Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), eighth president of the United States, has been called the first national politician. He built an alliance between the "plain Republicans of the North" and the planters of the South and then launched the first truly national party.

Martin Van Buren executed with distinction the duties of many of the highest offices of the nation, including that of president, but he was always regarded more as a politician than a statesman. Considered a shrewd manipulator, he was consistent in advocating the principles of Jeffersonian Republicanism as defined in the Jacksonian democracy.

Born on Dec. 5, 1782, in the village of Kinderhook, N.Y., Van Buren was the son of a farmer and tavern keeper who was active in Antifederalist politics. Martin worked on the farm and attended local schools. At the age of 14 he became a clerk in a law office in Kinderhook and then in an office in New York City. Beginning in 1803, he prospered in law practice in Kinderhook with his half brother. In 1807 he married Hannah Hoes, and they had four sons. His wife died in 1819, and he never remarried.

Political Career

Van Buren was elected to the New York Senate in 1813 and 2 years later became attorney general. By the early 1820s he was leader of the organization that controlled government in New York for many years. He advocated moderate reforms in extending democracy. In 1821 he supported the virtual elimination of the property qualification for white manhood suffrage, but also the provision by which only black Americans who possessed freeholds of the clear value of $150 could vote.

In 1821 Van Buren was elected to the U.S. Senate and became a leader there. He supported Andrew Jackson in 1828 and resigned the governorship of New York to become Jackson's secretary of state. In that office Van Buren reached agreement with Great Britain, opening up its West Indian possessions to American trade, and secured payment from France for commercial injuries during the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1831 Van Buren resigned his office to allow the President to reconstitute the Cabinet. He was named minister to Great Britain, but this was not confirmed by the Senate. In 1832 he was elected vice president, and during the following 4 years he supported Jackson in all of his battles. In 1836 he received his party's nomination for president and was elected easily.

The President

In his inaugural address Van Buren observed that he was the first president who had not lived through the revolutionary struggle that created the nation and that he could not "expect his countrymen to weigh my actions with the same kind and partial hand." They did not. He condemned abolitionist propaganda and spoke against the "slightest interference" with slavery "in the states where it exists." In rhetoric common during those years, he said that Americans were without parallel throughout the world "in all the attributes of a great, happy, and flourishing people." Two months after his inauguration, however, a serious economic depression destroyed his popularity. He continued Jacksonian policies, trying to "mitigate the evils" which the banks produced and advocating an independent treasury for public funds, a measure enacted near the end of his term. In foreign affairs he had difficulty maintaining good relations with Great Britain because of the efforts of some Americans on the New York border to support the rebellion in Canada in 1837. He made no effort to annex Texas.

Van Buren was badly beaten in 1840 by the aging William Henry Harrison and retired to his farm at Kinderhook. Van Buren would undoubtedly have been the Democratic nominee in 1844 had not Texas become the dominant issue by that year. In the atmosphere of "manifest destiny" his views were not sufficiently expansionist, and although he had a majority of the votes at the party convention, he lacked the two-thirds required. The dark horse, James K. Polk, was nominated and elected, and he led the nation into aggressive war and territorial expansion.

Free Soil Party

Increasing Southern domination of the Democratic party drove Van Buren and his faction into opposition in 1848. In that year's election he was the candidate of the Free Soil party, opposing expansion of slavery. In New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire he received more votes than the Democratic candidate, but he carried no states and Zachary Taylor won the election for the Whigs.

Van Buren lost the support of the antislavery movement when he returned to the Democratic party in the 1850s. Without much enthusiasm he supported Franklin Pierce (1852), James Buchanan (1856), and Stephen A. Douglas (1860). But when the Civil War came, he supported Abraham Lincoln's government. Van Buren died on July 24, 1862.

Van Buren's remarkable political success was due to a combination of talents. He habitually thought in terms of political forces and was fertile in conceiving, and able in executing, plans to weaken the opposition and advance his own party. He wrote persuasively and was a good speaker. He was charming, cheerful, and always courteous and affable. Although an earnest advocate of his party's principles, he was essentially a moderate in government. On all the important issues of his time except the one which was most crucial, Van Buren played an important role; he vacillated on issues related to slavery and made no contribution toward resolving that problem.

Further Reading

Van Buren's Autobiography, edited by his sons, was republished in 1969. George Bancroft, historian and contemporary Democratic politician, wrote a laudatory life of Van Buren in the early 1840s that was published half a century later: Martin Van Buren to the End of His Public Career (1889). The best life is Edward M. Shepard, Martin Van Buren (1888; rev. ed. 1900), although written without some materials now available and occasionally dogmatic in its interpretations. There is no satisfactory modern biography.

An excellent scholarly monograph that critically assesses Van Buren's overall performance as president is James C. Curtis, The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837-1841 (1970). Robert V. Remini, who wrote a good study of Van Buren's career during the 1820s—Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959)—is at work on a comprehensive biography. Van Buren's election to the presidency is detailed in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., History of American Presidential Elections (4 vols., 1971). □

Martin Van Buren 1782–1862, 8th President of the United States (1837–41), b. Kinderhook, Columbia co., N.Y.

Early Career

He was reared on his father's farm, was educated at local schools, and after reading law was admitted (1803) to the bar. He practiced law successfully and soon became active in politics. After he was (1808–13) surrogate of Columbia co., he served (1813–20) in the state senate and became prominent in the state Democratic party. While still a senator Van Buren was made state attorney general in 1815, but because of his mounting rivalry with De Witt Clinton , the governor of New York, he was removed from this post in 1819. Meanwhile he had helped to secure the election (1816) of Daniel D. Tompkins as Vice President.

Van Buren served (1821–28) in the U.S. Senate, where he firmly backed the tariffs of 1824 and 1828. His record there was inconsistent as to states' rights , slavery, and internal improvements; this wavering was later brought up against him by his political enemies. Van Buren was far more important as a political leader than as a legislator. He organized the closely knit political group known as the Albany Regency and was a leading supporter of William H. Crawford , who ran for President in 1824. After the election of John Quincy Adams , Van Buren gradually swung his power to the support of Andrew Jackson .

A Jacksonian Democrat

Elected (1828) governor of New York state, Van Buren resigned in 1829, after Jackson had become President, to become his Secretary of State. Probably the most influential of Jackson's advisers, Van Buren, although essentially opposed to the doctrine of nullification , did not at first take a conspicuous part in the rising hostilities between Vice President John C. Calhoun and the President. Van Buren further strengthened his position with Jackson by being courteous to Peggy Eaton (see O'Neill, Margaret ). His resignation (1831) as Secretary of State brought about that of the other cabinet officers and enabled Jackson to eliminate the supporters of Calhoun from the cabinet. Jackson immediately appointed Van Buren minister to Great Britain, but the deciding vote of Calhoun in the Senate prevented him from being confirmed in the post.

Thoroughly in accord with Jackson's policies, Van Buren was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic party in 1832 and was elected to office along with President Jackson. It was largely through Jackson's influence that Van Buren was chosen as Democratic candidate for President in 1836. The Whig party was still in the formative stage, and there was no well-organized opposition; Van Buren, therefore, was easily swept into office.

Presidency

As President, Van Buren announced his intention of following Jackson's policies, but the Panic of 1837 and the hard times that followed brought Van Buren a great deal of unpopularity. To meet the economic crisis, Van Buren, wary of the existing banking system, backed after 1837 the Independent Treasury System . Not until 1840, however, did Congress pass measures establishing it. In foreign affairs, Van Buren attempted to conciliate differences with Great Britain arising out of the Caroline Affair and the Aroostook War .

Later Years

He was again the presidential candidate of the Democratic party in 1840, but he was defeated in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign by William Henry Harrison. The Whigs unfairly painted Van Buren as a man of great wealth who was ignorant of, and disdainful toward, the common people. In 1844, Van Buren was the leading possibility as Democratic candidate for the presidency, but he flatly opposed the annexation of Texas because he felt it would provoke war with Mexico and because he opposed the extension of slavery. Although he held a majority in the nominating convention, he was unable (largely as a result of the efforts of Robert J. Walker ) to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to win the nomination. Van Buren, bitterly disappointed, saw James K. Polk elected President.

He remained prominent in Democratic party politics, and helped lead the Barnburners in their violent struggle with the Hunkers . In 1848 he was the presidential candidate of the newly organized Free-Soil party and managed to take enough New York votes away from the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass , to aid Zachary Taylor , the Whig party candidate, in winning the election. He voted for the Democratic candidate in the elections of 1852, 1856, and 1860, but supported Abraham Lincoln during the secession crisis. An Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties of the United States (1867) was written by Van Buren, edited by one of his sons, and published posthumously.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1920, repr. 1973); biography by T. Widmer (2005); R. V. Remini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959, repr. 1970); J. C. Curtis, The Fox at Bay (1970).

VAN BUREN, MARTIN

Prominent political leader, U.S. senator, secretary of state, vice president, and eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren led the nation during its first major economic crisis. The New York native built a career based on machine politics—the control of local political power by a well-disciplined organization. Van Buren held top positions in his home state before entering national politics, where his instinct for party building helped create the democratic party in the 1820s. Elected vice president in 1832 and president in 1836, he sought to protect federal monetary reserves during the depression that began shortly after he took office.

Born in Kinderhook, New York, on December 5, 1782, Van Buren was the third of five children born to Dutch working-class parents. He began to study law at the early age of fourteen and gained admission to the New York bar four years later in 1803. He was elected to the New York legislature in 1812 and continued to be reelected until 1820. From 1816 until 1819, he also served as the state attorney general.

Van Buren's political views came directly from Jeffersonian Republicanism. Like thomas jefferson, he believed in states' rights and

opposed a strong federal government. During the early years of his career in New York, Van Buren controlled the so-called Albany Regency, a political machine that was very influential in state politics. Later, in the 1820s, he joined forces with andrew jackson and helped to forge the political alliances that would lead to the formation of the Democratic Party.

"Let them worry and fret and intrigue at Washington. Six weeks hence they will find themselves as wise as they were when they began."
—Martin Van Buren

As in state politics, Van Buren enjoyed steady success at the national level. He won election to the U.S. Senate in 1821 and retained his senatorial seat until 1828 when he became governor of New York. He resigned the office a mere twelve weeks later, however, to become secretary of state under President Jackson. His support of Jackson through the president's turbulent first

administration paid off: in 1832 Jackson chose Van Buren as his vice presidential running mate over the incumbent john c. calhoun, and the two were elected.

Van Buren's own election as president in 1836 was precipitated by crisis. Under the Jackson administration, land speculation had run rampant nationwide. When Congress failed to intervene, banks issued great numbers of loans without backing them up with security. The speculation continued until Jackson ordered the government to accept only gold or silver as payment on land. The result was the so-called Panic of 1837, a devastating financial crash that led to the first large-scale economic depression in U.S. history. By 1840 Van Buren had convinced Congress to pass the Independent Treasury Bill. It provided for federally controlled vaults to store all federal monies; transactions were to be conducted in hard currency. The independent treasury protected federal deposits until 1841, when it was abolished. President james k. polk brought it back in 1846.

Van Buren sought reelection in 1840, running as the only presidential candidate without a vice presidential candidate in history. Defeated by william henry harrison, he attempted to gain the Democratic nomination again in 1844 but was unsuccessful. His popularity had deteriorated both because of the depression and because of his positions on other domestic issues. He opposed the annexation of Texas, which he feared would precipitate a war with Mexico, and an expensive war against Seminole Indians in Florida. He tried once more to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1848 but was defeated again. He died on July 24, 1862, in Kinderhook, New York.

further readings

Leonard, Gerald. 2001. "Party as a 'Political Safeguard of Federalism': Martin Van Buren and the Constitutional Theory of Party Politics. Rutgers Law Review 54 (fall).

Mushkat, Jerome, and Joseph G. Rayback. 1997. Martin Van Buren: Law, Politics, and the Shaping of Republican Ideology. DeKalb: Northern Illinois Univ. Press.

Silbey, Joel H. 2002. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.

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

Van Buren, Martin (1782–1862)8th President of the United States (1837–1841). Born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1782, Van Buren studied law and became active in Democratic Party politics in New York. He served in the New York Senate (1812–1816), as Attorney General (1816–1819), as U.S. Senator (1821–1828), and as governor of New York (1828–1829), from which office he resigned in to become Secretary of State (1829–1831) under President Andrew Jackson. He subsequently served as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain before being elected Vice President in 1832. In 1836, he was elected President of the United States. He was defeated for reelection by William Henry Harrison in 1840 but remained active in politics and was the Free Soil candidate for President in 1848.

Van Buren, Martin (1782–1862) Eighth US President (1837–41). Van Buren served (1921–28) in the US Senate. As Andrew Jackson's secretary of state, his opposition to John C. Calhoun's idea of nullification earned him the vice-presidency (1832–36) and the Democratic nomination. An advocate of states' rights, his presidency plunged into crisis with the lack of federal intervention in the economic depression (1837). In foreign affairs, Van Buren sought conciliation with Great Britain over the Aroostook War. He was heavily defeated by William Henry Harrison in the 1840 presidential elections. Van Buren's rejection of the annexation of Texas and extension of slavery lost him the Democratic nomination in 1844.

Van Buren, Martin (1782–1862) US Democratic statesman, 8th President of the USA (1837–41). He was appointed Andrew Jackson's Vice-President in 1832 and became President five years later. His measure of placing government funds, previously held in private banks, in an independent treasury caused many Democrats to join the Whig party.