As for Federal aid to internal improvements, he cut off expenditures so completely that the Government even sold the tools it had used on public works. He fought for the establishment of an independent treasury system to handle Government transactions. He opposed not only the creation of a new Bank of the United States but also the placing of Government funds in state banks. Van Buren’s remedy–continuing Jackson’s deflationary policies–only deepened and prolonged the depression.ĭeclaring that the panic was due to recklessness in business and overexpansion of credit, Van Buren devoted himself to maintaining the solvency of the national Government. Programs applied decades later to alleviate economic crisis eluded both Van Buren and his opponents. For about five years the United States was wracked by the worst depression thus far in its history. To end this speculation, Jackson in 1836 had issued a Specie Circular requiring that lands be purchased with hard money–gold or silver. His destruction of the Second Bank of the United States had removed restrictions upon the inflationary practices of some state banks wild speculation in lands, based on easy bank credit, had swept the West. The country was prosperous, but less than three months later the panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity.īasically, the trouble was the 19th-century cyclical economy of “boom and bust,” which was following its regular pattern, but Jackson’s financial measures contributed to the crash. Van Buren devoted his Inaugural Address to a discourse upon the American experiment as an example to the rest of the world. The “Little Magician” was elected Vice President on the Jacksonian ticket in 1832, and won the Presidency in 1836. Vice President Calhoun, as President of the Senate, cast the deciding vote against the appointment–and made a martyr of Van Buren. Jackson appointed a new Cabinet, and sought again to reward Van Buren by appointing him Minister to Great Britain. Van Buren suggested a way out of an eventual impasse: he and Secretary of War Eaton resigned, so that Calhoun men would also resign. The rift in the Cabinet became serious because of Jackson’s differences with Calhoun, a Presidential aspirant.
Jackson referred to him as, “a true man with no guile.” Calhoun’s recommendation began to demonstrate only secondary loyalty to Jackson, Van Buren emerged as the President’s most trusted adviser. As the Cabinet Members appointed at John C. President Jackson rewarded Van Buren by appointing him Secretary of State. Yet he faithfully fulfilled official duties, and in 1821 was elected to the United States Senate.īy 1827 he had emerged as the principal northern leader for Andrew Jackson. As leader of the “Albany Regency,” an effective New York political organization, he shrewdly dispensed public offices and bounty in a fashion calculated to bring votes. Of Dutch descent, he was born in 1782, the son of a tavernkeeper and farmer, in Kinderhook, New York.Īs a young lawyer he became involved in New York politics. His impeccable appearance belied his amiability–and his humble background. Only about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, but trim and erect, Martin Van Buren dressed fastidiously. While the country was prosperous when the “Little Magician” was elected, less than three months later the financial panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity.
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States (1837-1841), after serving as the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, both under President Andrew Jackson.
The biography for President Van Buren and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.
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