Martin van Buren
Martin van Buren
Martin Van Buren, (born December 5, 1782, Kinderhook, New York, U.S.—died July 24, 1862, Kinderhook), eighth president of the United States (1837–41) and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. He was known as the “Little Magician” to his friends (and the “Sly Fox” to his enemies) in recognition of his reputed cunning and skill as a politician. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America.)
Van Buren, Martin
Van Buren, Martin
An overview of Martin Van Buren.
Early life
Van Buren was the third of five children born to Abraham Van Buren, a farmer and tavern keeper, and Maria Hoes Van Alen, both of Dutch descent; he also had one half sister and two half brothers on his mother’s side from her previous marriage. Martin, whose childhood nickname was “Little Mat,” began his education at the village school and later attended the Kinderhook Academy. After classes, he often helped in his father’s tavern, which was frequented by prominent lawyers and politicians, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. In 1796 he was apprenticed to the lawyer Francis Silvester, and at age 15 he participated in his first court case, which he won. After completing his legal studies in New York City, Van Buren returned to Kinderhook, where he opened a practice with his half-brother James Van Alen in 1803. In 1807 he married his cousin Hannah Hoes (Hannah Van Buren), with whom he had four children; Hannah died in 1819, and Van Buren never remarried.
Van Buren, Hannah Hannah Van Buren.
Political career: Senate and vice presidency
In 1812 Van Buren ran for a seat in the New York Senate; on the campaign trail, he opposed the Bank of the United States and supported the impending war with Great Britain over maritime rights. He was narrowly elected and served two terms (1812–20). During his tenure he was also appointed state attorney general, holding that post from 1815 to 1819.
Van Buren developed a reputation as a gifted politician, and his skill was apparent when he created the Albany Regency, an informal political organization in New York state that was a prototype of the modern political machine. It became a powerful force in state politics and helped ensure Van Buren’s election to the U.S. Senate in 1821. Van Buren, who regarded himself as a disciple of Thomas Jefferson, was a member of the Jeffersonian faction of the Republican Party. He supported the doctrine of states’ rights, opposed a strong federal government, and disapproved of federally sponsored internal improvements. After John Quincy Adams was elected president in 1824, Van Buren brought together a diverse coalition of Jeffersonian Republicans, including followers of Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and John C. Calhoun, to found a new political party, which was soon named the Democratic Party.
In 1828 Van Buren resigned his Senate seat and successfully ran for governor of New York. However, he gave up the governorship within 12 weeks to become Pres. Andrew Jackson’s secretary of state. In this role he was criticized for expanding the system of political patronage, though some later historians considered the criticism unfair. Resigning as secretary of state in 1831 to permit reorganization of the cabinet, he served briefly as minister to Great Britain.
In 1832 Van Buren was nominated for the vice presidency by the first national convention of the Democratic Party; he replaced John C. Calhoun as Pres. Jackson’s running mate. The two men ran on a platform that opposed the continued operation of the Bank of the United States. They easily defeatedthe National Republican ticket of Henry Clay and John Sergeant.
American presidential election, 1832 Results of the American presidential election, 1832Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data from the United States Office of the Federal Register and Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed. (2001)
Presidency
With Jackson’s endorsement, Van Buren was unanimously nominated for president in May 1835. In the election the following year, Van Buren defeated three candidates fielded by the splintered Whig Party, collecting 170 electoral votes to his opponents’ 124. A deadlock in the electoral college over the vice president ended with Jackson nominating Richard M. Johnson.
American presidential election, 1836 Results of the American presidential election, 1836Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data from the United States Office of the Federal Register and Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed. (2001).
When Van Buren took office in 1837, he became the first president who was born as a U.S. citizen. Almost immediately he faced a national financial panic brought about in part by the transfer of federal funds from the Bank of the United States to state banks during Jackson’s second term. In 1840 Van Buren’s proposal to move federal funds from state banks to an “independent treasury” was passed by Congress after a bitter struggle in which many conservative Democrats deserted to the new Whig Party.
Van Buren’s popularity was further eroded by the long and costly war with the Seminole Indians in Florida (the second of the Seminole Wars) and by his failure to support the proposed annexation of the newly independent state of Texas; Texas would have been admitted as a slave state, and Van Buren wanted to avoid any sectional conflicts that would further divide the country over the issue. In 1839, after a series of armed clashes between Americans and Canadians in disputed territory along the Maine–New Brunswick border (the Aroostook War), Van Buren dispatched Gen. Winfield Scott to restore order, and a permanent settlement was negotiated in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. In an effort to win the proslavery vote in the election of 1840, Van Buren sided against African slaves on trial in the United States for their part in the Amistad mutiny in 1839. However, the enduring economic crisis and the denial of statehood to Texas contributed to Van Buren being overwhelmingly defeated by the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, 234 to 60. One of Van Buren’s last acts before leaving office was to order that no person should work more than 10 hours a day on federal public works.
A political cartoon from the 1840 presidential campaign, in which Pres. Martin Van Buren, a Democrat, was defeated by the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison. The cartoon shows Van Buren driving a carriage called “Uncle Sam's Cab,” which wrecks on a pile of “Clay,” representing powerful Whig Sen. Henry Clay. Harrison, depicted as a locomotive, bears down on Van Buren.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C
Later years
Four years later the Democrats were bitterly divided over the question of the annexation of Texas, and Van Buren, who continued to oppose annexation, was passed over in favour of James K. Polk, who won the election on a platform calling for the annexation of both Texas and Oregon. In 1848 Van Buren ran as a candidate of the Free Soil Party, which included members of the antislavery factions of the Democratic Party (the “Barnburners”) and the Whig Party, but he received only 10 percent of the vote. He spent several years in Europe and then retired to his estate, Lindenwald, in Kinderhook.
Van Buren, Martin: 1848 campaign poster An 1848 campaign poster featuring Martin Van Buren (left) and Charles F. Adams, the Free-Soil Party presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Cabinet of Pres. Martin Van Buren
The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of Pres. Martin Van Buren.
Cabinet of President Martin Van BurenMarch 4, 1837–March 3, 1841State John Forsyth
Treasury Levi Woodbury
War Joel Roberts Poinsett
Navy Mahlon Dickerson
James Kirke Paulding (from July 1, 1838)
Attorney General Benjamin Franklin Butler
Felix Grundy (from September 1, 1838)
Henry Dilworth Gilpin (from January 11, 1840).
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