Martin Van Buren

• Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was

the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841.
• Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President (1833–
1837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson.
• He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in
the Second Party System, and the first president who was not
of British (i.e. English,Welsh, Scottish) or Irish descent—his ancestry
was Dutch.
• He was the first president to be born an American citizen(his
predecessors were born British subjects before the American
Revolution), and is also the only president not to have spoken English
as a first language, having grown up speaking Dutch.
• Moreover, he was the first president from New York.
• Van Buren was the third president to serve only one term, after John
Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams.
• He also was one of the central figures in developing modern political
organizations.
• As Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State and then Vice President, he
was a key figure in building the organizational structure for Jacksonian
democracy, particularly in New York State.
• However, as a president, his administration was largely characterized
by the economic hardship of his time, the Panic of 1837.
• Between the bloodless Aroostook War and the Caroline Affair, relations
with Britain and its colonies in Canada also proved to be strained.
• Whether or not these were 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 Free Soil Party.
• Martin Van Buren is one of only two people, the other being Thomas
Jefferson, to serve as Secretary of State, Vice President and President.
• On March 5, 1829, President Jackson appointed Van Buren Secretary of
State, 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, Enos T. Throop, 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 (Peggy Eaton), wife of the Secretary of War, 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-Calhoun imbroglio.
• 1832 Whig cartoon shows Jackson carrying Van Buren into office
• 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 British West
Indies colonies was opened.
• In the controversy with the Bank of the United States, he sided with
Jackson.
• After the breach between Jackson and Calhoun, Van Buren was clearly
the most prominent candidate for the vice-presidency.