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Martin Van Buren

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Martin Van Buren
   Martin Van Buren
     __________________________________________________________________

   8th President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1837 –  March 4, 1841
   Vice President(s)   Richard M. Johnson
   Preceded by Andrew Jackson
   Succeeded by William Henry Harrison
     __________________________________________________________________

   8th Vice President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1833 –  March 4, 1837
   President Andrew Jackson
   Preceded by John C. Calhoun
   Succeeded by Richard M. Johnson
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born December 5, 1782
   Kinderhook, New York
   Died July 24, 1862
   Kinderhook, New York
   Political party Democratic-Republican, Democratic, and Free Soil
   Spouse Widowed Hannah Hoes Van Buren (daughter-in-law Angelica Van
   Buren was first lady)
   Religion Dutch Reformed or unknown
   Signature

   Martin Van Buren ( December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old
   Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States. He was a key
   organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second
   Party System, and the first president who was not of English, Irish, or
   Scottish descent. He is also the only president not to have spoken
   English as his first language, but rather grew up speaking Dutch.

   He was the first of a series of eight presidents between Andrew Jackson
   and Abraham Lincoln who served one term or less. He also was one of the
   central figures in developing modern political organizations. As Andrew
   Jackson's Secretary of State and then Vice-President, he was a key
   figure in building the organizational structure for Jacksonian
   democracy, particularly in New York State. However, as a President, his
   administration was largely characterized by the economic hardship of
   his time, the Panic of 1837. Between the bloodless Aroostook War and
   the Caroline Affair, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada
   also proved to be strained. Whether or not these are directly his
   fault, Van Buren was voted out of office after four years, with a close
   popular vote but a rout in the electoral vote. In 1848 he ran for
   president on third party ticket, the Free Soil party.

Biography

   Van Buren was born in the village of Kinderhook, New York,
   approximately 25 miles south of Albany, the state capital, as the third
   of five children. His great-great-great-great-grandfather Cornelis had
   come to the New World in 1631 from the Netherlands. His father was
   Abraham Van Buren ( February 17, 1737– April 8, 1817), a farmer and
   popular tavern-master. His mother was Maria Goes Hoes ( February 27,
   1743– February 16, 1817), a widow who had three sons from a previous
   relationship.

   Van Buren was educated at the common schools and at Kinderhook Academy.
   In 1796, he began the study of law, completing his preparation in 1802
   in New York City, where he studied under William Peter van Ness. In
   1803, he was admitted to the bar and continued an active and successful
   practice for 26 years.

   On February 21, 1807, he married Hannah Hoes, a maternal cousin.

   His practice made him wealthy and paved the way for his entrance into
   politics. New York politics after 1800, the year of the election of
   Thomas Jefferson and the downfall of the Federalists, were particularly
   intense and wretched. The Democratic-Republicans were divided into
   three factions: followers of George Clinton (and later of his nephew,
   De Witt Clinton), Robert R. Livingston, and Aaron Burr. Federalist
   control after 1799 depended upon coalition with one or other of these
   groups. Van Buren, who allied himself early with the Clintonians, was
   surrogate of Columbia County from 1808 until 1813, when he was removed.
   In 1812, he entered the state Senate, and he also became a member of
   the Court for the Correction of Errors, the highest court in New York
   until 1847.

Early political career

New York State Politics

   Van Buren's birthplace
   Enlarge
   Van Buren's birthplace

   As a member of the state Senate, he supported the War of 1812 and drew
   up a classification act for the enrollment of volunteers. He broke with
   DeWitt Clinton in 1813 and tried to find a way to oppose Clinton's plan
   for the Erie Canal in 1817. Van Buren supported a bill that raised
   money for the canal through state bonds, and the bill quickly passed
   through the legislature with the help of his Tammany Hall compatriots.
   When the 96-mile stretch of the Erie Canal from Utica to Syracuse, New
   York opened in 1819, Van Buren tried to take credit away from Clinton
   and keep it for himself. His supporters guaranteed money for the canal
   in 1821, and they drove Clinton from the governor's office. Van Buren's
   attitude towards slavery at the moment was shown by his vote, in
   January 1820, for a resolution opposing the admission of Missouri as a
   slave state (though he himself was a slave owner). In the same year, he
   was chosen a presidential elector. It is at this point that Van Buren's
   connection began with so-called "machine politics". He was the leading
   figure in the " Albany Regency," a group of politicians who for more
   than a generation dominated much of the politics of New York and
   powerfully influenced those of the nation. The group, together with the
   political clubs such as Tammany Hall that were developing at the same
   time, played a major rôle in the development of the " spoils system" a
   recognized procedure in national, state and local affairs. Van Buren
   did not originate the system but gained the nickname of "Little
   Magician" for the skill with which he exploited it. He served also as a
   member of the state constitutional convention, where he opposed the
   grant of universal suffrage and tried to keep property requirements.

U.S. Senate and National Politics

   Image:martin van buren_stamp.JPG

   In February 1821, Van Buren was elected to the United States Senate.
   Van Buren at first favored internal improvements and in 1824 proposed a
   constitutional amendment to authorize such undertakings. The next year,
   however, he took ground against them. He voted for the tariff of 1824
   then gradually abandoned the protectionist position, coming out for
   "tariffs for revenue only."

   In the presidential election of 1824, Van Buren supported William H.
   Crawford and received the electoral vote of Georgia for vice-president,
   but he shrewdly kept out of the acrimonious controversy which followed
   the choice of John Quincy Adams as President. Van Buren had originally
   hoped to block Adams' victory by denying him the state of New York (the
   state was divided between Van Buren supporters who would vote for
   William H. Crawford and Adams' men). However, Representative Stephen
   Van Rensselear swung New York to Adams and thereby the 1824 Presidency.
   He recognized early the potential of Andrew Jackson as a presidential
   candidate.

   After the election, Van Buren sought to bring the Crawford and Jackson
   followers together and strengthened his control as a leader in the
   Senate. Always notably courteous in his treatment of opponents, he
   showed no bitterness toward either John Quincy Adams or Henry Clay, and
   he voted for Clay's confirmation as Secretary of State, notwithstanding
   Jackson's " corrupt bargain" charge. At the same time, he opposed the
   Adams-Clay plans for internal improvements and declined to support the
   proposal for a Panama Congress. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
   he brought forward a number of measures for the improvement of judicial
   procedure and, in May 1826, joined with Senator Thomas Hart Benton in
   presenting a report on executive patronage. In the debate on the "
   tariff of abominations" in 1828, he took no part but voted for the
   measure in obedience to instructions from the New York legislature—an
   action which was cited against him as late as the presidential campaign
   of 1844.

   Van Buren was not an orator, but his more important speeches show
   careful preparation and his opinions carried weight; the oft-repeated
   charge that he refrained from declaring himself on crucial questions is
   hardly borne out by an examination of his senatorial career. In
   February 1827, he was re-elected to the Senate by a large majority. He
   became one of the recognized managers of the Jackson campaign, and his
   tour of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia in the spring of 1827 won
   support for Jackson from Crawford. Calling it a "substantial
   reorganization of the old Republican party," Van Buren helped create a
   grassroots style of politicking that we often see today. At the state
   level, Jackson's committee chairmen would split up the responsibilities
   around the state and organize volunteers at the local level. "Hurra
   Boys" would plant hickory trees (in honour of Jackson's nickname, "Old
   Hickory") or hand out hickory sticks at rallies. Van Buren even had a
   New York journalist write a campaign piece portraying Jackson as a
   humble, pious man. "Organization is the secret of victory," an editor
   in the Adams camp wrote. "By the want of it we have been overthrown."
   In 1828, Van Buren was elected governor of New York for the term
   beginning on January 1, 1829, and resigned his seat in the Senate.

The Jackson Cabinet

   However on March 5, he was appointed by President Jackson as Secretary
   of State, an office which probably had been assured to him before the
   election, and he resigned the governorship. He was succeeded in the
   governorship by his Lieutenant Governor, Enos T. Throop, a member of
   the regency. As secretary of state, Van Buren took care to keep on good
   terms with the "kitchen cabinet," the group of politicians who acted as
   Jackson's advisers. He won the lasting regard of Jackson by his
   courtesies to Mrs. John H. Eaton ( Peggy Eaton), wife of the Secretary
   of War, with whom the wives of the cabinet officers had refused to
   associate. He did not oppose Jackson in the matter of removals from
   office but was not himself an active "spoilsman". He skillfully avoided
   entanglement in the Jackson- Calhoun imbroglio.
   1832 Whig cartoon shows Jackson carrying Van Buren into office
   Enlarge
   1832 Whig cartoon shows Jackson carrying Van Buren into office

   No diplomatic questions of the first magnitude arose during Van Buren's
   service as secretary, but the settlement of long-standing claims
   against France was prepared and trade with the British West Indies
   colonies was opened. In the controversy with the Bank of the United
   States, he sided with Jackson. After the breach between Jackson and
   Calhoun, Van Buren was clearly the most prominent candidate for the
   vice-presidency.

Vice-Presidency

   In December 1829, Jackson had already made known his own wish that Van
   Buren should receive the nomination. In April 1831, Van Buren resigned
   from his secretary of state position, though he did not leave office
   until June. In August, he was appointed minister to the Court of St.
   James (United Kingdom), and he arrived in London in September. He was
   cordially received, but in February, he learned that his nomination had
   been rejected by the Senate on January 25. The rejection, ostensibly
   attributed in large part to Van Buren's instructions to Louis McLane,
   the American minister to England, regarding the opening of the West
   Indies trade, in which reference had been made to the results of the
   election of 1828, was in fact the work of Calhoun, the vice-president.
   And when the vote was taken, enough of the majority refrained from
   voting to produce a tie and give Calhoun his longed-for "vengeance." No
   greater impetus than this could have been given to Van Buren's
   candidacy for the vice-presidency.

   After a brief tour on through Europe, Van Buren reached New York on
   July 5, 1832. In May, the Democratic convention, the first held by that
   party, had nominated him for vice-president on the Jackson ticket,
   despite the strong opposition to him which existed in many states. No
   platform was adopted because the widespread popularity of Jackson was
   being relied upon to succeed at the polls. His declarations during the
   campaign were vague regarding the tariff and unfavorable to the United
   States Bank and to nullification, but he had already somewhat placated
   the South by denying the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the
   District of Columbia without the consent of the slave states.

Election of 1836

   In the election of 1832, the Jackson-Van Buren ticket won by a
   landslide. When the election of 1836 came up, Jackson was determined to
   make Van Buren, his personal choice, president in order to continue his
   legacy. Martin Van Buren's only competitors in the 1836 election were
   the Whigs, who were badly split. They were split into several regional
   candidates. William Henry Harrison hoped to receive the support of the
   Western voters, Daniel Webster had strength in New England, and Hugh
   Lawson White had support in the South. In May 1835, Van Buren was
   unanimously nominated by the Democratic convention at Baltimore. He
   expressed himself plainly on the questions of slavery and the bank at
   the same time voting, perhaps with a touch of bravado, for a bill
   offered in 1836 to subject abolition literature in the mails to the
   laws of the several states. Van Buren's presidential victory
   represented a broader victory for Jackson and the party.

Presidency 1837-1841

Policies

   Martin Van Buren announced his intention "to follow in the footsteps of
   his illustrious predecessor," and retained all but one of Jackson's
   cabinet. Van Buren had few economic tools to deal with the economic
   crisis of 1837. He succeeded in setting up a system of bonds for the
   national debt. His party was so split that his 1837 proposal for an
   "Independent Treasury" system did not pass until 1840. It gave the
   Treasury control of all federal funds and had a legal tender clause
   that required (by 1843) all payments to be made in legal tender rather
   than in state bank notes. But the act was repealed in 1841 and never
   had much impact. Foreign affairs were complicated when several states
   defaulted on their state bonds, London complained, and Washington
   explained it had no responsibility for those bonds. British authors
   such as Charles Dickens then denounced the American failure to pay
   royalties, leading to a negative press in Britain regarding the
   financial honesty of America. The Caroline Affair involved Canadian
   rebels using New York bases to attack the government in Canada. On
   December 29, 1837, Canadian government forces crossed the frontier into
   the US and burned the Caroline, which the rebels had been using. One
   American was killed, and an outburst of anti-British sentiment swept
   through the U.S. Van Buren sent the army to the frontier and closed the
   rebel bases. Van Buren tried to vigorously enforce the neutrality laws,
   but American public opinion favored the rebels. Boundary disputes in
   May brought Canadian and American lumberjacks into conflict. There was
   no bloodshed in this Aroostook War, but it further inflamed public
   opinion on both sides.

   In the Amistad Case Van Buren sided with the Spanish Government to
   return the kidnapped slaves. Also, the " Trail of Tears" Cherokee
   removal in 1838 from the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and
   North Carolina to the Oklahoma territory occurred.

   Van Buren took the blame for hard times, as Whigs ridiculed him as
   Martin Van Ruin. Van Buren's rather elegant personal style was also an
   easy target for Whig attacks, such as the Gold Spoon Oration. State
   elections of 1837 and 1838 were disastrous for the Democrats, and the
   partial economic recovery in 1839 was offset by a second commercial
   crisis in that year. Nevertheless, Van Buren controlled his party and
   was unanimously renominated by the Democrats in 1840. The revolt
   against Democratic rule led to the election of William Henry Harrison,
   the Whig candidate.

Administration and Cabinet

   OFFICE                    NAME               TERM
   President                 Martin Van Buren   1837–1841
   Vice President            Richard M. Johnson 1837–1841
   Secretary of State        John Forsyth       1837–1841
   Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury      1837–1841
   Secretary of War          Joel Poinsett      1837–1841
   Attorney General          Benjamin Butler    1837–1838
                             Felix Grundy       1838–1840
                             Henry D. Gilpin    1840–1841
   Postmaster General        Amos Kendall       1837–1840
                             John M. Niles      1840–1841
   Secretary of the Navy     Mahlon Dickerson   1837–1838
                             James K. Paulding  1838–1841

Later life

   Free Soil campaign banner
   Enlarge
   Free Soil campaign banner

   On the expiration of his term, Van Buren retired to his estate,
   Lindenwald in Kinderhook, where he planned out his return to the White
   House. He seemed to have the advantage for the nomination in 1844; his
   famous letter of April 27, 1844, in which he frankly opposed the
   immediate annexation of Texas, though doubtless contributing greatly to
   his defeat, was not made public until he felt practically sure of the
   nomination. In the Democratic convention, though he had a majority of
   the votes, he did not have the two-thirds which the convention
   required, and after eight ballots his name was withdrawn. James K. Polk
   received the nomination instead.

   In 1848, he was nominated by two minor parties, first by the "
   Barnburner" faction of the Democrats, then by the Free Soilers, with
   whom the "Barnburners" coalesced. He won no electoral votes, but took
   enough votes in New York to give the state -- and perhaps the election
   -- to Zachary Taylor. In the election of 1860, he voted for the fusion
   ticket in New York which was opposed to Abraham Lincoln, but he could
   not approve of President Buchanan's course in dealing with secession
   and eventually supported Lincoln.

   After being bedridden with a case of pneumonia since the fall of 1861,
   Martin Van Buren died of bronchial asthma and heart failure at his
   Lindenwald estate in Kinderhook at 2:00 a.m. on July 24, 1862. He is
   buried in the Kinderhook Cemetery.

Trivia

     * Van Buren had several different nicknames during his lifetime,
       including Martin Van Ruin, Log Cabin Democrat and The Little
       Magician. He was also known as "The Red Fox of Kinderhook" because
       of his bright red hair and slyness.

     * During Van Buren's presidential campaign of 1836 supporters
       popularized his nickname "Old Kinderhook," which was abbreviated as
       "OK." "OK Clubs" were set up. This has been argued as a possible
       origin of the expression " OK," although more plausible
       etymological explanations exist.

     * In Gore Vidal's novel Burr, Van Buren is secretly the illegitimate
       son of Aaron Burr.

     * In a popular episode of Seinfeld entitled the "Van Buren Boys"
       Kramer and George are threatened by a street gang called the Van
       Buren Boys with the secret sign of the number 8 because Van Buren
       was the 8th president. They apparently picked that name as he was
       "The meanest president".

     * In the 2000 PBS documentary series The American President, Van
       Buren's voice was provided by Mario Cuomo. ( ). In the 1997 film
       Amistad, he was played, more conventionally, by Nigel Hawthorne.

     * Van Buren was the first President born after the signing of the
       Declaration of Independence ( 1782), thus technically making him
       the first true American President, the first seven Presidents being
       born British subjects.

     * His granddaughter Ellen Van Buren was the wife of Manhattan
       physician Stuyvesant Fish Morris

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