's presidency. Rather than proposing public relief measures or increasing the money supply, Van Buren sought to protect government deposits from unstable and speculative state banks. His independent treasury bill proposed to create a central repository for federal funds and the government's financial transactions. Congress did not pass this bill until 1840, however, and repealed it in 1841.

Ridiculed as “Martin Van Ruin” and “Van, Van, a used‐up man,” Van Buren lost the 1840 election to Harrison and retired to New York. He reemerged in 1848, however, as the presidential candidate of the Free Soil party, pledged to “free soil, free labor, free speech [an allusion to congressional efforts to block antislavery petititons, and free men.” He came in a distant third behind the Whig Zachary Taylor and the Democrat Lewis Cass. Witty and charming, Van Buren also had a reputation for political manipulation captured in his nickname, “the Sly Fox.” He understood the importance of organized political parties and pursued politics as a career, not simply an avocation.
See also Antebellum Era; Bank of the United States, First and Second; Civil Service Reform; Depressions, Economic; Federal Government, Executive Branch: The Presidency; Fillmore, Millard; Texas Republic and Annexation.

Bibliography

Robert Remini , Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party, 1959.
Richard P. McCormick , The Second American Party System, 1966.
Donald B. Cole , Martin Van Buren and the American Political System, 1984.

Jean Harvey Baker