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M
 V B
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In the quiet little village of Kinderhook, New York, there was at the close
of the Revolution, an indifferent tavern kept by a Dutchman named Van
Buren. There his distinguished son Martin was born on the 5th day of
December, 1782.
After attending the academy in his native village he, at the age of fourteen,
began the study of law. His success was phenomenal from the beginning,
and he has passed into history as an indefatigable student all through life. In
1808 he was made surrogate of his native county. In 1812 he was elected to
the senate of his native State and in that body voted for electors pledged to
support DeWitt Clinton for the presidency. He was attorney-general of the
State from 1815 until 1819. Mr. Van Buren was a very able politician and it
was through his influence that the celebrated 'Albany Regency,' whose
influence ruled the State uninterruptedly for over twenty years, was set on
foot.
In 1821 Mr. Van Buren was chosen to the United States Senate and was
made a member of the convention to revise the State constitution. In the
latter body he advocated the extension of the elective franchise, but
opposed universal sufferage, as also the plan of appointing justices of the
peace by popular election. He voted against depriving the colored citizens
of the franchise but supported the proposal to require of them a freehold
qualification of $250. In 1828 he was elected governor of the great State of
New York and resigned his seat in the National Congress to assume this
new position. As governor he opposed the safety fund system which was
adopted by the legislature in 1829. In the month of March of the next year
after assuming the gubernatorial chair he accepted the leading position in
the cabinet of President Jackson but resigned two years later.
On May 22nd, 1832, he was nominated for the office of vice-president on
the ticket with General Jackson, and was elected. The Democratic National

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Convention, which met at Baltimore May 20th, 1835, unanimously
nominated him for the presidency, and in the ensuing election he received
170 electoral votes out of a total of 283,—73 being cast for his principal
antagonist, General Harrison. The country was now plunged into the
deepest pecuniary embarrassments, the result of previous hot-house
schemes and speculations, rather than the result of the administrative
measures of Van Buren. He had succeeded to the presidency at a most
unfortunate time. Commerce was prostrate; hundreds of mercantile houses
in every quarter were bankrupt; imposing public meetings attributed these
disasters to the policy of the government.
On May 15th, he summoned an extraordinary session of congress to meet
the following September. The president in his message advised that a
bankrupt law for banking and other incorporations be enacted; and that the
approaching deficit in the treasury be made good by withholding from the
States the fourth and last installment of a previous large surplus ordered to
be deposited with them by act of June 23rd, 1836, and by the temporary
issue of $6,000,000 of treasury notes. He also recommended the adoption of
what was called the independent treasury system, which was passed in the
senate, but was laid on the table in the other branch of congress. The
payment of the fourth installment to the States was postponed, and the
emission of $10,000,000 of treasury notes was authorized.
Again the President in his next annual message recommended the passage
of the independent treasury bill, but the measure was again rejected.
Another presidential measure, however, was more fortunate, a so-called
pre-emption law being enacted, giving settlers on public lands the right to
buy them in preference to others. Van Buren's third annual message was
largely occupied with financial discussions and especially with argument in
favor of the divorcement of the national government from the banks
throughout the country, and for the exclusive receipt and payment of gold
and silver in all public transactions; that is to say, for the independent
treasury. Through his urgent arguments in its favor it became a law June 30,
1840, and it is the distinguishing feature in his administration. The canvass
of 1840 was early begun by the opposition, and became a bitterly contested
one. The Whigs placed Harrison at the head of their ticket and as Van Buren

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had no competitor, he became the candidate of the Democracy. Never in the
political history of the United States had there been such universal
excitement as was displayed in the ensuing campaign. The great financial
trials through which the government had passed were made the basis of all
argument by the press and orators for the opposition.
Charges of corruption, extravagance and indifference to the welfare of the
laboring classes were collected and dumped upon poor Van Buren. Thus
was Van Buren represented, while the enthusiasm for Harrison was greatly
augmented by log cabins, emblematical of his humble origin. This time Van
Buren received only 60 electoral votes, while General Harrison received
234. His last annual message set forth with renewed energy the benefits of
the independent treasury; announced with satisfaction that the government
was without a public debt; and earnestly advised the enactment of more
stringent laws for the suppression of the African slave trade.
In 1844 Mr. Van Buren's friends once more urged his nomination for the
presidency by the Democratic national convention at Baltimore. But he was
rejected there on account of his opposition to the annexation of Texas to the
Union, avowed in a public letter to a citizen of Mississippi who had asked
for his position on that question. Though a majority of the delegates in the
convention were pledged to his support, a rule being passed making a two-
thirds vote necessary to a choice, proved fatal to his interest. For several
ballots he led all competitors when he withdrew his name and Mr. Polk was
nominated on the ninth ballot.
In 1848, when the Democrats had nominated General Cass, and avowed
their readiness to tolerate slavery in the new territories lately acquired from
Mexico, Mr. Van Buren and his adherents adopting the name of the free
democracy at once began to discuss in public that new aspect of the slavery
question.
They held a convention at Utica on June 22nd which nominated Mr. Van
Buren for president, and Henry Dodge of Wisconsin for vice-president. Mr.
Dodge declined, and at a great convention in Buffalo on August 9th,
Charles Francis Adams was substituted. The convention declared:
"Congress has no more right to make a slave than to make a king; it is the

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duty of the federal government to relieve itself from all responsibility for
the existence and continuance of slavery wherever the government
possesses constitutional authority to legislate on that subject and is thus
responsible for its existence."
In accepting the nomination of this new party Mr. Van Buren declared his
full assent to its anti-slavery principles. The result was that in New York he
received the votes of more than half of those who had hitherto been
attached to the Democratic party, and that General Taylor the candidate of
the Whig party was elected. At the outbreak of the civil war he at once
declared himself in favor of maintaining the Republic as a Union.
Unhappily he died before the close of the war and was thus deprived the
satisfaction of seeing perpetuated the Union he so dearly loved. On the 24th
of July, 1872, at his home in Kinderhook, he passed from death into life.

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