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 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 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 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.