VAN BUREN'S CHARACTER AND PLACE IN HISTORY
In the engraved portrait of Van Buren in old age, prefixed to his
"History of Parties," are plainly to be seen some of his traits,--the
alert outlooking upon men, the bright, easy good-humor, the firm,
self-reliant judgment. Inman's painting, now in the City Hall of New
York,[20] gives the face in the prime of life,--the same shrewd, kindly
expression, but more positively touched with that half cynical doubt of
men which almost inevitably belongs to those in great places. The deep
wrinkles of the old and retired ex-president were hardly yet incipient
in the smooth, prosperous, almost complacent countenance of the
governor. In the earlier picture the locks flared outwards from the
face, as they did later; as yet, however, they were dark and a bit
curling. His form was always slender and erect, but hardly reached the
middle height, so that to his political enemies it was endless delight
to call him "Little Van."
In the older picture one sees a scrupulous daintiness about the ruffled
shirt and immaculate neckerchief; for Van Buren was fond of the
elegance of life. The Whigs used to declare him an aristocrat, given to
un-American, to positively British splendor. Very certainly he never
affected contempt for the gracious and stately refinement suited to his
long held place of public honor, that contempt which a silly underrating
of American good sense has occasionally commended to our statesmen. At
Lindenwald, among books and guests and rural cares, he led what in the
best and truest sense was the life of a country gentleman, not set like
an urban exotic among the farmers, but fond of his neighbors as they
were fond of him, and unaffectedly sharing without loss of distinction
or elegance their thrifty and homely cares. When he retired to this home
he was able, without undignified or humiliating shifts, to live in ease
and even affluence. For in 1841 his fortune of perhaps $200,000 was a
generous one. His last days were not, like those of Jefferson and Monroe
and Jackson, embittered by money anxieties, the penalty of the careless
profusion the temptation to which, felt even by men wise in the affairs
of others, is often greater than the certain danger and unwisdom of its
indulgence. But no suggestion was breathed against his pecuniary
integrity, public or private. Nor was there heard of him any story of
wrong or oppression or ungenerous dealing.
Van Buren's extraordinary command of himself was apparent in his
manners. They are finely described from intimate acquaintance by
William Allen Butler, the son of Van Buren's long-time friend, in his
charming and appreciative sketch printed just after Van Buren's death.
They had, Mr. Butler said, a neatness and polish which served every turn
of domestic, social, and public intercourse. "As you saw him once, you
saw him always--always punctilious, always polite, always cheerful,
always self-possessed. It seemed to anyone who studied this phase of his
character as if, in some early moment of destiny, his whole nature had
been bathed in a cool, clear, and unruffled depth, from which it drew
this life-long serenity and self-control." An accomplished English
traveler, "the author of 'Cyril Thornton,'" who saw him while secretary
of state, and before he had been abroad, said that he had more of "the
manner of the world" than any other of the distinguished men at
Washington; that in conversation he was "full of anecdote and vivacity."
Chevalier, one of our French critics, in his letters from America
described him as setting up "for the American Talleyrand." John Quincy
Adams, as has been said, sourly mistook all this, and even the especial
courtesy Van Buren paid him after his political downfall, as mere proof
of insincerity; and he more than once compared Van Buren to Aaron Burr,
a comparison of which many Democrats were fond after 1848. In his
better-natured moments, however, Adams saw in his adversary a
resemblance to the conciliatory and philosophic Madison. For his
"extreme caution in avoiding and averting personal collisions," he
called him another Sosie of Molière's "Amphitryon," "ami de tout le
monde."
Van Buren's skill in dealing with men was indeed extraordinary. It
doubtless came from this temper of amity, and from an inborn genius for
society; but it had been wonderfully sharpened in the unrivaled school
of New York's early politics. When he was minister at London, he wrote
that he was making it his business to be cordial with prominent men on
both sides; a branch of duty, he said, in which he was not at home,
because he had all his life been "wholly on one side." But he was
jocosely unjust to himself. He was, for the politics of his day,
abundantly fair to his adversaries. Sometimes indeed he saw too much of
what might be said on the other side. Had he seen less, he would
sometimes have been briefer, less indulgent in formal caution. Nor did
he fail to avoid the unnecessary misery caused to many public men, the
obstacles needlessly raised in their way, by personal disputes, or by
letting into negotiations matters of controversy irrelevant to the thing
to be done. Patience in listening, a steady and singularly acute
observance of the real end he sought, and a quick, keen reading of men,
saved him this wearing unhappiness so widespread in public life. Once he
thus criticised his friend Cambreleng: "There is more in small matters
than he is always aware of, although he is a really sensible and useful
man." In this maxim of lesser things Van Buren was carefully practiced.
During the Jackson-Adams campaign, the younger Hamilton was about
sending to some important person an account of the general. Van Buren,
knowing of this, wrote to Hamilton, and, after signing his letter,
added: "P. S.--Does the old gentleman have prayers in his own house? If
so, mention it modestly."
His self-command was not stilted or unduly precise or correct. He was
very human. A candidate for governor of New York would to-day hardly
write to another public man, however friendly to him, as Van Buren in
August and September, 1828, wrote to Hamilton. "Bet on Kentucky,
Indiana, and Illinois," he said, "jointly if you can, or any two of
them; don't forget to bet all you can." But this was the fashion of the
day.[21] His life was entirely free from the charges of dissipation or of
irregular habits, then so commonly, and often truly, made against great
men. This very correctness was part of the offense he gave his rivals
and their followers. It would hardly be accurate to describe him, even
in younger years, as jovial with his friends; but he was perfectly
companionable. Of a social and cheerful temper, he not only liked the
decorous gaiety of receptions and public entertainment, but was
delighted and delightful in closer and easier conversation and in the
chat of familiar friends. His reminiscences of men are said to have been
full of the charm which flows from a strong natural sense of humor, and
a correct and vivid memory of human action and character.
There are many apocryphal stories of Van Buren's craft or cunning or
selfishness in politics. It is a curious appreciation with which
reputable historians have received such stories from irresponsible or
anonymous sources; for they deserve as little credence as those told of
Lincoln's frivolity or indecency. To them all may not only be pleaded
the absence of any proof deserving respect, but they are refuted by
positive proof, such as from earliest times has been deemed the best
which private character can in its own behalf offer to history. In
politics Van Buren enjoyed as much strong and constant friendship as he
encountered strong and constant hatred. Nothing points more surely to
the essential soundness of life and the generosity of a public man than
the near and long-continued friendship of other able, upright, and
honorably ambitious men. It was an extraordinary measure in which Van
Buren enjoyed friendship of this quality. With all the light upon his
character, Jackson was too shrewd to suffer long from imposition. His
intimacy with Van Buren for twenty years and more was really
affectionate; his admiration for the younger statesman was profound.
The explanation is both unnecessary and unworthy, which ascribes to
hatred of Clay all Jackson's ardor in the canvass of 1840 or his almost
pathetic anxiety for Van Buren's nomination in 1844. Their peculiar and
continuous association for six years at Washington had so powerfully
established Van Buren in his love and respect, that neither distant
separation nor disease nor the nearer intrigues and devices of rivals
could abate them. Those who were especially known as Van Buren men,
those who not only stood with him in the party but who went with him out
of it, were men of great talents and of the highest character. Butler's
career closely accompanied Van Buren's. Both were born at Kinderhook;
they were together in Hudson, in Albany, in Washington; they were
together as Bucktails, as Jacksonian Democrats, as Free-soil men; they
were close to one another from Butler's boyhood until, more than a
half-century later, they were parted by death. To this strong-headed and
sound-hearted statesman, we are told by William Allen Butler, in a fine
and wellnigh sufficient eulogy, that Van Buren was the object of an
affection true and steadfast, faithful through good report and evil
report, loyal to its own high sense of duty and affection, tender and
generous. Benton, liberal and sane a slaveholder though he was, did not
approve the Wilmot Proviso, or join the Free-soil revolt. But in
retirement and old age, reviewing his "Thirty Years," during twenty of
which he and Van Buren had, spite of many differences, remained on
closely intimate terms, he showed a deep liking for the man. Silas
Wright, Azariah C. Flagg, and John A. Dix, all strong and famous
characters in the public life of New York, were among the others of
those steadily faithful in loyal and unwavering regard for this
political and personal chief. Nor were they deceived. Jackson and
Butler, Wright and Flagg and Dix, sturdy, upright, skillful, experienced
men of affairs, were not held in true and lifelong friendship and
admiration by the insinuating manners, the clever management, the
selfish and timid aims, which make the Machiavellian caricature of Van
Buren so often drawn. No American in public life has shown firmer and
longer devotion to his friends. His reputation for statesmanship must
doubtless rest upon the indisputable facts of his career. But for his
integrity of life, for his sincerity, for his fidelity to those
obligations of political, party, and personal friendship, within which
lies so much of the usefulness as well as of the singular charm of
public life, his relations with these men make a proof not to be
questioned, and surely not to be weakened by the malicious or anonymous
stories of political warfare.
For the absurdly sinister touch which his political enemies gave to his
character, it is difficult now to find any just reason. It may be that
the cool and imperturbable appearance of good-nature, with which he
received the savage and malevolent attacks so continually made upon
him, to many seemed so impossible to be real as to be sheer
hypocrisy;[22] and from the fancy of such hypocrisy it was easy for the
imagination to infer all the arts and characteristics of deceit.
Doubtless the caution of Van Buren's political papers irritated
impatient and angry opponents. They found them full of elaborate and
subtle reservations, as they fancied, against future political
contingencies; a charge, it ought to be remembered, which is continually
made against the ripest, bravest, and greatest character in English
politics of to-day or of the century.[23] Van Buren's reasoning was
perfectly clear, and his style highly finished. But he had not the sort
of genius which in a few phrases states and lights up a political
problem. The complexity of human affairs, the danger of short and
sweeping assertions, pressed upon him as he wrote; and the amplitude of
his arguments, sometimes tending to prolixity, seemed timid and
lawyer-like to those who disliked his conclusions.
Van Buren was not, however, an unpopular man, except as toward the last
his politics were unpopular as politics out of sympathy with those of
either of the great parties, and except also at the South, where he was
soon suspected and afterwards hated as an anti-slavery man. He was on
the whole a strong candidate at the polls. In his own State and at the
Northeast his strength with the people grew more and more until his
defeat by the slaveholders in 1844. Perhaps the most striking proof of
this strength was the canvass of 1848, when in New York he was able to
take fully half of his party with him into irregular opposition, a feat
with hardly a precedent in our political history. And there was complete
reciprocity. Van Buren was profoundly democratic in his convictions. He
thoroughly, honestly, and without demagogy believed in the common people
and in their competence to deal wisely with political difficulties. Even
when his faith was tried by what he deemed the mistakes of popular
elections, he still trusted to what in a famous phrase of his he called
"the sober second thought of the people."[24]
However widely the student of history may differ from the politics of
Van Buren's associates, the politics of Benton, Wright, Butler, and Dix,
and in a later rank of his New York disciples, of Samuel J. Tilden and
Sanford E. Church, it is impossible not to see that their political
purpose was at the least as long and steady as their friendship for Van
Buren. Love for the Union, a belief in a simple, economical, and even
unheroic government, a jealousy of taking money from the people, and a
scrupulous restriction upon the use of public moneys for any but public
purposes, a strict limitation of federal powers, a dislike of slavery
and an opposition to its extension,--these made up one of the great and
fruitful political creeds of America, a creed which had ardent and
hopeful apostles a half century ago, and which, save in the articles
which touched slavery and are now happily obsolete, will doubtless find
apostles no less ardent and hopeful a half century hence. Each of its
assertions has been found in other creeds; but the entire creed with all
its articles made the peculiar and powerful faith only of the Van Buren
men. As history gradually sets reputations aright, the leader of these
men must justly wear the laurel of a statesman who, apart from his
personal and party relations and ambitions, has stood clearly for a
powerful and largely triumphant cause.
No vague, no thoughtless rush of popular sentiment touched or shook this
faith of Van Buren. Had there been indeed a readier emphasis about him,
a heartier and quicker sympathy with the temper of the day, he would
perhaps have aroused a popular enthusiasm, he might perhaps have been
the hero which in fact he never was. But his intellectual perceptions
did not permit the subtle self-deceit, the enthusiastic surrender to
current sentiment, to which the striking figures that delight the masses
of men are so apt to yield. Van Buren was steadfast from the beginning
to the end, save when the war threats of slavery alarmed his old age and
the sober second thought of a really patient and resolute people seemed
a long time coming. Two years before his death Jefferson wrote to Van
Buren an elaborate sketch of his relations with Hamilton and of our
first party division. Two years before his own death Van Buren was
finishing a history of the same political division written upon the
theory and in the tone running through Jefferson's writings. It was
composed by Van Buren in the very same temper in which he had
respectfully read the weighty epistle from the great apostle of
Democracy. Between the ending life at Monticello and that at Lindenwald,
the political faith of the older man had been steadily followed by the
younger.
The rise of the "spoils" system, and the late coming, but steadily
increasing perception of its corruptions and dangers, have seriously and
justly dimmed Van Buren's fame. But history should be not less indulgent
to him than to other great Americans. The practical politics which he
first knew had been saturated with the abuse. He did no more than adopt
accustomed means of political warfare. Neither he nor other men of his
time perceived the kind of evil which political proscription of men in
unpolitical places must yield. They saw the undoubted rightfulness of
shattering the ancient idea that in offices there was a property right.
They saw but too clearly the apparent help which the powerful love of
holding office brings to any political cause, and which has been used by
every great minister of state the world over. Van Buren had, however, no
love of patronage in itself. The use of a party as a mere agency to
distribute offices would have seemed to him contemptible. In neither of
the great executive places which he held, as governor, secretary of
state, or president, did he put into an extreme practice the
proscriptive rules which were far more rigorously adopted about him. To
his personal temper not less than to his conceptions of public duty the
inevitable meanness and wrong of the system were distasteful.
Chief among the elements of Van Buren's public character ought to be
ranked his moral courage and the explicitness of his political
utterances,--the two qualities which, curiously enough, were most
angrily denied him by his enemies. His well-known Shocco Springs letter
of 1832 on the tariff was indeed lacking in these qualities; but he was
then not chiefly interested. There was only a secondary responsibility
upon him. But it is not too much to say that no American in responsible
and public station, since the days when Washington returned from his
walk among the miserable huts at Valley Forge to write to the
Continental Congress, or to face the petty imbecilities of the jealous
colonists, has shown so complete a political courage as that with which
Van Buren faced the crisis of 1837, or in which he wrote his famous
Texas letter. Nor did any American, stirred with ambition, conscious of
great powers, as was this captain of politicians, and bringing all his
political fortunes, as he must do, to the risks of universal suffrage,
ever meet living issues dangerously dividing men ready to vote for him
if he would but remain quiet, with clearer or more decided answers than
did Van Buren in his Sherrod Williams letter of 1836 and in most of his
chief public utterances from that year until 1844. The courtesies of his
manner, his failure in trenchant brevity, and even the almost complete
absence of invective or extravagance from his papers or speeches, have
obscured these capital virtues of his character. He saw too many
dangers; and he sometimes made it too clear that he saw them. But upon
legitimate issues he was among the least timid and the most explicit of
great Americans. No president of ours has in office been more courageous
or more direct.
It is perhaps an interesting, it is at least a harmless speculation, to
look for Van Buren's place of honor in the varied succession of men who
have reached the first office, though not always the first place, in
American public life. Every student will be powerfully, even when
unconsciously, influenced in this judgment by the measure of strength or
beneficence he accords to different political tendencies. With this
warning the present writer will, however, venture upon an opinion.
Van Buren very clearly does not belong among the mediocrities or
accidents of the White House,--among Monroe, Harrison, Tyler, Polk,
Taylor, Fillmore, and Pierce, not to meddle with the years since the
civil war whose party disputes are still part of contemporary politics.
Van Buren reached the presidency by political abilities and public
services of the first order, as the most distinguished active member of
his party, and with a universal popular recognition for years before his
promotion that he was among the three or four Americans from whom a
president would be naturally chosen. Buchanan's experience in public
life was perhaps as great as Van Buren's, and his political skill and
distinction made his accession to the presidency by no means unworthy.
But he never led, he never stood for a cause; he never led men; he was
never chief in his party; and in his great office he sank with timidity
before the slaveholding aggressors, as they strove with vengeance to
suppress freedom in Kansas, and before the menaces and open plunderings
of disunion. Van Buren showed no such timidity in a place of equal
difficulty.
Jackson stands in a rank by himself. He had a stronger and more vivid
personality than Van Buren. But useful as he was to the creation of a
powerful sentiment for union and of a hostility to the schemes of a
paternal government, it is clear that in those qualities of steady
wisdom, foresight, patience, which of right belong to the chief
magistracy of a republic, he was far inferior to his less picturesque
and less forceful successor. The first Adams, a man of very superior
parts, competent and singularly patriotic, was deep in too many personal
collisions within and without his party, and his presidency incurred too
complete and lasting, and it must be added, too just a popular
condemnation, to permit it high rank, though very certainly he belonged
among neither the mediocrities nor the accidents of the White House.
If to the highest rank of American presidents be assigned Washington,
and if after him in it come Jefferson and perhaps Lincoln (though more
than a quarter of a century must go to make the enduring measure of his
fame), the second rank would seem to include Madison, the younger Adams,
and Van Buren. Between the first and the last of these, the second of
them, as has been said, saw much resemblance. But if Madison had a
mellower mind, more obedient to the exigencies of the time and of a
wider scholarship, Van Buren had a firmer and more direct courage, a
steadier loyalty to his political creed, and far greater resolution and
efficiency in the performance of executive duties. If one were to
imitate Plutarch in behalf of John Quincy Adams and Van Buren, he would
need largely to compare their rival political creeds. But leaving these,
it will not be unjust to say that in virile and indomitable continuance
of moral purpose after official power had let go its trammels, and when
the harassments and feebleness of age were inexorable, and though the
heavens were to fall, the younger Adams was the greater; that in
executive success they were closely together in a high rank; but that in
skill and power of political leadership, in breadth of political
purpose, in freedom from political vagaries, in personal generosity and
political loyalty, Van Buren was easily the greater man.
Van Buren did not have the massive and forcible eloquence of Webster, or
the more captivating though fleeting speech of Clay, or the delightful
warmth of the latter's leadership, or the strength and glory which their
very persons and careers gave to American nationality. But in the
persistent and fruitful adherence to a political creed fitted to the
time and to the genius of the American people, in that noble art which
gathers and binds to one another and to a creed the elements of a
political party, the art which disciplines and guides the party, when
formed, to clear and definite purposes, without wavering and without
weakness or demagogy, Van Buren was a greater master than either of
those men, in many things more interesting as they were. In this exalted
art of the politician, this consummate art of the statesman, Van Buren
was close to the greatest of American party leaders, close to Jefferson
and to Hamilton.
In his very last years the stir and rumbling of war left Van Buren in
quiet recollection and anxious loyalty at Lindenwald. As his growing
illness now and then spared him moments of ease, his mind must
sometimes have turned back to the steps of his career, senator of his
State, senator of the United States, governor, first cabinet minister,
foreign envoy, vice-president, and president. There must again have
sounded in his ears the hardly remembered jargon of Lewisites and
Burrites, Clintonians and Livingstonians, Republicans and Federalists,
Bucktails and Jacksonians and National Republicans, Democrats and Whigs,
Loco-focos and Conservatives, Barnburners and Hunkers. There must
rapidly though dimly have shifted before him the long series of his
struggles,--struggles over the second war with England, over internal
improvements, the Bank, nullification, the divorce of bank and state,
the resistance to slavery extension. Through them all there had run, and
this at least his memory clearly recalled, the one strong faith of his
politics and statesmanship. In all his labors of office, in all his
multifarious strifes, he never faltered in upholding the Union. But not
less firmly would this true disciple of Jefferson restrain the
activities of the federal government. Whatever wisdom, whatever
integrity of purpose might belong to ministers and legislators at
Washington,--though the strength of the United States might be theirs,
and though they were panoplied in the august prestige rightly ascribed
by American patriotism to that sovereign title of our nation,--still Van
Buren was resolute that they should not do for the people what the
States or the people themselves could do as well. To his eyes there was
clear and undimmed from the beginning to the close of his career, the
idea of government as an instrument of useful public service, rather
than an object of superstitious veneration, the idea but two years after
his death clothed with memorable words by a master in brief speech, the
democratic idea of a "government of the people, by the people, for the
people."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "I shall not, whilst I have the honor to administer the government,
bring a man into any office of consequence, knowingly, whose political
tenets are adverse to the measures which the general government are
pursuing; for this, in my opinion, would be a sort of political
suicide."--Washington to Pickering, secretary of war, September 27,
1795. Vol. 11 of Sparks's edition of _Washington's Writings_, 74.
[2] I use the political name then in vogue. The greater part of the
Republicans have, since the rearrangement of parties in John Quincy
Adams's time, or rather since Jackson's time, been known as Democrats.
[3] The more conspicuous difficulty in 1801 arose from the voting by
each elector for two candidates without distinguishing which he
preferred for president and which for vice-president. But the
awkwardness and not improbable injustice of a choice by the House was
also well illustrated in February, 1801.
[4] Gales and Seaton's Debates in Congress give here the word "act"
instead of "think,"--but erroneously, I assume.
[5] The comparison cannot of course be complete, as some who were
senators in 1826 were not senators in 1828.
[6] This and several other references of mine to Gladstone were written
ten years and more before his death. These years of his brief but
extraordinary Home Rule victory, of his final defeat,--for Lord
Rosebery's defeat was Gladstone's defeat,--and of his retirement, have
not only added a mellow and almost sacred splendor to his noble career,
but have still better demonstrated his superb political gifts. What
politician indeed, dead or living, is to be ranked above him?
[7] This was written nine years before the lamentable surrender of the
organization of Van Buren's party at Chicago in 1896. It is safe to say
that these traditions, even if fallen sadly out of sight, still make a
deep and powerful force, which must in due time assert itself.
[8] After the Dissenting Liberals had acted with the Conservatives, not
only in the first Home Rule campaign in 1886, but during the Salisbury
administration from 1886 to 1892, and in the campaigns of 1892 and 1895,
the coalition was ended and a new and single party formed, of which the
Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Chamberlain were leaders as really as Lord
Salisbury or Mr. Balfour. The accession of the former to the Unionist
ministry of 1895 was in no sense a reward for bringing over some of the
enemy.
[9] This was written in 1887. The Albany Regency, after a life of sixty
years, ended with the death of Daniel Manning, in Mr. Cleveland's first
presidency, and with it ended the characteristic influence of its organ.
The Democratic management at Albany has since proceeded upon very
different lines and has engaged the ability of very different men.
[10] A month or two after his arrival Van Buren wrote Hamilton that his
place was decidedly the most agreeable he had ever held, but added:
"Money--money is the thing." His house was splendid and in a delightful
situation; but it cost him £500. His carriage cost him £310, and his
servants with their board $2,600.
[11] In estimating the popular vote in 1828, Delaware and South Carolina
are excluded, their electors having been chosen by the legislature. In
Georgia in that year there was no opposition to Jackson. In 1832 no
popular vote is included for South Carolina or for Alabama. In
Mississippi and Missouri there was no opposition to Jackson. In 1829,
upon Van Buren's recommendation when governor, the system in New York of
choosing electors by districts, which had been in force in the election
of 1838, was abolished; and there was adopted the present system of
choosing all the electors by the popular vote of the whole State.
[12] The Treasurer's statement for August, 1837, gave eighty-four
deposit banks. But of these, nine had less than $5000 each on deposit,
six from $5000 to $10,000, and eight from $10,000 to $20,000. Fourteen
had from $50,000 to $100,000 each. Only twenty-nine had more than
$100,000 each. It is not unfair to speak of the deposits as being
substantially in fifty banks.
The enormous land sales at the Southwest had placed a most
disproportionate amount of money in banks in that part of the country.
John Quincy Adams seemed, but with little reason, to consider this an
intentional discrimination against the North. It is quite probable that,
if the deposits had been in one national bank, the peculiarly excessive
strain at that point would have been modified. But this was no great
factor in the crisis.
[13] I cannot refrain from noticing here the curious fact that Dr. Von
Holst, after a contemptuous picture of Van Buren as a mere verbose,
coarse-grained politician given to scheming and duplicity, was not
surprised at his meeting in so lofty a spirit this really great trial.
For surely here, if anywhere, the essential fibre of the man would be
discovered. I must also express my regret that this writer, to whom
Americans owe very much, should have been content (although in this he
has but joined some other historians of American politics) to accept
mere campaign or partisan rumors which when directed against other men,
have gone unnoticed, but against Van Buren have become the basis for
emphatic disparagement and contumely. Even Mackenzie, the publisher of
the purloined letters, writing his pamphlet with the most obvious and
reckless venom, is quoted by this learned historian as respectable
authority. Van Buren had refused during nearly a year to pardon
Mackenzie from prison for his unlawful use of American territory to
prepare armed raids on Canada. Sir Francis B. Head's opinion was
doubtless somewhat colored; but he was not entirely without
justification in applying to Mackenzie the words: "He lies out of every
pore in his skin. Whether he be sleeping or waking, on foot or on
horseback, together with his neighbors or writing for a newspaper, a
multitudinous swarm of lies, visible, palpable, and tangible, are
buzzing and settling about him like flies around a horse in August."
(Narrative of Sir F. B. Head, London, 1839.)
[14] The reference was to commercial paper and not to bank-notes. But
both had been active characteristics of American speculation.
[15] The depositories now authorized for the proceeds of the internal
revenue secured the government by a deposit of the bonds of the latter,
which the depositories must of course purchase and own. (_U. S. Rev.
Stats._ § 5153.)
[16] I cannot refrain in this revised edition to note that England,
although not always a ready scholar, has in later years learned a
farseeing wisdom which in colonial administration makes her the teacher
of the world. The modern policy of deference to local sentiment and of
finding her own advantage in the independent prosperity of the colony,
has bound continents, islands, races, religions, to the English empire,
and brought from them wealth to England, as the old rule of force never
did.
[17] It should be remembered that several great expenses of the White
House were then and are now met by special and additional
appropriations.
[18] I must again complain of the curious though unintended unfairness
of Professor Von Holst (_Const. Hist. of the U. S._ 1828-1846, Chicago,
1879, p. 663). He treats this letter with great contempt. He assumes
indeed that Van Buren's declaration for annexation would have given him
the nomination; and admits that Van Buren declared himself "decidedly
opposed to annexation." After this sufficient proof of courage, for Van
Buren could at least have simply promised to adopt the vote of Congress
on the main question, it was not very sensible to declare "disgusting"
Van Buren's efforts "to creep through the thorny hedge which shut him
off from the party nomination." Professor Von Holst's "disgust" seems
particularly directed against the passage here annotated where, after
his strong argument against annexation, he declared that he would not be
influenced by sectional feeling, and would obey the wishes of a Congress
chosen with reference to the question. Few, I think, will consider this
promise with reference to such a question, either cowardly or
"disgusting," made, as it was, by a candidate for the presidency, of a
democratic republic, after clearly and firmly declaring his own views in
advance of the congressional elections.
[19] James G. Blaine's _Twenty Years_, vol. i. pp. 269, 272.
[20] An engraving of this portrait accompanies Holland's biography,
written for the campaign of 1836.
[21] The mania for election betting among public men was very curious.
In the letters and memoranda printed by Mackenzie, the bets of John Van
Buren and Jesse Hoyt are given in detail. They ranged from $5000 to $50;
from "three cases of champagne" or "two bales of cotton," to "boots,
$7," or "a ham, $3." They were made with the younger Alexander Hamilton,
James Watson Webb, Moses H. Grinnell, John A. King, George F. Talman,
Dudley Selden, and other notable men of the time.
[22] One of the latest and most important historians of the time, after
saying that "nothing ruffled" Van Buren, is contented with a different
explanation from mine. Professor Sumner says that "he was thick-skinned,
elastic, and tough; he did not win confidence from anybody." But within
another sentence or two the historian adds, as if effect did not always
need adequate cause, that "as president he showed the honorable desire
to have a statesmanlike and high-toned administration." (Sumner's
_Jackson_, p. 451.)
[23] Here again I spoke of Gladstone, to whom, as this revised edition
is going to press, the civilized world is bringing, in his death, a
noble and fitting tribute.
[24] This expression was not original with Van Buren, as has been
supposed. It was used by Fisher Ames in 1788; and Bartlett's
_Quotations_ also gives a still earlier use of part of it by Matthew
Henry in 1710.
INDEX
Abolitionists, their position in society, 269;
their doctrines, 269, 270;
petition Congress against slavery, 271;
circulate anti-slavery literature in South, 275;
denounced in Democratic Convention of 1840, 379;
also by Harrison, 381, 382;
their effect on sentiment before 1840, 403;
do not affect public men, 437;
their view of slavery situation correct, 438.
Adams, Charles Francis, presides at Buffalo Convention, 427;
nominated for vice-president, 429.
Adams, John, his foreign policy compared by Van Buren to John Q.
Adams's, 127-129;
history of his administration used to discredit that of his
son, 145-147, 386;
inferior to Van Buren in statesmanship, 464.
Adams, John Quincy,
supports Jefferson and Madison's foreign policy, 59;
in peace negotiations, 63;
acquires Florida for United States, 88;
favors Missouri Compromise, 93;
favors tariff of 1824, 103;
attitude of Van Buren towards, as candidate, 107;
his opinion of Van Buren, 107;
the natural choice of New York Republicans, 109;
elected president, 115, 116;
welcomed by Van Buren upon inauguration, 117;
his view of factious nature of Van Buren's opposition, 119;
in reality creates division by his messages and policy, 120, 121;
urges internal improvements, ignores constitutional questions, 121,
122;
urges Panama Congress, 122, 124, 126;
later uses Van Buren's own parliamentary methods, 123;
his opinion of Van Buren's character, 126;
attack of Van Buren upon, as imitator of his father, 127;
realizes consolidation of opposing elements, 130;
his constitutional views attacked by Van Buren, 132;
his disposal of patronage, 139;
attacked by Van Buren as outdoing his father in encroachments
on Constitution, 146;
his position as party leader in 1828, 153, 154;
comments of Jefferson on, 154;
visited by Van Buren, 158;
compares him to Aaron Burr, 158;
denounces opposition as unworthy, 159;
his position erroneous, 161;
his principles, not his character, the real issue, 161;
slandered in 1828, 163;
fairly criticised for his coalition with Clay, 163;
connected with anti-Masonic party, 167, 245;
defends Jackson in Monroe's cabinet, 185;
on causes for McLean's removal from postmastership, 207;
his appointees his own and Clay's followers, 213;
his action regarding trade with British West Indies, 218, 219;
becomes an anti-slavery leader, 273;
opposes abolition in the District of Columbia, 274;
optimism of his message of 1827, 288;
on banking situation in 1837, 295;
considers specie circular principal cause of panic, 335;
urges a national bank, 335, 336;
votes for fourth installment of surplus, 338;
denounces American claims on Mexico as a plot to annex Texas, 360;
his course on "gag" rule no more reasonable than Van Buren's, 381;
as president, presses American claim to fugitive slaves, 381;
considers Van Buren's politeness to be hypocrisy, 395, 396, 451;
on Harrison's ability, 401;
his death, 429;
comparison with Van Buren, 464, 465.
Alamo, defense of, 357, 358.
"Albany Argus," interest of Van Buren in, 191, 192.
Albany Regency, its membership and character, 111, 112;
its high ability and integrity, 112;
its end, 192 n.
Allen, Peter, his contested election in 1816, 64.
Ambrister, Richard, executed by Jackson, 186.
Ames, Fisher, uses phrase "second thought of the people," 458 n.
Anti-Masons, in New York election of 1828, 166;
rise and popularity of, 167;
their importance in 1832, 245;
unite with Whigs in New York, 245;
nominate an electoral ticket, 245, 246.
Arbuthnot, execution of, 186.
Armstrong, General John,
replaced as United States senator by De Witt Clinton, 51.
Auckland, Lord, his remark to Van Buren, 228.
Bancroft, George, secretary of navy, 362;
at Democratic Convention of 1844, 408.
Bank of United States,
incorporation condemned as unconstitutional by Van Buren, 145;
attack upon, begun by Jackson, 203;
removal of deposits, 249-251;
not likely to have prevented crisis of 1837, 296, 297;
demanded by Whigs, 334, 335;
slow to resume specie payments, 348, 349;
its transactions with Pennsylvania, 370;
suspends payments in 1839, 371;
collapses again in 1841, 393;
bill to re-charter, vetoed by Tyler, 402.
Barbour, Philip P., declares Cumberland road bill does not involve
question of internal improvements, 95;
candidate for vice-presidency in 1831, 237, 239;
at Whig convention of 1839, 378.
Barnburners, origin of, 415;
their leaders, 415;
attempts of Polk to placate, 415, 416;
at first, control Democratic party in New York, 416, 417;
support Wilmot Proviso, 417;
alienated from Polk, 417;
defeated by Hunkers, 418;
secede in 1847, 419;
announce intention to support no candidate not in favor of Wilmot
Proviso, 419;
cause defeat of Hunkers in election of 1847, 422;
hold convention at Utica in 1847, 423, 424;
issue address, 424;
at national convention, 424;
their Utica convention of 1848, 425;
nominate Van Buren for president, 427;
join Free Soil party at Buffalo convention, 427;
nominate Dix for governor, 429;
rejoin Democratic party, 435.
Barry, William T., succeeds McLean as postmaster-general, 179;
helps Blair to establish a Jacksonian paper, 191;
minister to Spain, 199.
Barton, David, votes for Panama Congress, 131.
Beardsley, Samuel, attorney-general of New York, 23.
Beecher, Henry Ward, anti-slavery leader, 273.
Bell, John, defeated for speakership of House, 337.
Bennett, James Gordon,
asks aid from Van Buren in return for newspaper support, 192;
upon refusal, becomes Van Buren's enemy, 193.
Benton, Thomas H., on Van Buren's classification act, 62;
describes Van Buren's friendship with King, 72;
enters Senate, his friendship with Van Buren, 94;
votes against internal improvements, 95;
votes for tariff of 1824, 99;
on Van Buren's advocacy of tariff, 102;
supports Van Buren's proposed amendment to electoral articles
in Constitution, 106;
on topographical surveys, 117;
votes for Cumberland road, 117;
votes for occupation of Oregon, 117;
not always in harmony with Van Buren, 131;
his report on reduction of executive patronage, 137-139;
urges abolition of salt duty, 140;
opposes a naval academy, 140;
again votes for Cumberland road, 142;
votes for tariff of 1828, 142;
praises Giles, 154;
considers Hayne mouthpiece of Calhoun, 188;
describes plan of Calhoun's friends to cry down Van Buren, 191;
condemns system of removals, 211;
denies large numbers of removals, 211;
defends Jackson, 212;
after Van Buren's rejection as minister, predicts his election as
vice-president, 234;
describes Van Buren's reception of Clay's "distress" appeal, 253;
on White's presidential ambition, 257;
moves expunging resolutions, 264;
votes against bill to exclude anti-slavery matter from mail, in
order to defy slaveholders, 276;
describes scheme to force Van Buren to vote on bill to prohibit
anti-slavery matter in the mails, 277;
on Van Buren's motives for supporting it, 277;
predicts to Van Buren a financial panic, 286;
says Van Buren's friends urged Jackson to approve distribution of
surplus, 302;
his advice in speakership contest of 1839, 376;
accuses Whigs of fraud in 1840, 391;
declares for Van Buren's renomination in 1844, 399;
votes against Texas treaty, 413;
considers Wilmot Proviso unnecessary, 418;
praised by Utica convention of 1847, 424;
considers South to be merely blustering, 437;
his friendship for Van Buren, 455.
Berrien, John M., attorney-general, 179;
made to resign, 199.
Biddle, Nicholas,
not so important to country as his friends assumed, 254;
not the man to have prevented panic of 1837, 296, 298;
calls on Van Buren, 319.
Bidwell, Marshall S., leader of popular party in Upper Canada, 352.
Birney, James G., vote for, in New York, 413;
defeats Clay, 413.
Blair, Francis P., his character, establishes "Globe," 191;
enters kitchen cabinet, 193;
opposes nullification and the bank, 193;
refusal of Van Buren to aid, 194;
in connection with Kendall suggests removal of deposits, 251, 252;
supports hard money and loses House printing, 338.
Bouligny, Dominique, votes for Panama congress, 131.
Branch, John, secretary of navy, 179;
forced out of cabinet, 199.
British West Indies, negotiations over trade rights in, 217-222.
Bronson, Greene C., attorney-general of New York, 23.
Brougham, Lord, attacks Durham, 356.
Bryant, William Cullen, denounces Loco-focos, 344;
issues circular opposing Texas, but supporting Polk, 415.
Buchanan, James, supported by Van Buren in 1856, 3, 441;
declines offer of attorney-generalship, 393;
letter of Letcher to, on Polk's nomination, 412;
supports compromise of 1850, 437;
letter of Van Buren favoring, 442-444;
praised mildly by Van Buren, 444;
condemned by Van Buren for accepting Dred Scott decision, 446;
his policy in 1861, condemned by Van Buren, 447;
inferior to Van Buren in ability, 463.
Bucktails, faction of New York Democracy, 67;
originate in personal feuds, 67;
proscribed by Clintonians, 67;
support Rufus King for senator against Clintonians, 69;
joined by a few Federalists, 73;
gain election of 1820, 73;
in Congress, vote against a Clintonian speaker, 76;
elect Van Buren to Senate, 76;
try to destroy Clinton's power by removing from office of canal
commissioner, 109;
oppose bill for election of electors by people, 111;
secure its defeat in legislature, 113;
punished by defeat in election of 1824, 113;
oppose Clinton for reëlection in 1826, 147, 148.
(See Democratic party of New York.)
Burr, Aaron, his standing in 1802, 17;
acquaintance with Van Buren, 17, 18;
used as a bugbear in American politics, 18;
attorney-general of New York, 23;
in Medcef Eden case, 29;
calls Van Buren to aid before court of errors, 29;
intrigues with Federalists in election of 1801, 38;
his standing in Republican party in 1803, 42, 43;
endeavors to gain governorship with Federalist aid, 43;
defeated, his political career closed, 44;
his friends turned out of office, 51;
compared by Adams to Van Buren, 158.
Butler, Benjamin F., contrasts Van Buren and Williams as lawyers, 20;
enters partnership with Van Buren, his character, 24;
high opinion of Van Buren's legal ability, 31;
on Van Buren's attitude toward Madison, 59;
describes arrogance of Judge Spencer, 84;
on Van Buren's attitude toward tariff, 102;
member of Albany Regency, 111, 112;
succeeds Taney as attorney-general, 255;
continues in office under Van Buren, 283;
resigns, 393;
visits Jackson in Van Buren's interest, 407;
protests against adoption of two-thirds rule by convention of 1844,
408, 409;
reads letter from Van Buren authorizing withdrawal of his name, 411;
leads Barnburners, 415;
declines Polk's offer of War Department, 416;
at Utica convention of 1848, 425;
reports resolutions at Buffalo convention, 427;
his friendship for Van Buren, 455.
Butler, William Allen, on Van Buren's serenity, 451;
on his father's affection for Van Buren, 455.
Calhoun, John C., secretary of war, 94;
vice-president, 131;
inferior to Van Buren as party leader, 150;
his attitude in campaign of 1828, 153;
dislike of Crawford for, 157;
represented by Ingham, Branch, and Berrien in Jackson's cabinet, 179;
his rivalry with Van Buren begins, 179;
his public career and character, 180;
reasons for his defeat by Van Buren, 180;
tries to prevent Van Buren's appointment to State Department, 180;
connection with Eaton affair, 182, 184;
wishes to succeed Jackson in 1832, 184;
dislike of Jackson for, 185;
his condemnation of Jackson in Monroe's cabinet, 185;
betrayed by Crawford, 185, 186;
answers Jackson's demand for an explanation, 186;
his toast in reply to Jackson's Union sentiment, 188;
declaration of Jackson against him as successor, 190;
publishes Seminole correspondence, 191;
attacked by "Globe," 191;
defeats Van Buren's nomination by casting vote, 233, 234;
his secession weakens Jacksonian party, 245;
describes Democratic party as held together only by desire for
spoils, 261;
anxious to make Van Buren vote on bill to exclude anti-slavery
matter from mail, 277;
rejoins Democratic party, 340;
his reasons, 340, 341;
altercation with Clay in Senate, 346;
votes against sub-treasury bill, 346;
does not bring his followers back to support of Van Buren, 387;
his opinion of Van Buren quoted by Clay, 396;
in Texas intrigue, 408;
compared by Young to Nero, 410;
his slavery doctrines expounded by Supreme Court, 441.
Cambreleng, Churchill C., with Van Buren visits Southern States, 157;
presides over Barnburner Herkimer convention, 419;
Van Buren's criticism of, 452.
Cameron, Simon, at Democratic convention of 1840, 379.
Canada, government of, 350;
popular discontent and parliamentary struggles in, 351;
insurrections in, during 1837, 352;
governorship of Head, 352, 353;
suppression of insurrections in, 353;
attempts of Mackenzie to invade, 353, 354;
the Caroline affair, 354;
attempts of Van Buren to prevent filibustering in, 355;
pacified by Lord Durham, 355, 356;
becomes loyal, 356.
Cass, Lewis, secretary of war, 199;
minister to France, 283;
his "Nicholson letter," 422;
considered a doughface, 423;
nominated for presidency, 424;
refusal of Van Buren to support, on account of his pro-slavery
position, 426;
defeated in 1848, 431;
accepts compromise of 1850, 437.
Chambers, Henry, votes for Panama congress, 131.
Chandler, John, votes against Panama congress, 131.
Charles X.,
urged by Jackson to secure payment of American claims, 216.
Chase, Salmon P., at Buffalo convention, 427.
Cherokee Indians, removed from Georgia, 203.
Chevalier, Michel, compares Van Buren to Talleyrand, 451.
Civil service of United States,
Democratic dread of executive power over, 137, 138;
proposal to reorganize, 138-140.
Clay, Henry, his connection with Burr, 18;
contrasted with Van Buren in debate, 21;
connection with Missouri Compromise, 90;
absent from Congress in 1821, 94;
calls protection the "American system," 99;
loses chance for presidency through action of New York, 115;
his action in election of Adams justified, 116;
shares with Adams the responsibility of creating division
in 1825, 122;
vote in Senate on confirmation of his nomination, 123;
urges Panama congress, 124, 125;
his opposition to Monroe, 159;
his policy inevitably brings on opposition, 160;
opposes Van Buren's confirmation as minister to England, 230;
denounces Van Buren for sycophancy, 231;
nominated for presidency by Whigs, 246;
by Young Men's convention, 246;
defeated in 1832, 248;
appeals to Van Buren to intercede with Jackson in behalf of the
bank, 253;
his attack on Jackson's land bill veto, 263;
condemns abolitionists, 269;
condemns bill to exclude anti-slavery matter from mails, 276;
opposes reduction of taxation, 299;
on real nature of deposit of surplus, 300;
denounces Van Buren's policy in 1837, 337;
demands a national bank, 337;
insists on payment of fourth installment of surplus, 338;
votes against treasury notes, 339;
taunts Calhoun with joining Van Buren, 346;
opposes preëmption bill, 357;
misled by popular demonstrations, 369;
cheated out of nomination in 1839, 378;
on campaign of 1840, 382;
holds Van Buren responsible for panic, 385;
on Van Buren's personal agreeableness, 396, 397;
visited by Van Buren, 400;
discusses Texas question with him, 400;
his position on slavery, 403;
defeated in 1844 by Polk, owing to Birney's candidacy, 412, 413;
writes letter against Texas annexation, 413;
later bids for pro-slavery vote, 413;
discarded for Taylor in 1848, 430;
brings about compromise of 1850, 435, 437;
inferior to Van Buren in real leadership, 465.
Clayton, John M., votes for Panama congress, 131.
Clinton, De Witt, in New York council of appointment of 1801, 48;
introduces and advocates "spoils system," 49, 50;
becomes United States senator, 51;
duel with Swartwout, 51;
justification of his party proscription, 56;
supported by Van Buren in 1812, 58;
his character, nominated for president against Madison, 58;
breaks relations with Van Buren, 63, 64;
removed from mayoralty of New York, 64;
secures passage of law establishing Erie Canal, 65;
supported in this by Van Buren, 65;
thanks Van Buren, 66;
elected governor, 66;
reëlected in 1820, 73;
accuses Monroe's administration of interfering in state election, 75;
supports Jackson, 109, 156;
complimented by Jackson, 109;
his position in New York politics as canal commissioner, 109;
removed by enemies in legislature, 110;
regains popularity, elected governor, 110;
his death, his character, 147;
eulogy of Van Buren upon, 148.
Clinton, George, his separatist attitude toward Constitution, 5;
leads Republican party in New York, 40;
his career as governor of New York, 40;
declines nomination in 1795, 41;
reëlected in 1801, 41;
later aspirations, 41;
supplants Burr in vice-presidency, 43;
attacked by Van Ness, 43;
leads faction of Republicans, 44;
his friends excluded by Hamilton from federal offices, 46;
presides over council of appointment of 1801, 48, 49;
protests against proscription of Federalists, 50.
Clintonians, faction of New York Democrats, 40, 41;
quarrel with Livingstonians, 44;
control regular party caucus, 45;
gain control of council of appointment, 45;
remove Livingstonians from office, 51;
lose and regain offices, 52;
nominate and cast New York electoral vote for De Witt Clinton, 58;
favor Erie Canal, 65;
opposed by Bucktail faction, 67;
joined by majority of Federalists, 73;
defeated in election of 1820, 73;
oppose election of Van Buren to Senate, 76;
join Bucktails in Democratic party, 158.
Cobb, Thomas W.,
laments absence of principles in campaign of 1824, 108.
Coddington, ----, refusal of Van Buren to appoint to office, 173.
Coleman, William,
friend of Hamilton, removed from office by Republicans, 50.
Comet case, urged by Van Buren in England, 229.
Compromise of 1850, its effect on Northern Democrats, 435;
its futility, 435;
defended by John Van Buren, 439, 440.
Constitution, federal, circumstances preceding its formation, 4;
its development by Federalists, 4, 5;
and internal improvements, 96, 132, 201;
proposal of Van Buren to amend in this respect, 97, 98;
and protection, 101;
proposal of Van Buren to amend in election of president by electors,
104-106, 133, 134;
attitude of Adams concerning, causes division of parties, 121, 122;
in relation to Panama congress, 126;
the bank, 145, 203;
distribution of surplus, 265;
its relation to slavery in the States, 272;
to slavery in Territories, 426, 444;
in Dred Scott case, 441.
Constitutional convention of New York, its membership, 77;
its work, 77;
debate on necessity of a landed suffrage, 77-80;
on appointments to office, 81, 82;
abolishes council of revision, 82, 84;
removes judges from office, 85.
Crawford, William H., supported by New York Republicans against Monroe
in 1816, 75;
the "regular" candidate of party in 1824, 94, 95;
supported by Van Buren, 95;
opposes tariff of 1824, 103;
his caucus nomination denounced by King, 105;
reasons for his popularity, his career, 106, 107;
nominated by caucus, 114;
his connection with four-year-term act, 139;
leaves public life, 157;
his followers join Jackson's, 157;
visited by Van Buren, 157;
willing to support Jackson, but not Calhoun, 157;
supports Jackson against Calhoun in Monroe's cabinet, 185;
describes Calhoun's attitude to Jackson, 186.
Crockett, Davy, his scurrilous life of Van Buren, 256;
his defense of the Alamo, 358.
Croswell, Edwin, member of Albany Regency, 111.
Cumberland road, Monroe's veto of bill to erect toll-gates upon, 95;
further debates upon, 96, 132.
Cushing, Caleb, denounces Van Buren's
policy in 1837, 336.
Dade, Major Francis, massacred by Seminoles, 366.
Dallas, George M., nominated for vice-president, 411.
Debt, imprisonment for, attempts to abolish, 26, 27, 98, 116, 142.
Democratic party, its relations with Van Buren, 2;
in recent years loses Jeffersonian ideals, 12;
share of Van Buren in forming, 118, 119;
its opposition to Adams justifiable, 119;
caused by Adams's loose constitutional policy, 121, 122;
its policy not factious, 123;
created in debate on Panama congress, 130, 131;
drilled by Van Buren in opposing internal improvements, 131, 132,
142;
its principles stated by Van Buren, 145, 153;
does not yet clearly hold them, 154;
united by Jackson's personality, 155;
different elements in, harmonized by Van Buren, 157;
its opposition to Adams and Clay not causeless, but praiseworthy,
159-161;
significance of its victory, 162;
erroneous descriptions of its administration, 177, 178;
discussion in, over succession to Jackson, 185;
break in, between Calhoun and Van Buren, 191;
Van Buren's resignation from State Department in order not to
hurt, 195;
demands offices, 208-212;
enraged at rejection of Van Buren's nomination, 234;
rejects desire of New York to elect him governor, 236;
meets in national convention of 1832, 237;
not forced to adopt Van Buren, 237, 238;
requires two-thirds majority to nominate, 238;
nominates Van Buren for vice-presidency, 239;
avoids adopting a platform, 239;
fears to alienate believers in tariff and internal improvements, 240;
Van Buren's nomination the natural result of circumstances, 240, 241;
successful in election of 1832, 247, 248;
secession of Southwestern members from, 256, 257;
holds its national convention in 1835, 257;
action of party in calling convention defended, 258, 259;
adopts two-thirds rule, 259;
nominates Van Buren and Rives, 259;
Southwestern members of, nominate White and Tyler, 260;
elects Van Buren, 279, 280;
members of, urge Jackson to approve distribution bill, 302;
upholds specie circular during panic, 322, 323;
defeated in elections of 1837, 337, 342;
members of, desert independent treasury bill, 338;
rejoined by Calhoun, 340, 341;
faction of, joins Whigs in opposing Van Buren, 347;
regains ground in election of 1838, 362, 363;
its national convention despondent, 379;
its principles, 379;
declares against abolitionists, 379;
its address to the people, 379, 380;
cried down in election of 1840, 386;
badly defeated in 1840, 390, 391;
significance of defeat, 399;
bound to continue support of Van Buren, 399, 401;
its nomination desired by Tyler, 402;
its delegates to national convention instructed to nominate Van
Buren, 404;
majority of, desires annexation of Texas, 405;
national convention of, 408-411;
debate in, between Southern and Northern members, 408, 409;
adopts two-thirds rule, 409;
nominates Polk over Van Buren, 410, 411;
successful in election, 412, 413;
compliments Van Buren on honorable retirement, 414;
at national convention of 1848 wishes to include both New York
factions, 424;
nominates Cass, 424;
its rage at Free-soil secession, 429, 430;
defeated in election, 432;
impossibility of its pardoning Van Buren, 434;
nominates Pierce, 439;
nominates Buchanan, 441.
Democratic party, in New York, supports Jackson, 158;
nominates and elects Van Buren governor, 166;
sends address to Jackson on Van Buren's rejection by Senate as
minister to England, 234;
proposes to elect Van Buren governor or send him to Senate, 236;
Loco-foco faction in, 342-344;
on reconciliation with Loco-focos, name transferred to whole
party, 344, 345;
offers Forrest nomination to Congress, 361;
favors literary men, 361, 362;
loses ground in elections of 1838, 363;
welcomes Van Buren's visit, 369;
continues, in 1839, to regain ground, 370;
its action in convention of 1844, 408-411;
held in support of Polk by Van Buren and Wright, 412, 413;
divides into Hunkers and Barnburners, 415-425;
reunited in 1849-1850, 435.
Denny, Thomas, with Henry Parrish and others, on committee of New York
merchants to remonstrate against specie circular, 317.
Derby, Earl of, compared as parliamentarian to Van Buren, 123.
De Tocqueville, Alexis de, on lawyers in America, 35.
Dickerson, Mahlon, condemns too much diplomacy, 129;
votes against Panama congress, 131;
supports tariff of 1828, 143;
secretary of navy under Van Buren, 283;
resigns, 360.
Dickinson, Daniel S., at Democratic Convention of 1844, 408, 411;
leads Hunkers, 415;
uses federal patronage against Barnburners, 417;
suggests idea of squatter sovereignty, 422;
supports compromise of 1850, 437.
Diplomatic history, conduct of State Department by Van Buren, 215;
negotiations leading to payment of French spoliation claims, 216;
payment of Danish spoliation claims, 217;
other commercial treaties, 217;
negotiations relative to British West India trade, 217-222;
Gallatin's mission to England, 219;
American claims abandoned by Van Buren, 220;
mutual concessions open trade, 222;
Van Buren's mission to England, 224-228;
rejection of Texas treaty, 413.
Disraeli, Benjamin,
his Jingo policy compared to Clay's and Adams's, 126.
District of Columbia,
question of abolition of slavery in, raised, 272, 273;
general understanding that this was impossible, 273, 274;
opinion of Van Buren concerning, 274, 275.
Dix, John A., his desire to be one of Albany Regency, 112;
at Democratic convention of 1840, 379;
leads Barnburners, 415;
praised by Utica convention of 1847, 423;
accepts Free-soil nomination for governor, 429;
his friendship for Van Buren, 456.
Dix, Dr. Morgan, describes honesty of Albany Regency, 112.
Dodge, Henry, nominated by Barnburners for vice-presidency, 427;
declines to abandon Cass, 427.
Douglas, Stephen A., supports compromise of 1850, 437.
Dudley, Charles E., member of Albany Regency, 111;
offers to surrender seat in Senate to Van Buren, 236.
Duer, John,
refusal of Van Buren to secure his removal from office, 209.
Duer, William, joins Bucktail Republicans, 73.
Durham, Earl of, sent to Canada, his character, 355;
his successful rule, 355;
recalled, 356;
declines invitation to visit Washington, 356.
Dutch, in New York, Americanized in eighteenth century, 14.
Eaton, John H., supports tariff of 1828, 143;
secretary of war, 179;
marries Peggy Timberlake, 181;
repeats remarks about Calhoun to Jackson, 186;
resigns secretaryship,199;
succeeds Barry as minister to Spain, 199;
opposes Van Buren in 1840, 387.
Eaton, Mrs. "Peggy," scandals concerning, 181;
upheld by Jackson, 181, 182;
ostracized by Washington society, 182;
treated politely by Van Buren, 183, 184.
Eden, Joseph, in suit for Medcef Eden's property, 28.
Eden, Medcef, suit concerning his will, 28-30.
Edmonds, John W.,
issues circular opposing Texas but supporting Polk, 415.
Election of 1824, nominations for, discussed in Senate, 105;
candidates for, 106-109;
lack of principles in, 108;
nomination of Crawford by caucus, 114;
action of Adams men in New York throws out Clay, 115;
discussion of outcome of vote in House, 116;
its result used in 1828 to condemn Adams, 164.
Election of 1828, a legitimate canvass, 153;
broad principles at stake in, 153, 154;
propriety of opposition to Adams and Clay, 159, 160;
founds principles of both parties until present day, 161;
saves country from dangers of centralization, 162;
slanderous character of, 162, 163;
the cry of corrupt bargain, 163;
the "demos krateo" cry legitimate, 165, 166.
Ellmaker, Amos, nominated for vice-president by anti-Masons, 246.
Ely, Rev. Dr. Ezra S., bitter letter of Jackson to, on clergy, 181.
Emmett, Thomas Addis, attorney-general of New York, 23.
England, lawyers not leaders in, 33;
political prejudice in, against lawyers, 33;
demands land-holding class as leaders, 34;
considers offices as property, 55;
unpopularity of political coalitions in, 116, 164;
attempts to exclude Americans from trade with West Indies, 217, 218;
offers trade upon conditions, 218;
on failure of United States to comply, prohibits trade, 218;
counter-claims of United States against, 219;
claims against, abandoned by Van Buren, 219, 222;
agrees to reciprocal concessions, 222;
Van Buren minister to, 224;
popularity of Irving in, 225;
social life of Van Buren in, 226-228;
its indifference to colonial grievances, 350;
votes to tax Canada without reference to colonial legislatures, 351;
sends Durham to remedy grievances, 356;
recalls him, 356;
second money stringency in, 371.
Erie Canal, agitation for, 65;
favored by Van Buren, 65, 66.
Federalist party,
its influence on development of United States government, 5;
despises common people, 38;
only example of a destroyed party, 38;
deserves its fate, 38, 39;
continues to struggle in New York, 39;
aids Burr against Republicans, 43;
supports Lewis against Clintonians, 44;
begins spoils system in New York, 47;
aids Livingstonians to turn out Clintonian officers, 51, 52;
supports De Witt Clinton for president, 59;
controls New York Assembly, 60;
hinders war measures, 61;
struggles for control of New York legislature in 1816, 64;
defeated in elections, 65;
expires in 1820, 72, 88;
divides between Clintonians and Bucktails, 73;
position under Monroe, 89;
its career used by Van Buren to discredit J. Q. Adams, 128, 145, 146.
Fellows, Henry, his election case in 1816, 64.
Fillmore, Millard, signs compromise bills, 435, 437;
Whig candidate in 1856, 445;
an accidental president, 463.
Field, David Dudley,
issues circular against Texas but supporting Polk, 415;
offers anti-slavery resolution in New York Democratic convention, 418;
reads Van Buren's letter to Utica convention, 425.
Financial history, removal of deposits from the bank, 249-251;
exaggerated results of the withdrawal, 252-254;
real unwisdom of "pet bank" policy, 254;
causes of panic of 1837, 287-316;
financial depression after war of 1812, 287, 288;
land speculations, 291-294;
large foreign investments, 293;
discussion of "pet bank" policy, 295;
not in any sense the cause of the panic, 295, 296;
rapid increase of government surplus, 297;
question of responsibility for speculation among politicians, 298-302;
refusal to reduce taxation, 299;
distribution of surplus, 300-302;
objections of Jackson to distribution, 301, 302;
warnings of Marcy and Jackson disregarded, 302, 303;
specie circular, 304;
demand for gold payments, 304, 305;
nature of crisis of 1837 misunderstood, 305;
class affected by it small in numbers, 306;
great mass of people unaffected, 307;
over-estimation of new lands, 308, 309;
increased luxury, 309, 310;
high prices, 310, 311;
discovery of over-valuation, 311, 312;
collapse of nominal value, 313;
folly of attempt to conceal collapse, 314;
bread riots against high prices, 315;
disturbance caused by distribution of surplus, 315, 316;
financial crisis begins in England, 316;
failures begin in New York, 316;
general collapse, 317;
specie circular held to be the cause, 317-319;
suspension of specie payments, 319, 320;
general bankruptcy, 320;
use of token currency, 323;
Van Buren's message recommending independent treasury, 327-333;
proposed remedies of Whigs, 333-337;
defeat of first sub-treasury bill, 337;
postponement of fourth installment of surplus, 338;
issue of treasury notes, 338, 339;
beneficent results of these measures, 339, 340;
preparations for resumption of specie payment, 342;
defeat of second independent treasury bill, 346;
practical existence of an independent treasury, 346;
final passage of sub-treasury bill, 347, 348;
revival of business, 348;
resumption of payments by New York banks, 348, 349;
others follow, 349;
return of confidence, 349;
continued depression in South, 370;
brief revival of land speculation, 371;
renewed collapse of Western and Southern banks, 371;
final passage of sub-treasury bill, 377.
Findlay, William, votes against Panama congress, 131.
Flagg, Azariah C., member of Albany Regency, 111;
leads Barnburners, 415;
his friendship for Van Buren, 456.
Florida, acquired in 1819, 88;
vote of Van Buren to exclude slave trade in, 93, 94.
Floyd, John, receives South Carolina's electoral vote in 1832, 248.
Forman, Joshua, proposes safety fund for New York banks, 170.
Forrest, Edwin, declines a nomination to Congress, 361.
Forsyth, John, quotes Crawford's account of Calhoun's proposal in
Monroe's cabinet to punish Jackson, 185;
refers Jackson to Crawford as authority, 186;
secretary of state, 255;
retained by Van Buren, 283.
Fox, Charles James, compared to W. B. Giles, 154.
France, urged by Jackson, agrees to pay spoliation claims, 216.
Franklin, Benjamin, his share in effort for Union, 4.
Free-soil party, loses faith in Van Buren, 3;
organized at Buffalo convention, 427;
its platform, 428;
nominates Van Buren over Hale, 428;
analysis of its vote in 1848, 431, 432;
later relations of Van Buren with, 435;
supports Hale in 1852, 439.
Fremont, John C., Van Buren's opinion of, 441;
defeated in election, 445.
"Gag" rule, approved by Van Buren, 380;
his policy justified by executive position, 381.
Gallatin, Albert, nominated for vice-president, withdraws, 114;
fails to settle West India trade question with England, 219;
agrees with Van Buren's position, 231.
Garland, Hugh A., as clerk of the House refuses to decide status of
New Jersey congressmen, 375;
justification of his action, 375, 376;
denounced by Adams, 376;
reëlected clerk, 376.
Garrison, William Lloyd, on powers of Congress over slavery, 272;
his position in American history, 273.
Georgia, nominates Van Buren for vice-presidency, 108;
"Clarkite" faction in, abuses Van Buren, 108;
its conduct in Cherokee case rightly upheld by Jackson, 203, 204.
Giddings, Joshua R., anti-slavery leader, 273;
at Buffalo convention, 427.
Giles, William B., his character, 154.
Gilpin, Henry D., attorney-general under Van Buren, 393.
Gladstone, William Ewart, his shrewdness as parliamentarian, 123;
compared to Van Buren, 158 and n., 457;
fails to see any principle involved in Canadian question of 1837,
351, 352.
"Globe," defends Jackson, 191;
not established by Van Buren, 194;
supports hard money, loses House printing, 338.
Goschen, George Joachim, his career shows danger of coalitions, 164.
Gouverneur, ----, postmaster in New York city, refuses to forward
anti-slavery papers to Charleston, South Carolina, 276.
Granger, Francis,
supported for governor of New York by Whigs and Anti-Masons, 245;
nominated for vice-president, 260.
Grant, Ulysses S., his renomination in 1872, 118.
Greeley, Horace, prefers Taylor to Van Buren in 1848, 431.
Green, Duff, editor of "The Telegraph,"
plans attack of Calhoun papers on Van Buren, 191.
Grosvenor, Thomas P., member of Columbia County bar, 20.
Grundy, Felix, attorney-general under Van Buren, 393.
Gwin, Samuel, letter of Van Buren to, on slavery in the States, 272.
Hale, Daniel, removed from office by New York Republicans, 50.
Hale, John P., defeated for nomination at Buffalo convention, 428;
withdraws from Liberty nomination, 431;
Free-soil candidate in 1852, 439.
Hamilton, Alexander,
his aristocratic schemes defeated in Federal convention, 5;
his opinion in Medcef Eden case, 28;
killed by Burr, 29;
advises Federalists not to support Burr for governor, 43;
secures appointment of Clinton's opponents to federal offices in
New York, 46;
compared as party-builder to Van Buren, 465.
Hamilton, James A., joins "Bucktails" in New York, 73;
acts as temporary secretary of state, 177;
on Calhoun's attempt to prevent Van Buren's appointment, 181;
visits Crawford in 1828, 185;
receives letter from Forsyth describing Calhoun's attitude toward
Jackson in Monroe's cabinet, 185;
refuses to give letter to Jackson, 186;
letter of Van Buren to, on Jackson's principles, 200;
aids Jackson in composing messages, 205;
on Jackson's demand for subservience in associates, 206;
letter of Van Buren to, on removals, 209.
Hamilton, John C., joins Bucktail Republicans, 73.
Hamlin, Hannibal, at Democratic convention of 1840, 379.
Hammond, Jabez D., quoted, 65, 68, 78, 168;
on Van Buren's trickery, 175.
Harrison, William Henry, nominated by Whigs in 1832, 260;
his answers to Williams's questions, 264;
vote for, in election, 279, 280;
renominated for president, 377;
denounced as a Federalist by Democrats, 379;
denies charge of abolitionism, 381, 382;
opposes abolition in District of Columbia, 381;
character of his speeches in the campaign, 386;
vote for, in 1840, 390, 391;
welcomed to White House by Van Buren, 394;
his death, 401;
one of the mediocrities of White House, 463.
Harvard College, confers on Jackson degree of Doctor of Laws, 255.
Hayne, Robert Y., on "era of good feeling," 88;
against tariff of 1824, 99, 100;
his arguments, 101, 102;
votes to reject Clay's nomination to State Department, 123;
on Clay's Panama scheme, 127;
protests against tariff of 1828, 144;
a leader of Senate until 1828, 148;
his debate with Webster, 188;
opposes confirmation of Van Buren as minister to England, 230.
Head, Sir Francis B., on Mackenzie as a liar, 326 n.;
as governor, refuses to placate disaffected Canadians, 352, 353;
leaves Canada, 355.
Henry, John V.,
New York Federalist, removed from office by Republicans, 50.
Henry, Matthew, on "sober second thought of people," 458 n.
Henry, Patrick, his separatist attitude, 5.
Hill, Isaac, in kitchen cabinet, 193;
letter of Lewis to, proposing a national convention, 237.
Hoes, Hannah, marries Van Buren, 21;
her death, 36.
Holmes, John, votes against Panama congress, 131.
House of Representatives, defeats independent treasury bill, 337, 338;
rejects renewal of a bank, 340;
defeats second treasury bill, 346;
finally passes it, 348;
struggle for control of, in 1839, 374-377;
case of the five New Jersey congressmen, 374, 375;
refusal of clerk to call names of contestants, 374, 375;
organization of, by Adams and Rhett, 376, 377.
Houston, Samuel, defeats Mexicans, 358.
Hoxie, Joe, in campaign of 1840, 390.
Hoyt, Jesse, letter of Butler to, on Van Buren, 31;
letter of Butler to, on judicial arrogance, 84;
letters of Van Buren to, on appointments to state office, 173, 174;
on Jackson, 190;
on necessity of a newspaper organ, 192;
writes insolent letter, urging Van Buren to dismiss office-holders,
210;
succeeds Swartwout as collector at New York, 364;
his character, 364, 365;
his election bets, 453 n.
Hoyt, Lorenzo, complains of Van Buren's slowness to remove opponents
from office, 209.
Hunkers, origin of, their leaders, 415;
struggle with Barnburners in New York, 417;
aided by Polk, 417;
gain control of party, 418.
Hunter, Robert M. T., elected speaker of House in 1839, 376;
his later career, 376.
Ingham, Samuel D., secretary of treasury, 179;
describes rush of office-seekers, 210.
Inman, Henry, his portrait of Van Buren, 449.
Internal improvements, debates on, in Senate, 95-98, 117, 142;
opposition becomes part of Democratic policy, 98;
advocated by Adams, 121;
bill for, vetoed by Jackson, 201, 202;
not mentioned by Democrats in platform of 1832, 240;
demand for, caused by expansion of West, 290.
Irving, Washington,
appointed secretary of legation at London by Van Buren, 224;
his popularity in England, 225;
wishes to resign, but remains with Van Buren, 225;
his friendship for Van Buren, 225;
travels through England with Van Buren, 226;
on Van Buren's career in London, 228;
declines offers of Democratic nominations, 361;
declines offer of Navy Department, 361, 362;
lives at Kinderhook, 398.