Read complete books and articles on: Martin Van Buren

Van Buren, Martin - 1782–1862, 8th President of the United States (1837–41), b. Kinderhook, Columbia co., N.Y.

Early Career

Van Buren, Martin - 1782–1862, 8th President of the United States (1837–41), b. Kinderhook, Columbia co., N.Y.

Early Career

He was reared on his father's farm, was educated at local schools, and after reading law was admitted (1803) to the bar. He practiced law successfully and soon became active in politics. After he was (1808–13) surrogate of Columbia co., he served (1813–20) in the state senate and became prominent in the state Democratic party. While still a senator Van Buren was made state attorney general in 1815, but because of his mounting rivalry with De Witt Clinton, the governor of New York, he was removed from this post in 1819. Meanwhile he had helped to secure the election (1816) of Daniel D. Tompkins as Vice President.

Van Buren served (1821–28) in the U.S. Senate, where he firmly backed the tariffs of 1824 and 1828. His record there was inconsistent as to states' rights, slavery, and internal improvements; this wavering was later brought up against him by his political enemies. Van Buren was far more important as a political leader than as a legislator. He organized the closely knit political group known as the Albany Regency and was a leading supporter of William H. Crawford, who ran for President in 1824. After the election of John Quincy Adams, Van Buren gradually swung his power to the support of Andrew Jackson.

A Jacksonian Democrat

Elected (1828) governor of New York state, Van Buren resigned in 1829, after Jackson had become President, to become his Secretary of State. Probably the most influential of Jackson's advisers, Van Buren, although essentially opposed to the doctrine of nullification, did not at first take a conspicuous part in the rising hostilities between Vice President John C. Calhoun and the President. Van Buren further strengthened his position with Jackson by being courteous to Peggy Eaton (see O'Neill, Margaret). His resignation (1831) as Secretary of State brought about that of the other cabinet officers and enabled Jackson to eliminate the supporters of Calhoun from the cabinet. Jackson immediately appointed Van Buren minister to Great Britain, but the deciding vote of Calhoun in the Senate prevented him from being confirmed in the post.

Thoroughly in accord with Jackson's policies, Van Buren was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic party in 1832 and was elected to office along with President Jackson. It was largely through Jackson's influence that Van Buren was chosen as Democratic candidate for President in 1836. The Whig party was still in the formative stage, and there was no well-organized opposition; Van Buren, therefore, was easily swept into office.

Presidency

As President, Van Buren announced his intention of following Jackson's policies, but the Panic of 1837 and the hard times that followed brought Van Buren a great deal of unpopularity. To meet the economic crisis, Van Buren, wary of the existing banking system, backed after 1837 the Independent Treasury System. Not until 1840, however, did Congress pass measures establishing it. In foreign affairs, Van Buren attempted to conciliate differences with Great Britain arising out of the Caroline Affair and the Aroostook War.

Later Years

He was again the presidential candidate of the Democratic party in 1840, but he was defeated in the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign by William Henry Harrison. The Whigs unfairly painted Van Buren as a man of great wealth who was ignorant of, and disdainful toward, the common people. In 1844, Van Buren was the leading possibility as Democratic candidate for the presidency, but he flatly opposed the annexation of Texas because he felt it would provoke war with Mexico and because he opposed the extension of slavery. Although he held a majority in the nominating convention, he was unable (largely as a result of the efforts of Robert J. Walker) to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to win the nomination. Van Buren, bitterly disappointed, saw James K. Polk elected President.

He remained prominent in Democratic party politics, and helped lead the Barnburners in their violent struggle with the Hunkers. In 1848 he was the presidential candidate of the newly organized Free-Soil party and managed to take enough New York votes away from the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, to aid Zachary Taylor, the Whig party candidate, in winning the election. He voted for the Democratic candidate in the elections of 1852, 1856, and 1860, but supported Abraham Lincoln during the secession crisis. An Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties of the United States (1867) was written by Van Buren, edited by one of his sons, and published posthumously.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1920, repr. 1973); R. V. Remini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959, repr. 1970); J. C. Curtis, The Fox at Bay (1970).

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12 of the Best Books and Articles on: Martin Van Buren

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party » Read Now
by Robert V. Remini. 276 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1918, Vol. II: The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren » Read Now
by John C. Fitzpatrick. 814 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
3.

Facts about the Presidents: A Compilation of Biographical and Historical Data ("Martin Van Buren: 8th President" begins on p. 62) » Read Now
by Joseph Nashan Kane. 372 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
4.

The Presidential Campaign of 1832 » Read Now
by Samuel Rhea Gammon. 184 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
5.

Presidential Campaigns (Chap. Twelve "1832: Jackson, Clay, and the Bank War" and Chap. Thirteen "1836: Van Buren's Victory over Three Whigs") » Read Now
by Paul F. Boller Jr. 480 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
6.

Heirs Apparent: Solving the Vice Presidential Dilemma (Includes discussion of Martin Van Buren in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Vance R. Kincade Jr. 159 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The vice presidency ought to be a springboard to the presidency. However, only Martin Van Buren and George Bush were elected president while serving as vice president. Kincade analyzes their victories and offers a path for future vice presidents seeking the presidency.
7.

The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (Chap. 5 "Harrison and Prosperity or Van Buren and Ruin") » Read Now
by Michael F. Holt. 1296 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The political home of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the American Whig Party was involved at every level of American politics--local, state, and federal--in the years before the Civil War, and controlled the White House for eight of the twenty-two years...
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The political home of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Horace Greeley, and the young Abraham Lincoln, the American Whig Party was involved at every level of American politics--local, state, and federal--in the years before the Civil War, and controlled the White House for eight of the twenty-two years that it existed. Now, in The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, Michael F. Holt gives us the only comprehensive history of the Whigs ever written--a monumental history covering in rich detail the American political landscape from the Age of Jackson to impending disunion. In Michael Holt's hands, the history of the Whig Party becomes a political history of the United States during the tumultuous Antebellum period. He offers a panoramic account of a time when a welter of parties (Whig, Democratic, Anti-Mason, Know Nothing, Free Soil, Republican) and many extraordinary political statesmen (including Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, William Seward, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay) struggled to control the national agenda as the U.S. inched towards secession. It was an era when Americans were passionately involved in politics, when local concerns drove national policy, and when momentous political events rocked the country, including the Nullification Controversy, the Panic of 1837, the Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Holt captures all of this as he shows that, amid this contentious political activity, the Whig Party continuously strove to unite North and South, repeatedly trying to find a compromise position. Indeed, the Whig Party emerges as the nation's last great hope to prevent secession and civil war. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party is a magisterial work of history, one that has already been hailed by William Gienapp of Harvard as "one of the most important books on nineteenth-century politics ever written."
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8.

The Invention of Party Politics: Federalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Development in Jacksonian Illinois ("Martin Van Buren and a Positive Theory of Party" begins on p. 35) » Read Now
by Gerald Leonard. 328 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This ambitious work uncovers the constitutional foundations of that most essential institution of modern democracy, the political party. Taking on Richard Hofstadter's classic "The Idea of a Party System, it rejects the standard view that Martin Van Buren and other Jacksonian politicians had the...
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This ambitious work uncovers the constitutional foundations of that most essential institution of modern democracy, the political party. Taking on Richard Hofstadter's classic "The Idea of a Party System, it rejects the standard view that Martin Van Buren and other Jacksonian politicians had the idea of a modern party system in mind when they built the original Democratic party.
Grounded in an original retelling of Illinois politics of the 1820s and 1830s, the book also includes chapters that connect the state-level narrative to national history, from the birth of the Constitution to the Dred Scott case. In this reinterpretation, Jacksonian party-builders no longer anticipate twentieth-century political assumptions but draw on eighteenth-century constitutional theory to justify a party division between "the democracy" and "the aristocracy." Illinois is no longer a frontier latecomer to democratic party organization but a laboratory in which politicians use Van Buren's version of the Constitution, states' rights, and popular sovereignty to reeducate a people who had traditionally opposed party organization. The modern two-party system is no longer firmly in place by 1840. Instead, the system remains captive to the constitutional commitments on which the Democrats and Whigs founded themselves, even as the specter of sectional crisis haunts the parties' constitutional visions.
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9.

Emergence of the Presidential Nominating Convention, 1789-1832 (Chap. Ten "Van Buren's Convention") » Read Now
by James S. Chase. 356 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
10.

Presidential Anecdotes (Chap. Eight "Martin Van Buren 1837-41") » Read Now
by Paul F. Boller Jr. 472 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
11.

The People's Choice, from Washington to Harding: A Study in Democracy (Chap. IV "Jackson and Van Buren") » Read Now
by Herbert Agar. 376 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

A candid inquiry into the policies & personalities of America's presidents, sweeping away popular misconceptions. A U.S. history as seen from the White House.
12.

Encyclopedia of American Parties, Campaigns, and Elections ("Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862)" begins on pg. 427) » Read Now
by William C. Binning, Larry E. Esterly, Paul A. Sracic. 484 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

In this comprehensive guide to the language of contemporary American politics, Binning offers clear descriptions of terms such as "soft money," "gerrymandering," and "blanket primary." Examples are frequently offered to help clarify definitions. Particular attention is given to the ever-changing...
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In this comprehensive guide to the language of contemporary American politics, Binning offers clear descriptions of terms such as "soft money," "gerrymandering," and "blanket primary." Examples are frequently offered to help clarify definitions. Particular attention is given to the ever-changing organizational structure of parties and contemporary electoral systems. This encyclopedia explains campaign finance reform laws and the Voting Rights Act. The more significant Supreme Court decisions in these areas are summarized, with an eye to giving readers a greater understanding of how these laws have been interpreted and applied. Brief biographies of important political figures such as presidents, vicepresidents, and congressional and party leaders are also included, along with a concise summary of every presidential election since 1789.
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