Martin van Buren

Martin Van Buren (born Maarten Van Buren, December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. Van Buren co-founded the Democratic Party with Andrew Jackson and became Jackson's vice president from 1833 to 1837. Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, where most residents were of Dutch descent and spoke Dutch as their primary language. He is the only president to have spoken English as a second language. Van Buren entered politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, won a seat in the New York State Senate in 1813, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1821. As the leader of the Bucktails faction of the party, he established the political machine known as the Albany Regency. Van Buren ran successfully for governor of New York to support Andrew Jackson's candidacy in the 1828 presidential election but resigned shortly after Jackson was inaugurated so he could accept appointment as Jackson's secretary of state. In the cabinet, Van Buren was a key Jackson advisor and built the organizational structure for the coalescing Democratic Party. He ultimately resigned to help resolve the Petticoat affair and briefly served as ambassador to the United Kingdom. At Jackson's behest, the 1832 Democratic National Convention nominated Van Buren for vice president, and he took office after the Democratic ticket won the 1832 presidential election. With Jackson's strong support and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party, Van Buren successfully ran for president in the 1836 presidential election. However, his popularity soon eroded because of his response to the Panic of 1837, which centered on his Independent Treasury system, a plan under which the federal government of the United States would store its funds in vaults rather than in banks. More conservative Democrats and Whigs in Congress ultimately delayed Van Buren's plan from being implemented until 1840. His presidency was further marred by the costly Second Seminole War and his refusal to admit Texas to the Union as a slave state. In 1840, he lost his re-election bid to William Henry Harrison. While Van Buren is praised for anti-slavery stances, in historical rankings, historians and political scientists often rank him as an average or below-average U.S. president, due to his handling of the Panic of 1837. He was initially the leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination again in 1844, but his continued opposition to the annexation of Texas angered Southern Democrats, leading to the nomination of James K. Polk. Van Buren grew increasingly opposed to slavery, and was the presidential nominee of the newly formed Free Soil Party in the 1848 United States presidential election, and his candidacy helped Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeat Democrat Lewis Cass. Worried about sectional tensions, Van Buren returned to the Democratic Party after 1848 but was disappointed with the pro-southern presidencies of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. During the American Civil War, Van Buren was a War Democrat who supported the policies of President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. Van Buren died of asthma at his home in Kinderhook in 1862, aged 79.