Van Buren, Martin

born Dec. 5, 1782, Kinderhook, N.Y., U.S.

died July 24, 1862, Kinderhook

Eighth president of the U.S. (1837–41).

He served in the New York Senate (1812–20) and as state attorney general (1816–19). An informal group of his political supporters came to be known as the Albany Regency because they dominated state politics even while Van Buren was in Washington. He was elected to the U.S. Senate (1821–28), where he supported states' rights and opposed a strong central government. After John Quincy Adams became president, he joined with Andrew Jackson and others to form a group that later became the Democratic Party. He was elected governor of New York (1828) but resigned to become U.S. secretary of state (1829–31). He was nominated for vice president at the first Democratic Party convention (1832) and served under Jackson (1833–37). As Jackson's chosen successor, he defeated William H. Harrison to win the 1836 election. His presidency was marked by an economic depression, the Maine-Canada border dispute (see Aroostook War), the Seminole Wars in Florida, and debate over the annexation of Texas. He was defeated in his bid for reelection and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844 because of his antislavery views. In 1848 he was nominated for president by the Free Soil Party but failed to win the election and retired.

Martin Van Buren, daguerreotype, с 1845–50.

Courtesy of Chicago Historical Society

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▪ president of United States

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 was the son of Abraham Van Buren, a farmer and tavern keeper, and Maria Hoes Van Alen, both of Dutch descent. Apprenticed to the lawyer Francis Silvester in 1796, Van Buren began his own practice in Kinderhook in 1803. In 1807 he married his cousin Hannah Hoes (Hannah Van Buren (Van Buren, Hannah)), with whom he had four children. Van Buren served two terms in the New York Senate (1812–20) and during his tenure was appointed state attorney general. After his election to the U.S. Senate in 1821, he created the Albany Regency, an informal political organization in New York state that was a prototype of the modern political machine.

      Van Buren regarded himself as a disciple of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Thomas). As 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 (Adams, John Quincy) was elected president in 1824, Van Buren brought together a diverse coalition of Jeffersonian Republicans, including followers of Andrew Jackson (Jackson, Andrew), William H. Crawford (Crawford, William H), and John C. Calhoun (Calhoun, John C), 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 President Andrew Jackson (Jackson, Andrew)'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.

  Cabinet of President Martin Van BurenNominated for the vice presidency in 1832 by the first national convention of the Democratic Party, Van Buren was elected with Jackson on a ticket opposing the continued operation of the Bank of the United States. 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. (See primary source document: Inaugural Address (Martin Van Buren: Inaugural Address). See also Cabinet of President Martin Van Buren.) He took office in 1837, at the onset of 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 (see primary source document: Against Government Aid for Business Losses (Martin Van Buren: Against Government Aid for Business Losses)). 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. 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 General Winfield Scott (Scott, Winfield) to restore order, and a permanent settlement was negotiated in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (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. One of Van Buren's last acts in office was to order that no person should work more than 10 hours a day on federal public works.

 Unanimously renominated by the Democrats in 1840, Van Buren was overwhelmingly defeated by the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison (Harrison, William Henry). Four years later the Democrats were bitterly divided over the question of the annexation of Texas, and Van Buren, who opposed annexation, was passed over in favour of James K. Polk (Polk, James K.), 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.

Additional Reading

Works written by Van Buren include the memoirs he wrote in 1833, The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren, ed. by John C. Fitzpatrick (1920, reprinted in 2 vol., 1973), and Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States, ed. by Abraham Van Buren and John Van Buren (1867, reprinted 1967).Biographies include Edward M. Shepard, Martin Van Buren, rev. ed. (1899, reprinted 1983); Robert V. Remini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959, reissued 1970); John Niven, Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics (1983); and Donald B. Cole, Martin Van Buren and the American Political System (1984).James C. Curtis, The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837–1841 (1970); and Major L. Wilson, The Presidency of Martin Van Buren (1984), analyze the activities and policies of the Van Buren administration.

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