Martin Van Buren (1782-1862)/biography

Martin Van Buren ( –  ), nicknamed Old , was the eighth  from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency he served as the eighth (1833-1837) and the 10th  under. He was a key organizer of the, a dominant figure in the , and the first president who was not of English, Irish, Welsh, or Scottish descent. Van Buren was the first President who did not experience the firsthand. He is also the only president not to have spoken English as a first language, having grown up speaking.

Van Buren was the first of a series of eight presidents between and  who served one term or less. He also was one of the central figures in developing modern political organizations. As 's Secretary of State and then Vice President, he was a key figure in building the organizational structure for, particularly in New York State. However, as a President, his administration was largely characterized by the economic hardship of his time, the. Between the bloodless and the, 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 a third party ticket, the.

Biography
Martin Van Buren was born in the village of, , approximately 25 miles south of , the , as the third of five children. His great-great-great-great-grandfather Cornelis had come to the New World in 1631 from the. His father was Abraham Van Buren (, –, ), a farmer and popular -master. His mother was Maria Hoes Van Allen (, –, ), a widow who had three sons from a previous relationship. Van Buren was educated at the s and at. In 1796, he began the study of law, completing his preparation in 1802 in, where he studied under. In 1803, he was admitted to the and continued an active and successful practice for 26 years. On, , he married , a maternal cousin. Hannah died in 1819, before her husband became President (and, therefore, never became ).

His practice made him wealthy and paved the way for his entrance into politics. He allied himself with the Clintonian faction of the, and was surrogate of from 1808 until 1813, when he was removed. In 1812, he became a member of the. In 1817 Martin Van Buren created the first political machine encompassing all of New York, the whose leaders became known later as the, and he was the prime architect of the first nationwide political party: the. In Van Buren's own words: "Without strong national political organizations, there would be nothing to moderate the prejudices between free and slaveholding states"("Martin Van Buren" 103-114).

Actually, he was from Massachusetts and his son was really president too. Nevertheless, Jack is lying and sucks major balls, unlike Van Buren, who was born in New York, idiots.

New York State Politics
As a member of the state Senate, he supported the and drew up a classification act for the enrollment of volunteers. He broke with in 1813 and tried to find a way to oppose Clinton's plan for the  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 to  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 at the moment was shown by his vote, in January 1820, for a resolution opposing the admission of  as a slave state (though he himself was a slave owner). In the same year, he was chosen a presidential. It is at this point that Van Buren's connection began with so-called "machine politics". He was the leading figure in the "," 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 that were developing at the same time, played a major role in the development of the "" a recognized procedure in national, state and local affairs. The Bucktails became a loyal faction with a large amount of party loyalty, and through their actions they were able to capture and control many patronage posts throughout New York. 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, where he opposed the grant of universal suffrage and tried to keep property requirements.

U.S. Senate and National Politics
In February 1821, Van Buren was elected to the. 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 of 1824 then gradually abandoned the protectionist position, coming out for "tariffs for revenue only."

In the, Van Buren supported and received the electoral vote of  for , but he shrewdly kept out of the acrimonious controversy which followed the choice of  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 and Adams' men). However, Representative swung New York to Adams and thereby the 1824 Presidency. He recognized early the potential of 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 or, and he voted for Clay's confirmation as , notwithstanding Jackson's "" 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 in presenting a report on executive patronage. In the debate on the "" in 1828, he took no part but voted for the measure in obedience to instructions from the New York legislature&mdash;an action which was cited against him as late as the.

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, the , and in the spring of 1827 won support for Jackson from Crawford. Van Buren sought to reorganize and unify "the old Republican party" behind Jackson. Van Buren helped create a grassroots style of politicking that is often seen 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 honor 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 for the term beginning on January 1, 1829, and resigned his seat in the Senate.

Van Buren's tenure as NY governor is the second shortest on record, and nothing of note took place.

The Jackson Cabinet
On, he was appointed by President Jackson as , 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,, 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, wife of the , 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- imbroglio.



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 colonies was opened. In the controversy with the, 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, as a result of the - though he did not leave office until June. However, Van Buren still played a part in the Kitchen Cabinet. In August, he was appointed minister to the Court of St. James, 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. The rejection, ostensibly attributed in large part to Van Buren's instructions to, 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 , 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,. The (the party's first), held in May of that year, 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, but he had already somewhat placated the South by denying the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the without the consent of the slave states.

Election of 1836
It took Van Buren and his partisan friends a decade and a half to form the Democratic Party; many elements, such as the national convention, were borrowed from other parties. In the, 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 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. Van Buren was nominated by the  at. 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 literature in the mails to the laws of the several states. Van Buren's represented a broader victory for Jackson and the party. Van Buren entered the White House as a fifty-five year old widower with four sons.

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. Van Buren advocated lower tariffs and free trade, and by doing so maintained support of the south for the Democratic party. 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 then denounced the American failure to pay royalties, leading to a negative press in Britain regarding the financial honesty of America. The involved Canadian rebels using New York bases to attack the government in Canada. On, , 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, but it further inflamed public opinion on both sides.

In a bold step, Van Buren reversed Andrew Jackson's policies and sought for peace at home, as well as abroad. Instead of settling a financial dispute between American citizens and the Mexican government by force, Van Buren wanted to seek a diplomatic solution. Also, in August of 1837, Van Buren denied Texas's formal request to join the United States. "Van Buren gave a higher priority to sectional harmony than to territorial expansion" ("Martin Van Buren" 103-114). In the Van Buren sided with the Spanish Government to return the kidnapped slaves. Also, he oversaw the "", which involved the expulsion of the in 1838 from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina to the Oklahoma territory. Van Buren was determined to avoid war.

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. 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 of, the  candidate.

In 1839,, the founder of the visited Van Buren to plead for the U.S. to help roughly 40,000 Mormon settlers of Independence, Missouri, who had been attacked, killed, raped, and run out of the state from their lands (eventually settling in Utah). The Governor of Missouri,, had issued an executive order on , known as the "". It authorized Missourians to "exterminate" Mormons and encouraged them to do so. Smith and his party begged Van Buren to intercede for the Mormons. He reportedly told Smith, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you. If I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri." "Van Buren entered the presidency not only as the heir to Jackson's policies, Jefferson's ideology of limited government, and Smith's principles of political economy, but also an accomplished politician with a statesmanlike vision of the dangers facing the nation. This complex heritage would shape the new president's response to the multiple challenges of 1837."("Martin Van Buren" 103-114)

Joseph Smith told Van Buren that if he did not help the Mormons, he would lose the election by a landslide. Interestingly enough, Van Buren was crushed in the 1840 election, managing to win the electors of only seven states. One of the seven was Missouri.

Supreme Court appointments
Van Buren appointed the following Justices to the :


 * - 1837
 * - 1838
 * - 1842

Later life


On the expiration of his term, Van Buren retired to his estate, 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, , in which he frankly opposed the immediate annexation of , 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. received the nomination instead.

In 1848, he was nominated by two minor parties, first by the "" faction of the Democrats, then by the, with whom the "Barnburners" coalesced. He won no electoral votes, but took enough votes in New York to give the state &mdash; and perhaps the election &mdash; to. In the election of 1860, he voted for the ticket in New York which was opposed to, but he could not approve of  course in dealing with secession and eventually supported Lincoln.

After being bedridden with a case of pneumonia during the fall of 1861, Martin Van Buren died of bronchial and  at his Lindenwald estate in Kinderhook at 2:00 a.m. on,. He is buried in the.

Trivia
. The first seven Presidents were born as British subjects. was also born during British rule.
 * In 1842, Van Buren was campaigning in Indiana. In the town of Plainfield, the former President was ejected from his carriage by the roots of an elm tree into a large puddle of mud.  Sources say that the townsfolk did this on purpose to protest a bill Van Buren vetoed.  The elm tree became known as the Van Buren elm, and a nearby elementary school now bears Van Buren's name.
 * Van Buren was given epithets by his enemies including Martin Van Ruin, 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 1840 supporters popularized his nickname "Old Kinderhook," which was abbreviated as "OK." "OK Clubs" were set up. It is possible that this helped popularize "".
 * In 's novel ,'' Van Buren is secretly the illegitimate son of.
 * In a popular episode of entitled ","  and  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 because Van Buren was the man they most admired. The gang is apparently "every bit as mean as he was".
 * Along with the traditional vampire motiff, Martin Van Buren's look was also part of the inspiration for the appearance of the "Grandpa" character on the TV show,
 * In the 2000 documentary series The American President, Van Buren's voice was provided by .  .  In the 1997 film, he was played, more conventionally, by.
 * The popular webtoon has a bust of Martin Van Buren as a recurring joke.
 * Three famous descendants of his are singer, actor , and author.
 * Van Buren was the first president to grant an exclusive interview to a reporter,, of the in.