- Martin Van Buren, about 1845–50.
(1782–1862). Martin Van Buren was a founder of the Democratic Party and the eighth president of the United States. A lawyer before he entered politics, Van Buren used the careful thinking and persuasion that he learned in his law work in his political career. In recognition of his skill and scheming as a politician, he was called the Little Magician by his friends and the Sly Fox by his enemies. Today Van Buren is regarded as having been a sound statesman in a troubled era. Early lifeMartin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in Kinderhook, a village 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Albany, New York. He was the son of Abraham Van Buren, a farmer and tavern keeper, and Maria Hoes Van Alen. Both of his parents were of Dutch descent. The family struggled to make ends meet. Martin went to the village school and then to Kinderhook Academy. After classes he usually had to deliver farm produce or help at the tavern. After finishing school at age 14, Van Buren was apprenticed to a village lawyer. He began his own law practice in Kinderhook in 1803. In 1807 he married Hannah Hoes, a distant cousin. They had four sons. State and national politicsVan Buren soon became a successful lawyer, but politics was his chief interest. From 1812 to 1820 he served two terms in the New York Senate. During this time he also was appointed state attorney general. Van Buren became a leader of the so-called Albany Regency, the political machine that ran the state. He entered national politics with his election to the United States Senate in 1821. Van Buren regarded himself as a follower of Thomas Jefferson. As a Jeffersonian member of the Republican Party, he opposed a strong federal government. In the mid-1820s Van Buren brought together other Jeffersonian Republicans, including followers of Andrew Jackson, to found a new political party. It was soon named the Democratic Party. In 1828 Van Buren resigned his Senate seat and successfully ran for governor of New York. He held this post for only three months before resigning to become secretary of state in President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet. Van Buren left the Cabinet in 1831 to serve briefly as minister to Great Britain. When Jackson was reelected president in 1832, Van Buren became vice president. In 1835 Jackson ordered the Democratic Party to nominate Van Buren for president. He won the presidential election of 1836. PresidencyVan Buren's administration was difficult. Soon after he took office, a financial crisis struck the nation. Many banks and businesses failed. Bankers repeatedly asked Van Buren for aid. The president insisted, however, that government involvement would only worsen the situation. As a step to guard the nation's own money, he urged Congress to set up an independent treasury. After a bitter struggle, Congress passed his proposal in 1840. Van Buren's popularity was further eroded by a long and costly war with the Seminole Indians in Florida. The battle had started in 1835, during Jackson's term, and continued until 1842. Van Buren also faced widespread anger over his failure to annex, or attach, the newly independent state of Texas to the United States. Van Buren successfully handled border fighting between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, over Maine's northeast boundary. Van Buren sent in federal troops to restore order. The United States and Britain eventually settled the conflict through a treaty. Defeat and retirementVan Buren was overwhelmingly defeated by William Henry Harrison in the presidential election of 1840. In 1848 Van Buren was again nominated for the presidency, this time by the Free Soil Party. Again he was decisively defeated. He spent several years in Europe and then retired to his estate, Lindenwald, in Kinderhook. He died at Lindenwald on July 24, 1862. |