president martin van buren
eighth president of the united states
interesting facts
Martin Van Buren was the first United States President born after the United States won its independence.
quote
"Those who look to the action of this government for specific aid to the citizen to relieve embarrassments arising from losses by revulsions in commerce and credit, lose sight of the ends for which it was created, and the powers with which it is clothed. It was established to give security to us all. … It was not intended to confer special favors on individuals. … The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity." - Martin Van Buren in response to the Panic of 1837.
biography
In 1782, in the village of Kinderhook, New York, Martin Van Buren was born. His father, Abraham Van Buren served as town clerk and owned a tavern. He used his tavern frequently as a polling place in state and national elections. Since he was a staunch supporter of the Jeffersonian Party, which emphasized agrarianism, states' rights, and a limited national government, his son Martin absorbed these ideas. Thus, at an early age, Van Buren became acquainted with politicians, heard their discussions of issues and events, and presumably learned a great deal about history, politics, and the means by which men attempt to influence one another to achieve their political goals.
On February 21, 1807, Van Buren married his distant cousin Hannah Hoes. They had four sons: Abraham, Martin, John, and Smith Thompson. Abraham served as his father's secretary during his presidency, and John became attorney general of New York and a leader of the Free-Soil Party. After 12 years of marriage, Hannah Van Buren died of tuberculosis. Van Buren never remarried.
Early in his political career, Van Buren joined the Democratic-Republican Party. He began his career as state senate in 1816. He soon left this position to continue being a lawyer - his previous occupation. He was soon reelected to state senate. However, In 1821 Van Buren was elected to the U.S. Senate, the upper chamber of the Congress of the United States. Before departing for Washington, D.C., he established a political machine, called the Albany Regency, to run the state in his absence. A political machine is a tightly disciplined organization set up to ensure that a party or faction maintains control of political offices. Van Buren could set up the Regency because the revised constitution had placed a great deal of patronage, or the power to appoint people to political positions, in the hands of the Bucktails. The Albany Regency was the first statewide political machine in New York history. The Regency directed the political affairs of the party and of the state. Although Van Buren was away from New York for much of the remainder of his political career, he continued to be recognized as chief of the Regency.
In 1824, Van Buren campaigned William H. Crawford, the caucus nominee. It was probably thanks to Van Buren's talent that Crawford earned 41 electoral votes. Although Adams won the election, Van Buren started to support Andrew Jackson. For the duration of Adams's administration, Van Buren worked in and out of Congress to block executive action and to win the presidency for Jackson in 1828. To achieve these ends, he united several Democratic-Republican factions in various states into a new political party that reasserted the principles of the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. Van Buren said he hoped his actions would bring about a new political combination that would effect the substantial reorganization of the old party. He continued: "Political combinations between the inhabitants of the different states are unavoidable and the most natural and beneficial to the country is that between the planters of the South and the plain Republicans of the North." This new political combination nominated Jackson for the presidency and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina for the vice presidency in 1828. These followers of Jackson, Calhoun, and Van Buren formed the political organization that became the Democratic Party. In 1828, Van Buren steered the Tariff of Abominations (Tariff of 1828) to favor Jackson and the Democratic Party.
In order to assist Jackson and the Democratic Party and the win the 36 electoral votes in New York for Jackson, Van Buren agreed to run for governor for New York. He won by the thinnest of margins not receiving even a majority of the total votes. By contrast, Andrew Jackson, in the election of 1828 took the election. He promoted Van Buren to Secretary of State. Van Buren had resigned as governor because he knew that the office of secretary of state was usually the fastest road to the presidency. Not unexpectedly, his presence in the Cabinet excited the jealousy of other ambitious men, most noticeably Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun hoped to succeed Jackson after his expected two terms as president, and he resented the close working relations that quickly developed between Van Buren and Jackson. At first, Jackson had some doubts about his secretary of state because of his reputation as an unscrupulous politician, but he soon developed a profound regard for Van Buren's abilities and for his devotion and loyalty to the administration.
Van Buren became vice president in 1832 after the Peggy Eaton (maiden name - O'Neil) affair involving John C. Calhoun, the former vice president. As vice president, Van Buren helped Jackson in his "war with the bank" of the United States. Jackson government deposits from the bank and placed them in so-called pet, or state, banks. This action hastened the end of the Bank of the United States. Some members of the opposition party believed that the removal of the deposits was undertaken to benefit bankers friendly to the Democratic Party and that Van Buren had been the agent of these bankers. Although Van Buren supported the president in refusing the recharter, he had serious doubts about the wisdom of withdrawing the government's deposits from the bank. Moreover, he would never have engaged in any action that might diminish his chance of being elected president.
In response to the "reign of King Andrew" during the years of 1828-1836, the new Whig Party succeeded the National Republicans, as an expression of its opposition to Jackson's use of strong presidential powers. In the election of 1836, the Whig Party nominated three candidates each supported by three sections of the US. The Whigs hoped that this would cost the majority for Van Buren which would force the election to the House of Representatives which was already angry at "King" Jackson. The Whig candidates were Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, who ran in the New England states; Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, who ran in the South and Southwest; and William Henry Harrison of Ohio, who ran in the West. The Whig hoped something like the election of 1824 would occur again. South Carolinians organized in support of nullification chose Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina as their anti-Jackson candidate.
Van Buren won handily with 170 electoral votes as against 73 for Harrison, 26 for White, 14 for Webster, and 11 for Mangum. In the popular vote, Van Buren received a total of 764,176 to Harrison's 550,816, White's 146,107, and Webster's 41,201.
Election of 1836
|
Candidate |
Popular Vote |
Electoral Vote |
|
Martin Van Buren |
764,176 |
170 |
|
Hugh Lawson White |
146,107 |
73 |
|
Daniel Webster |
41,201 |
26 |
|
William Henry Harrison |
550,816 |
14 |
|
Willie P. Mangum |
--------- |
11 |
In his inaugural address, Van Buren promised to continue the policies of Andrew Jackson. In fact, he continued with the same Cabinet! However, soon after his election, Van Buren was hit hard with the Panic of 1837. The Panic of 1837 was a worldwide depression, but it was particularly sharp in the United States because the nation had been involved in rapid economic expansion for the past several years. Production jolted to a halt; hundreds of companies went bankrupt; factories closed down; and unemployment rose rapidly. In May 1837, New York banks suspended specie (gold and silver) payments on their bank notes because they did not have enough specie in reserve to cover all the notes that panicked investors were trying to cash in. Almost immediately, other banks across the country did the same. Many state governments also felt the full impact of the panic because, having invested heavily in canal and railroad projects, they were forced to default on their financial obligations. To meet the distress, Van Buren, on May 15, 1837, called a special session of Congress to convene on September 4. At that time the central government was not expected to assist individual members of society; the best that Van Buren could offer in his message to the special session was a reform of fiscal problems facing the federal government. "Those who look to the action of this government for specific aid to the citizen to relieve embarrassments arising from losses by revulsions in commerce and credit," he said, "lose sight of the ends for which it was created, and the powers with which it is clothed. It was established to give security to us all. … It was not intended to confer special favors on individuals. … The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity."
Van Buren continued Jackson's policy with the Indians. He further ordered all Indians to move west of the Mississippi. The Seminole resisted the seizure of their lands and rallied behind their war leader, a young chief named Osceola. Eventually Osceola was seized under a flag of truce and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he died not long afterward. Although it cost many millions of dollars to fight the Seminole, they were finally subdued and most of them driven westward. Because of the depression and his temperate handling of the Canadian problem, Van Buren became increasingly unpopular with the American people. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party unanimously renominated him for the presidency at their national convention in 1840. The Whig Party realized that they had a splendid opportunity to win the presidential office at last. Having learned that modern politics required the nomination of a man who could appeal to the masses and that military heroes have such an appeal, they nominated General William Henry Harrison, who had made a remarkably good showing in the election of 1836. Harrison was known as "Tippecanoe" because of his victory over the Shawnee nation at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Along with Harrison the Whigs nominated John Tyler of Virginia.
The Whig campaign had log cabin and cider symbols, brass bands, parades, floats, and songs. "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too," they chorused. "Van, Van, is a used up man." Democrats tried to imitate the Whigs. Although they, too, used slogans, such as "O.K.," referring to Van Buren's birthplace in Old Kinderhook, they were not equal to the ingenuity of the Whigs. Van Buren lost the election by an electoral count of 234 to 60. The popular vote gave him 1,128,854 to Harrison's 1,275,390. The depression and the problems with Great Britain all hurt Van Buren, but perhaps the single most important issue responsible for his defeat was the fact that the Whigs convinced the American people that unlike Harrison, Van Buren was not a "man of the people," but rather an aristocrat with extravagant tastes who lacked genuine sympathy for the problems of the ordinary citizen.
| events during van buren's administrations 1837-1841 |
cabinet and supreme court of van buren |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
