Martin Van Buren

EARLY LIFE

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782 in Kinderhook, a town in upper state New York. He was the third born of five children.

The eighth President of the United States, Van Buren was the first president to be born as a citizen of the United States and the first president not of British or Scots-Irish ancestry (he came from Dutch stock). The presidents before him were born as British subjects.

Imperial print of Martin Van Buren 

Martin's father, Abraham Van Buren, was a farmer and a tavern owner, who was a patriot during the American Revolution. His mother was Maria Hoes Van Buren, the granddaughter of a Dutch immigrant.

He was baptised as Maarten Van Buren at Kinderhook Dutch Reformed Church on December 15, 1782.

Because he was raised in a Dutch family, Martin spoke Dutch as his first language.

Martin went to school at the Kinderhook Academy in the village where he lived. He excelled there in English and Latin.

PRE-PRESIDENTIAL CAREER

Van Buren's formal education ended when he was 14-years-old. He began reading law at the office of Peter Silvester and his son Francis, prominent Federalist Party attorneys in Kinderhook. He also kept the office clean, copied documents and did other jobs. After six years under Sylvester, Van Buren spent a final year of apprenticeship in the New York City office of William P. Van Ness.

Van Buren passed the New York State Bar Exam in 1803, and became a lawyer.

After becoming a lawyer, Van Buren moved back to Kinderhook to work as an attorney with his half-brother, James J. Van Alen, in 1803. He became financially secure enough to increase his focus on politics.

In 1808 Van Buren was appointed Surrogate (legal officer) of Columbia County, New York. Van Buren held the office about five years until he was removed on March 19, 1813.

Van Buren represented New York in the United States Senate from 1821 to 1828 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.

The Democratic-Republican Party split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Martin Van Buren and the 1828 presidential candidate Andrew Jackson, became the modern Democratic Party.

To support Andrew Jackson's candidacy in the 1828 presidential election, Van Buren successfully ran for Governor of New York. He resigned a couple of months after assuming the position to accept appointment as U.S. Secretary of State after Jackson took office in 1829.

A painting of Van Buren by Francis Alexander, c. 1830

Van Buren was a key advisor during Jackson's eight years as President of the United States and from 1833 to 1837, he was his Vice President. During this time he built the organizational structure for the fledgling Democratic Party, particularly in New York.

President Andrew Jackson declined to seek another term in the 1836 presidential election,  and was determined to help elect Van Buren in his place so that the latter could continue the Jackson administration's policies. Van Buren won the election with 50.9 percent of the total, and 170 electoral votes.

PRESIDENCY

His inauguration on March 4, 1837, was the first where the president and the president-elect rode together to the Capitol for the ceremony.

Martin Van Buren was the only president to speak English as a second language. His first language was Dutch.

Just a few months after Van Buren became president, a financial crisis hit the United States triggered by the transfer of federal funds from the Bank of the United States to state banks. It touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Van Buren believed in limited government, and did not respond in a way that many people wanted. Many people blamed him for the Panic of 1837, and he became increasingly unpopular.

Picture below is a Whig cartoon showing the effects of unemployment on a family that has portraits of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren on the wall.

He was only five and a half feet tall and had red hair and red sideburns. Van Buren earned the nickname the "Red Fox" for his cunning politics and, “Little Magician” because of his size.

Van Buren's most long-lasting nickname was “Old Kinderhook,” which was used during his 1840 election campaign in the form of supporters carrying around placards saying "Vote for OK." The abbreviation became popular around this time and we continue to use it to this day.

He lost his 1840 re-election bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison due in part to the poor economic conditions of the Panic of 1837. Harrison's supporters ridiculed Van Buren as "Martin Van Ruin", and a surge of new voters helped turn him out of office.

PERSONAL LIFE

Van Buren married his childhood sweetheart, shy, blue-eyed Hannah Hoes on February 21, 1807 at the home of the bride's sister in Catskill, New York.

They had five children together: Abraham, John, Martin Jr., Smith, and Winfield Scott.

He always called her "Jannetje", a Dutch pet form of Johanna.

Hannah contracted tuberculosis and died on February 5, 1819 at age 35 and Van Buren never remarried.

Hannah Van Buren

He was one of the few presidents to be unmarried while in office. During Van Buren's term, his daughter-in-law, Angelica, performed the role of hostess of the White House and First Lady of the United States.

Van Buren didn't once mention wife Hannah in his 800 page autobiography.

He was a snappy dresser. An observer of an early Van Buren campaign stop at a church remembered him thus: "He wore an elegant snuff-colored broadcloth coat, with velvet collar to match; his cravat was orange tinted silk with modest lace tips; his vest was of pearl hue; his trousers were white duck … his nicely fitting gloves were yellow kid."

While campaigning for a second term of presidency, Van Buren was said by his opponents to "wallow in raspberries", a shocking extravagance.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

After his presidency, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and important anti-slavery leader, who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.

A plaque in Plainfield, Indiana marks the spot where a carriage driver intentionally drove through a huge mudhole to fling ex-President Martin Van Buren out of the carriage and into the mud in the summer of 1842. Van Buren had opposed a bill that would have funded improvements to the National Road. the carriage driver who'd pulled off the prank was rewarded by some residents with a $5 silk hat.

Martin Van Buren developed pneumonia in the latter half of 1861 and was bedridden during the fall and winter of 1861–62. In July, 1862, he had a serious asthma attack and began to weaken. Van Buren died on July 24, 1862, at his home in Kinderhook, New York, of heart failure. He was 79 years old.

Source Theintercept