8.MARTIN VAN BUREN (Machines, Machines, they keep right on going)
Born: December 5, 1782, Kinderhook, New York
Died: July 24, 1862, Kinderhook, New York
Term: March 4, 1837- March 4, 1841
Political Party: Democrat
Vice President: Richard Johnson
First Lady: Angelica Singleton Van Buren (daughter in law 1838-1841)
Before the Presidency: Van Buren grew up in what I guess would be considered a middle class family by today’s standards. One of six children, the Van Buren’s were not rich, but they were affluent enough to own six slaves, still legal in New York in the late eighteenth century. The son of Dutch immigrants, he would be the first President not to have had British lineage. His father owned a tavern, and it would be frequented by various Government figures, giving the young Van Buren his first taste in politics.
Van Buren didn’t attend college but, as it turned out, he had connections. His father arranged to have him hired as a law clerk. He worked, more or less, as a gopher for seven years before gaining admission to the state bar in 1803. He, with his brother, opened a successful law practice and it wasn’t much longer after that when his political career began, joining the Democratic- Republicans in a Federalist dominated region. Van Buren, like his father, was a devoted Jeffersonian, and truly believed in a limited Government.
Van Buren was known for his political savvy as he latched on to the George Clinton bandwagon, sensing that Aaron Burr’s star was fading (this was about the time of the Hamilton-Burr duel). He was rewarded with his first political post in 1808.
His first elected office was in 1812 when he was elected to the New York State Senate. In New York, the Democratic-Republicans were divided into factions, something that distressed Van Buren. Nevertheless, he formed his own faction known as the Bucktails. They embraced Jeffersonian values while vehemently opposing the then most powerful Democrat- Republican in New York, Dewitt Clinton. It was his battles with this Clinton that sealed Van Buren’s reputation as an unscrupulous opportunist.
Van Buren, was, though most of the 1810’s, New York’s Attorney General, and his battles with Governor Clinton were somewhat legendary, at least in New York circles anyway.
Tragedy hit in 1819 when his wife passed away, but he nonetheless forged on and solidified his standing, probably not for the better, in New York politics. For he would head up one of the first party machines, derisively known as the Albany regency.
Now one of the most powerful politicians in New York, Van Buren was appointed to the US Senate in 1821 and very quickly became something of a Washington insider.
Van Buren was quite the powerful Senator as he was influential on the financial committee as well as chairing the Judicial Committee. He was frustrated with the factions within his own party, however, as truly believed in party unity, even though he was still something of a machine boss in his own home state.
In the bizarre election of 1824, Van Buren backed Crawford, feeling that he shared Van Buren’s Jeffersonian beliefs. He didn’t win the Presidency, obviously, and Van Buren was infuriated when the House voted in John Quincy Adams by way of the “corrupt bargain.” As such he led the opposition to Adams’ policies in the Senate and became an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson (talk about a corrupt bargain).
And Jackson and Van Buren seemed to go hand in hand from 1828 on. Van Buren had been elected Governor of New York but Jackson asked him to be his Secretary of State, which Van Buren took gratefully.
The Jacksonians were now more or less simply called the Democratic Party but there were factions even within the White House. Van Buren was at odds with Vice President Calhoun. It all came to a head in the Peggy Eaton affair as it was especially Calhoun’s wife who found her beneath her standards for allegedly living in sin and such. Van Buren, on the other hand, was gracious towards the Eatons, having no issue with inviting them to his functions. Jackson appreciated this, and became one of his insiders as a result becoming part of Jackson’s kitchen cabinet along with John Eaton.
President Jackson, angry with his cabinet overall wanted to fire the whole lot. He reluctantly accepted the resignations of Van Buren and Eaton as they both thought it would make it easier for him to fire the rest of the cabinet. Van Buren subsequently would be appointed as Minister to England. That lasted six months as the Senate rejected his nomination. No matter, when election time came around in 1832, Jackson picked Van Buren as his running mate.
As Vice President, he supported Jackson’s war against the Bank of America though he did have some reservations about it. More importantly, he became something of a unifier within the Democratic Party itself and he was all but handpicked to be Jackson’s successor in 1836.
Summary of offices held:
1808-1813: Surrogate of Columbia County, New York
1813-1820: New York Senate
1815-1819: New York Attorney General
1821-1828: United States Senate
1829: Governor, New York
1829-1831: Secretary of State
1831-1832: Minister to United Kingdom
1833-1837: Vice President of the United States
What was going on: Panic of 1837, the telegraph, Amistad
Scandals within the administration: none that we know of
Why he was a good President: For the record, he wasn’t, but he did a decent job of keeping America out of war at least, even helping to end the Aroostook War in 1839.
Why he was a bad President: He did virtually nothing to alleviate the aftermath of the 1837 panic. And was perhaps the first President to learn the hard way that it was the economy, stupid. He was also way too busy trying to gauge the political wind, and even with that, he was pretty lousy.
What could have saved his Presidency: Being less concerned about his political ambitions and caring more about people would have helped. He could have done more to alleviate the hardships many Americans were feeling in the late 1830s. Not being an advocate of slavery despite once having owned slaves himself, maybe he could have stood up to the likes of Calhoun. I don’t think Van Buren was a true abolitionist but again, his political ambitions always got in the way of doing anything noble, or even brave.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: What didn’t? Jackson left him with a disastrous economy from which he couldn’t get from under. Then Jackson would later turn against him after Van Buren initially opposed the annexation of Texas, and for noble reasons actually. Anyway, there wasn’t much that could have destroyed the Presidency because it was already destroyed to begin with.
Election of 1836: The Democratic nomination was for Van Buren to lose and there was virtually no opposition to his nomination in 1836. Van Buren promised to continue the Jacksonian policies and there was no reason to doubt his sincerity, at least on that note.
Meanwhile, there was a new party on the horizon. They called themselves the Whigs. This relatively conservative group was led by figures such as Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. The Whigs were very anti- Jackson, seeing him as a wannabe monarch. Van Buren himself was being portrayed as nothing but a political hack. The Whigs were only forming and could not decide on one candidate, so they went with three, William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, and Hugh White.
As it was, Van Buren would have won even with one opponent, no doubt, thanks to the popularity of Jackson. 1836 was especially important, however, for setting the two party system standard that the US has to this day.
First term: Jackson’s shenanigans with the bank war came to its fruition just two months after Van Buren took office as the markets collapsed, setting of the panic of 1837. This was the biggest financial crisis to date and Americans wouldn’t suffer economically to this extent until the Great Depression nearly a century later. This, needless to say, made President van Buren not the most popular of Presidents almost from the start. It didn’t help that Van Buren believed in laissez-faire policies, which basically meant that the average American was on his own.
President van Buren came out against the annexation of Texas (can’t imagine that making Andrew Jackson’s day), mainly because he didn’t want to go to war with Mexico. He also didn’t want to go to war with Britain again either and he tolerated some of their actions such as the Caroline incident. The US Caroline had been transporting Canadian rebels (Canada was in its own revolution against the British it seems albeit on a lower level). The British seized the ship, killing one American in the process. Van Buren pledged neutrality nonetheless and even passed a Neutrality Act. It didn’t deter American sympathizers, however.
And, thanks to Steven Spielberg, many of us are aware of the Amistad incident. This was the Spanish slave ship that suffered a rebellion by the would be slaves. They ended up in the US and a legal battle was underway for their freedom. I don’t know how many of you saw the movie, but Van Buren is not seen in the finest light. Feeling the political wind (he was already thinking about his re-election) and pressured by the great beacon of human rights (yes, I’m being sarcastic, Batty), John Calhoun, Van Buren tried to rig it so the Africans could be sent to Cuba instead of being allowed to go home. Ultimately, the Supreme Court agreed with John Quincy Adams and the Africans went home.
And Van Buren lost his re-election bid anyway.
Election of 1840: And boy did he lose. This time the Whigs were united, and they nominated the popular general William Henry Harrison. Van Buren really didn’t stand much of a chance as the country was in the middle of a depression.
So, he lost in a landslide, but he didn’t give up the ghost.
Post Presidency: For he again tried for the Presidency in 1844 with the race wide open. The Democrats, however, said thanks but no thanks and went with James Polk instead. Originally opposed to the annexation of Texas (which most surely would have been a slave state), he waffled on the issue in hopes of gaining some support. It didn’t work. He then supported Polk, originally hoping to take advantage of the spoils system. That didn’t work either and he ended up on the outs with President Polk.
So, Van Buren would head a splinter group known as the Free- Soil party which was a combination of disgruntled Democrats as well as some unhappy Whigs. This was essentially an abolition party, and they never really got much traction.
He finally got out of politics after the 1848 election, traveling and writing mostly. He did write of political party organizing and would support President Lincoln’s decision to keep the Union together with force when Van Buren died in 1862.
Odd notes: He spoke English as a second language (He actually spoke Dutch as his first language)
The phrase OK became popular based on Van Buren’s nickname, Old Kinderhook
https://www.ducksters.com/biography/uspresidents/martinvanburen.php
Final Summary: With one eye always on the political front, Van Buren comes off as a bit of a pushover despite the fact that he was a pioneer in the dirty world of machine Politics, which New York would all but perfect as the century dragged on. He put his own ambitions in front of the welfare of people from the financial crisis to the subject of slavery, where he was, at best, ambivalent (he took a more anti-slavery stance after the Presidency). Indeed, the only noble thing he did that I could find was his kindness towards the Eatons during the Petticoat Affair ( I honestly think that’s the only thing he did that wasn’t politically motivated). It’s true that he was handed a pretty bad deck, but he didn’t seem to try to play it. I mean even Hoover at least tried to do something when the Great Depression hit, half hearted as those efforts may have been.
Needless to say, I don’t think Van Buren is one of our better Presidents. On the plus side and, from a personal standpoint at least, he didn’t share the same kind of blatant racism his predecessor had.
But, oh those minuses.
Overall rating: D
https://millercenter.org/president/vanburen