Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841

The American Presidents #8

by Ted Widmer

One of the collection of biographies on the American presidents. this one is about Martin Van Buren.

Genres: Presidents, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Us Presidents, American History, Politics

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2005

About the author

Edward (Ted) Ladd Widmer (born 1963) is a historian, writer, and librarian, who served as a speechwriter in the later days of the Clinton White House.

His parents were Eric G. Widmer and Ellen B. Widmer. As of 1992, his father was working as Dean of Admissions and financial aid at Brown University, and his mother was an Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures at Wesleyan University. Ted Widmer obtained an A.B. in the history and literature of France and the United States, an A.M. in history, and a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University.

Widmer was appointed lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University from 1993 until 1997. He then spent a few years working with Bill Clinton, both during and after Clinton's presidency. He was the special assistant to the president for national security affairs, writing foreign policy speeches, and subsequently was the senior advisor to the president for special projects, advising on history and scholarship related issues. He conducted interviews with Clinton while Clinton was writing his autobiography.

He was the first director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and an associate professor of history at Washington College from 2001. On July 1, 2006 he was appointed director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One reason I chose to read Times Books “The American Presidents” series was because I suspected there was at least one “almost major” president buried somewhere in the list of forty-five, somebody I’d overlooked entirely. Well, I’ve found him, and its Martin Van Buren, the man from Kinderhook, New York. The United States—particularly the Democratic Party—could not have been what it was without “Little Van.”

The word “little” in his nicknames (“Little Van,” “Little Matt”, “Little Matty,” “The Little Magician”)--he was a man of many nicknames—indicates some of the reasons why he is overlooked by history: he was short in physical stature (5’6”, the second shortest president, after Madison), social status (a tavern owner’s son), and social contacts (the only president who neither graduated from college nor served in the military). He was, in many ways, an outsider: only one of two presidents without a trace of Anglo-Saxon ancestry (Kennedy was the other), the only president who spoke English as a second language (he grew up speaking Dutch), and—later—the first president to lead a third party (the “Free Soil” movement in 1848 to stop slavery in the territories).

This characterization is misleading, however, for Little Van the self-taught lawyer was also the most social of presidents: a charming conversationalist, a former of coalitions, a maker of deals. He fashioned the small farmers, small businessmen and craftsmen of New York State into a formidable opposition to the old Federalist big money boys, namely, the major Dutch landholders (the patroons), the city merchants, and the big bankers. He set up a political system that was adept at communication, both internally (he was an expert vote counter, sensitive both to mutual interests and particular concerns) and externally (he not only maintained good relations and efficient messaging with the general press, but helped promote politically sympathetic newspapers and literary journals.) Before long, the political machine of “the Democracy” was a formidable force not only in Albany but in all New England as well.

Van Buren, however, was not content with “The Democracy” being a major regional power, but sought to forge a national coalition. He realized that the interests of Southern states, the cradle of Jeffersonian democracy, still had much in common with those of the political machine he had fashioned, that they both distrusted the pro-British sentiments of the Northern elite. Soon after he became a U.S. senator in 1812, he used his passionate opposition to British violations of American sovreignty to form alliances with many of his future friends—and foes—of the South and the West: Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Cass. It took many trips by Van Buren to South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, but by the end of the war of 1812, the great North/South coalition had been formed. (We refer to it as “Jacksonian Democracy,’ but it was really Van Buren’s creation.)

“Little Van” began to be referred to as “The Little Magician,” and his political success seemed secure throughout his vice presidency under Jackson. But President Van Buren’s fate was to be blighted by two great evils, one largely accidental and the other unavoidably integral: the first was the devastation wrought by the financial Panic of 1837, and the second was the rift between Northern and Southern Democrats over the institution of slavery, particularly the issue of its western expansion. “The Little Magician” could not make the immorality of slavery disappear, nor the pain of the economic downturn. Soon he had acquired a new nickname: “Martin Van Ruin.” (The ill-fated William Henry Harrison, standard bearer of America’s first thoroughly populist—and thoroughly dishonest—campaign defeated him in 1840.)

Oh, speaking of nicknames and the 1840 election, I forgot about Van Buren’s most enduring legacy—at least where the American language is concerned. They called him “Old Kinderhook,” which during the 1840 election was abbreviated to “OK,” and was used by the Democrats as a slogan, as in the phrase “Vote for OK” (the only acceptable candidate). Thus the popular phrase “Okay” was born.

I know, I know. Some say "Okay" is derived from the humorous phrase “oll korrect,” and some say it comes from the old Choctaw word okeh, but I’m giving Martin Van Buren the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t get enough respect anyway.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading lengthy biographies of the first seven presidents, I hit a wall with Van Buren. There are many great biographies of the founding fathers, but the pickings are a little slim after Andrew Jackson. Indeed, I’ll bet some Americans have a tough time even naming the presidents between Jackson and Lincoln. Choices at the library were dated and of an intimidating length, so I chose this selection written by Ted Widmer for the American Presidents Series, which claim to be “compact enough for the busy reader and authoritative enough for the scholar.”

I think Van Buren deserves a contemporary biography to reintroduce him to Americans, as he is a significant figure in American politics. Van Buren was our first ethnic president (that being of Dutch descent and not Anglo-Saxon) and the first American (the prior seven were born as British subjects). He’s also the first president to gain office without a formal education or the benefit of being a military hero. He is one of our first true politicians, quickly absorbing the machinations of politics and governance by observing the visitors in his father’s tavern, located on the path between New York and Albany. By 18 he was already actively involved in politics and campaigning. Van Buren had an innate understanding of building public support and political alliances, and was essentially the architect and builder of the Democratic Party, literally changing the way our government is elected.

Widmer’s writing style is informal in comparison to the academic detail of the typical biography, but it is very readable and not condescending or over-simplified. He does good job highlighting the significant points of Van Buren’s life with just enough detail and thought to keep the reader interested. Ironically, once he achieved the top office Van Buren’s only term was not particularly successful. His story probably peaked with the Jackson presidency, the fruits of all of his hard labor in designing and building the Democratic Party. During his own term, he was the unlucky inheritor of the Panic of 1837, an economic downturn that perhaps no other chief executive could have successfully navigated. His masterful way of holding the middle ground on issues to build public support began to backfire, particularly on slavery, as Americans began to strongly take sides on the issue. Ultimately, he lost his second term to the party politics he mostly invented. All of these significant points are succinctly described by the author.

The page length is restricted in this series, so there are some quantum leaps in Van Buren’s life, and not many little anecdotes and details along the way. Even so, I would recommend this book for those interested in learning about one of our lesser known presidents without getting bogged down in the minutia.

On to Old Tippecanoe.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Van Buren In The American Presidents Series

The short volumes in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur Schleisinger, Jr. and Sean Wilentz offer good introductions to the presidents, American history and the nature of leadership. Each volume is written by a different scholar, and the varied perspectives they bring to their subjects is enlightening. Ted Widmer, a former speechwriter for President Clinton and the director of the V.C. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, wrote this engagingly-written biography of the eighth president Martin Van Buren. Widmer did a good deal of careful research in unfamiliar sources, including for example Davy Crockett's 1835 biography, Jabez Hammond's 1842 study "The History of Political Parties in New York", which Widmer claims ranks among the best studies of the American political process, and Van Buren's own obscure autobiographical memoir. With his background in the Clinton presidency, Widmer tends to be overly partisan in commenting on contemporary political issues.

The volumes may be especially valuable for some of the more obscure presidents because there tends to be less written about them. With respect to Van Buren, Widmer observes (at 167):

"[T]o this day, there have been sufficiently few biographies of Martin Van Buren that a reader with time on his hands (and what other kind of Van Buren acolyte is there?) can reasonably expect to read every work on Van Buren ever written --something that would be impossible to say about the other giants of the early republic."

Van Buren (1782 -- 1862) served a single term as the eighth president (1837 -- 1841) following the presidency of Andrew Jackson. His presidency was unsuccessful because it coincided with the Panic of 1837, possible the worst economic downturn in the United States before the Great Depression. The Panic had been fueled by over-speculation and likely by imprudent fiscal policies in the Jackson administration in which Van Buren had played a large role.

Van Buren's presidency occupies only about one-third of this volume. As Widmer points out, his importance lies elsewhere, both before and after his presidency. Born to humble origins in a small New York village, Van Buren became the founder of modern American party politics. As a young man in the New York State legislature, he quickly gained control of the political machine of the Democratic party. Upon election to the United States Senate in 1821, Van Buren expanded the party into a national organization by imposing strict party discipline and by forming broad coalitions. Thus Van Buren formed a tenuous alliance with Southern democrats which required much compromising and which shattered prior to the Civil War. Following the presidency of James Monroe, Van Buren became the campaign manager for the doomed candidacy of William Crawford, but he came into his own in 1828, four years later as the manager for Andrew Jackson's successful campaign. Through a combination of intrigue, back room deals, and his own merit, Van Buren succeeded Jackson to the presidency.

Van Buren's major accomplishment was in his creation of the large national two-party political system and of the mastery of rough-and-tumble politics. Widmer writes perceptively (p.57):

[E]vidence of opposition parties is one of the most important ways to measure the vital signs of an emerging democracy... Van Buren, while not a radical thinker, deserves full credit for realizing this truth ahead of his compatriots. It was a huge contribution, lost in the the obscurity of the early republic, somewhere between the Erie canal and the Tariff of Abominations, but more important than either. Not only is the spirit of party not hostile to democracy, it is essential to it. We are all familiar with the deficiencies of the two-party system- the acrimony, gridlock, and corruption that taint the process more than we care to admit. However, there is a fundamental balance at its core -- an internal gyroscope based on brute competition-- that has allowed this system
to continue, with only a few modifications, from 1828 to the present. This gyroscope was built by Van Buren."

Widmer also points out that Van Buren made important, less well-remembered contributions to American life following his presidency. On some occasions, he moved away from a pragmatic, hard-edged politics towards a politics based upon principle. Thus, in 1844 Van Buren was the front-runner for the presidential nomination, but he spoke in opposition to the annexation of Texas. Andrew Jackson withdrew his support of his former ally, and the nomination went to James K. Polk. Then, in 1848, Van Buren grew disillusioned with the national Democratic party he had done much to create because of its stand on slavery. He ran as a third-party candidate, showing the wedge that slavery had brought to the two-party system, for the Free Soil Party and captured ten percent of the popular vote. This vote was enough to deny the Democratic party the presidency and to elect Zachary Taylor. Until his death in 1862, Van Buren remained a staunch supporter of the Union and of the efforts of President Lincoln to preserve it.

Widmer offers a good short portrait of Van Buren and his era. Readers wanting a more detailed study of this period of American history with themes similar to Widmer's might explore Sean Wilentz' book, "The Rise of American Democracy."

Robin Friedman

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. This book is dreadful. It’s shallow, frivolous, flippant, frequently inaccurate and does little to bring Martin Van Buren to life.

I am one who actually enjoys a good academic tome, a massive brick of a biography on an obscure president. So I know what I’m getting into on the infrequent occasions I pick up a book from Schlesinger’s American Presidents series. They’re brief, based on a smattering of secondary sources, and aimed at a general readership who has never before picked up a biography of that particular president and probably never will again.

With that in mind, some are okay, for what they are. I thought this particular one would be a decent appetizer before digging into some weightier fare about Van Buren. But Widmer approaches his book as if to say, “this series is about all the presidents, and Martin Van Buren was a president, so someone’s got to write about him, and I guess you want to read something about him since you’ve picked up this book, so let’s get this over with and try to make it as painless as possible.”

Widmer attempts to make Van Buren’s life and career exciting, or at least palatable, to a modern reader by writing in a casual, pop culture-infused style, referencing everything from Seinfeld to Sunset Boulevard, Elvis, Rush Limbaugh and the Godfather (though some haven’t aged as well since the book’s 2005 publication, such as references to “a Yahoo! search engine” and “a nation of Kmart shoppers”.)

And somewhere in all of this is the story of Martin Van Buren himself, though he often gets lost in the telling, since Widmer seems more interested in writing about the times than the man, in an often ostentatious way. His editor ought to have encouraged him to kill his darlings - only four pages in, Widmer merrily mentions Van Buren’s “surfeit of sobriquets," setting the tone for much of what is to come. And he never met a simile, metaphor or non sequitur he didn’t like - the more arcane and convoluted the better, such as describing John Calhoun being removed from Andrew Jackson's orbit “with all the surgical cleanliness of a Soviet apparatchik arranging dignitaries on the May Day reviewing stand,” or in describing John Quincy Adams as someone “who could not have looked upon Van Buren’s activity with more disfavor if he was an emissary from the Vatican seeking to convert Yankee maids to Papism and then sell them into white slavery.”

Huh??

Style aside, what really got me were the lazy inaccuracies and the perpetuating of myths that Widmer either failed to fact-check, or knew they were wrong but used them anyway because it made for a more interesting story - most of them minor, but still. John Calhoun was the only vice president who “succeeded himself under a different president” (wrong). The E.C. Booz Distillery gave out log cabin-shaped bottles of whiskey to promote William Henry Harrison’s presidential campaign, giving rise to the slang term “booze” (all of it a debunked myth). Crowds at Andrew Jackson’s inaugural celebration devoured a giant wheel of cheese that was gifted to him (conflating two completely different events). Jackson’s temper and penchant for dueling left “more than a few widows in Tennessee” (“more than a few,” otherwise known as “one”). When Martin Van Buren moved at one point and sold off his furniture, it was discovered that the carpet in front of his well-used mirror was threadbare (a likely apocryphal tale originated by a storyteller who recounted it decades later). And in trying to make some kind of point about consumerism, Widmer makes the bizarre assertion that “in the 1830s, Independence Hall in Philadelphia became a clothing store,” citing a contemporary ad that can easily be found via "a Yahoo! search engine" and shows the place of business in question being blocks away from Independence Hall itself. (In a 2018 interview with the great Brian Lamb of C-SPAN, Lamb asked with much skepticism whether this anecdote is really true, and Widmer doubled down, insisting that it is. Note: it isn’t.)

Where did he get these stories? Who knows? Because it’s not like there are any end notes, just a short list of secondary sources he consulted before banging this book out.

At least Widmer acknowledges that the story that Martin Van Buren was the bastard son of Aaron Burr is most likely completely made up, but that doesn’t keep him from telling the story anyway, just to liven things up.

And it’s rich when he chides other authors of more serious books that cover Van Buren’s pre-presidential career, claiming that "too many biographers pass over these years to get to his presidency" - ironic, in a book that takes a mere 90 pages before getting to Van Buren’s presidency.

I could go on, but it’s not worth the effort. There’s absolutely nothing in here for anyone with a genuine interest in Martin Van Buren. And there’s really nothing in here for anyone with even a passing interest in learning more about him, unless you don't mind a bunch of frills and falsehoods in what is ultimately a surface-level story. You’d do better to read Van Buren’s Wikipedia entry. At least that has footnotes.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read about Martin Van Burn because he was from New York State. He was a lot more interesting than I thought he would be. He grew up speaking Dutch, so I wonder if he had an accent. He was instrumental in establishing the Democratic party as we know it today. He knew all the important people of his time, traveled a lot, and read a lot, supplementing his grammar school education. He was the first President from New York State, and he was also Vice President under Andrew Jackson, and governor of New York State. He's not well known today because he unfortunately began his term just as the panic of 1837 took place, a crisis that he was not prepared to deal with. Though he had successes in his career, he was blamed for the hard economic times and not reelected. I do wish that Widmer had included a bit more information about Van Buren's family life. I've noticed that the series of which this book is a part, American Presidents, tends to focus on their careers rather than their personal lives, and tend to read a bit on the dry side. Nevertheless, I found it interesting--guess I'll have to read another biography to fill in the gaps. Recommended, especially if you're interested in New York State history.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who is Martin Van Buren? When I cast the name into the pool of my imagination, I can see his face reflected there, framed by wild sideburns and seeded by a guide to the US Presidents I read cover to cover obsessively in middle school. (It covered everyone from George W to George W.) The trivia factoid assigned to him in the book was that he was the first US President to not be a subject of Parliament when he was born, though frankly knowing he didn’t speak English when he was young would’ve been more interesting. I picked this book up as part of an old-but-rarely-pursued course of presidential biographies that I’ve gotten more interested in continuing as America’s 250th looms. Ted Widmer’s Martin Van Buren is a short and often punchy biography of this singular figure in American life, a man frequently forgot despite having a large ‘quiet’ role in how American politics developed in the early 19th century.

Van Buren, it seems, was instrumental to the creation of the Democratic party, which he forged in an effort to reconcile the interests of New York and Virginia. He had a knack for party organization, in fact, building a machine in New York before he ascended to the national stage. He came of age when the balance of economic and political power was slowly starting to shift from the South to the North, and would ride that transition — ultimately helping create the Free Soil party, precursor to the Republican party that later Democrats raised quite a fuss about in 1860. The book largely focuses on Van Buren’s political career, so that it’s hard to get a sense of the person underneath the president. At first I thought this was a fixation of the author, but after doing more background reading it appears to be a consequence of the man himself. He was widowed early and focused obsessively on his work: his ‘leisure’ activities of reading, socializing, and travel were all fastened to politics as surely as a bridle to a horse. He appears to have met luminaries of different ages — visiting with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in their declining years, serving under Jackson’s tutelage, and still later enjoying an evening with a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, quite by accident. (During a grand tour of the country, Van Buren was forced to hole up for the evening in a little inn in Rochester: the proprietor was so eager to amuse his unexpected guest that he sent for a storyteller and raconteur he knew had an interest in politics.)

This was an interesting little read. The writing is very accessible and sometimes drift toward being overly casual to me, but it’s often funny despite the fact that the main attraction is a man not known for great policy decisions but instead the quiet under-the-table work that makes modern politics function. While Van Buren still feels like a bit of a cipher, considering that he rarely wrote about himself in his own journals, it’s possible that no one but his late wife knew him beyond the civil but savvy political creature he was.

[Frank Theising · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Van Buren, was the consummate politician and by all accounts should have been a successful president. Unfortunately for the “Little Magician,” the Panic of 1837 (the largest economic crisis until the Great Depression) struck shortly after he ascended to the presidency. Consequently, he is often overlooked when evaluating who deserves to be considered among the presidential greats. However, Van Buren was an extremely consequential figure in US history (mostly for what he did before he became president). While Jefferson and Jackson are considered the founders of the Democratic Party, it was Van Buren who did the leg work to make it a truly national party.

Van Buren (hereafter VB) remains elusive in part because he destroyed much of his own correspondence and his closest confederates divulged little of his private thinking. Which is ironic because six generations ago it was impossible NOT to have an opinion of him. He was beloved and despised by millions of Americans. In a generation of unmatched political talent (Webster, Calhoun, Benton, etc) he alone succeeded in following Jackson into the presidency.

VB was our first ethnic president (Dutch). More than any other American, he helped create the expanded American democratic system including the party caucus, nominating conventions, patronage systems, and the Democratic Party itself. This was a radical change from the founders’ original ideal of a country devoid of party factionalism. He helped build the first north-south base that would presage Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dominance. In his later life he would also almost destroy it with the first major third-party campaign (Free Soil Movement). He was a master politician who knew how to play hardball. He knew the rules and behind-the-scenes games that made for an effective politician.

The formation of the Democratic Party was the achievement of a lifetime. The author contends this is often glossed over in biographies in order to get to his less consequential years as president. Overall, this was a short but solid biography of our nation’s 8th president. 3 stars.


What follows are my notes on the book:


Born in small town Kinderhook, NY in 1782. He was 1 of 8 kids. As a poor, tavern owning family, his father identified with the democratic hopes of the new era. Raised around a tavern he met travelers and heard local gossip, grievances, and politics. Despite being a backwater, Kinderhook’s location on the Hudson made it a stepping stone for the wave of speculators passing into the vast western expanse of NY. He attended the one room schoolhouse until age 13 when his father could no longer afford it. He was apprenticed to a lawyer, giving him a glimpse into the life of the local elite. His employer pressured him to join the Federalists. His principled refusal created quite a quarrel.

Fortunately, an influential Jeffersonian family took an interest in him after he helped one of their brothers win a nomination to Congress. They brought him to NYC where he learned the blood sport of politics from vice President Aaron Burr. He returned to Kinderhook to open his law practice. He reveled in Jefferson’s presidency but NY politics lacked discipline and was often fractious. He married Hannah Hoes in 1807. We know almost nothing about her. He was soon making $10k a year as a highly sought after lawyer. He mostly defended the lower/middles classes and attacked the social order and spurious large land grants to wealthy families. His eloquence, facts, and street smarts helped him win frequently and gained him many enemies among the well-to-do.

He ran and won a seat in the state senate in 1812 at age 29. The War of 1812 threatened NY and it’s commerce. VB was active and vocal in supporting the war effort to save democracy from the hated British (even more so being Dutch). After the war, power flowed thru him quickly. He was a political wiz and imposed a new order that firmly established the Democratic Party as a well-oiled machine. He developed a powerful rivalry with DeWitt Clinton. Strengthened by the war effort, he was elected attorney general in 1815. They briefly put their differences aside to fund the Erie Canal.

VB’s decade long rivalry took a bad turn when Clinton was elected governor. Two years later in 1819, his wife died leaving him a 36 year old single father of four. By 1821, the tide began to turn and VB was elected to the US Senate. His ascent coincided with NY’s rise in national importance and laid the foundation for Jacksonian democracy. Within 7 years, he would create the modern Democratic Party, anoint Jackson its standard bearer, and revolutionize American politics forever. He would find a new mortal enemy in South Carolinian Calhoun.

The highly organized VB hated the disorderliness of national politics and strove to impose order upon it. He built alliances, emphasized the need for a disciplined platform, and used his stature as a NY senator to control presidential aspirants who craved NY’s electoral votes. He was outgoing and social…a rare sort of northerner who was fun and would share a special rapport with the South. VB backed Crawford for president in 1824 (despite a paralyzing stroke). Thanks to Clay’s politicking, John Quincy Adams won the election. Downcast, he temporarily mended fences with re-elected Governor Clinton (which made his re-election to the Senate in 1827 smoother).

Adams proved a perfect foil for VB. His “corrupt bargain” helped fuel the growth of VB’s opposition party. Adams looked upon VB with disdain as an electioneering criminal. Jackson and VB were wary of each other but their disdain for the Adams-Clay coalition, the special privileges of the wealthy, and their desire to win drew them together. Clinton’s death sealed the deal as it left VB the lone powerbroker for NY. In 1828 he returned to run for NY governor (which would help deliver NY to Jackson in the upcoming election). The raucous campaign led to a Jackson landslide and VB elected governor. A month later he accepted the offer to become Jackson’s Secretary of State.

Despite their wild differences they each offered what the other lacked and they grew incredibly close. The fiery Jackson needed the conciliatory VB who was able to translate his tantrums into policy. Jackson’s kitchen cabinet was bitterly divided among sectional interests. VB’s role in the Eaton Affair (an early DC gossip scandal) and his kindness toward Peggy Eaton endeared him to Jackson and further alienated Calhoun.

Unsurprisingly, VB did well as Sec of State wining a reciprocal trade deal with the UK in the West Indies as well as $25M francs from France for Napoleon-era indemnities. Meanwhile VP Calhoun grew apart from Jackson & VB, inching closer to nullification. As the party began to fracture, VB offered to resign opening an opportunity for Jackson to ask for the resignations of all cabinet members (including Calhoun stooges). In return VB was appointed minister to England. However, Calhoun got his revenge, casting the tie breaking vote to reject his appointment months after he had arrived in England. The ploy however backfired, making VB a sympathetic hero and winning him the nomination for Jackson’s next VP.

As the nullification and bank veto crises roiled Jackson’s second term, VB benefited as the moderate/compromising middle course between the Jackson and Calhoun extremes. Jackson made many enemies north and south and VB became their joint target. However, the infighting died down when Jackson explicitly gave VB his blessing. VB easily defeated a slew of Whig candidates to become the next president. Given his track record and good fortune, VB should have been one of the nation’s most successful presidents. But fate intervened with the Panic of 1837, the worst financial disaster until the Crash of 1929.

VB inherited a superheated economy that was unregulated in some ways (rampant speculation) and draconically controlled in others (land purchases in hard money only). The Whigs charged that the destruction of the Bank of the US eliminated a useful tool of control. When England called in debts, the match for a global economic disaster was struck. VB never knew what hit him. Mass unemployment, bankruptcies, and starving families inevitably led to political crisis. The Whigs blamed VB for failing to act. This was both fair (as VB helped dismantle Hamiltonian financial apparatus and unfair given the primacy of Congress in that era). He simply had no tools to make money appear or clothe the poor.

He called a special session of Congress to deal with the crisis. VB torn between Jackson’s hard money stance and the clamor to recharter a new bank and paper money. As usual, he found a middle road that gave everyone a little of something. He proposed an independent Treasury (separate from banks) that could issue paper notes and delayed federal lawsuits against those who had suspended payments during the crisis. Unfortunately, the House rejected establishing a Treasury. The crisis unified the Whigs.

The Whigs won heavily in 1837. The economy started to rebound but a second, smaller depression in 1839 again revealed VB’s powerlessness. The independent Treasury eventually passed in 1840 but wasn’t the breakthrough VB had hoped for. The crisis shook American confidence and shed light on other issues. Slavery, heretofore not a major issue began to be debated publicly during VB’s time in office. Previously VB astutely avoided contentious votes on the issue and supported the gag rule to suppress discussion of slavery in Congress (he needed Southern supporters to build the Democrat Party and win the presidency). Perceived as a “reasonable thinker” on the issue, this middle ground fell out from under his feet as the two sides grew further apart.

To some extent VB was a victim of his own success. The party machinery, the political newspapers, and easier transportation made it difficult to obfuscate yourself out of an issue (you couldn’t lie in one part of the country and hope it doesn’t make it back home or another region). Both sides accused him of pro/anti-slavery sentiment. In reality, he did what most politicians did…he danced around the issue. That works in most situations, but failed on this issue that had assumed such great moral weight.

As president, VB continued Jackson’s policy of Indian removal. On foreign policy, VB settled two large crises along the Canadian border and postponed the annexation of Texas which cost him with his Southern allies (he was once again looking for the middle ground to hold his Party together). VB’s self-promotion and supposed opulence was contrasted with William Henry Harrison’s log cabin, cider drinking upbringing (which was completely false). It was the triumph advertising over substance. VB was defeated badly. His career ended as quickly as it begun.

He received a hug reception upon returning to NY, mostly from the lower classes whose causes he championed. He retired to a large home he had purchased and subsequently updated it to his taste…a McMonument to himself that might be comparable to Elvis’ Graceland. At 58, he was a relatively young ex-president and needed to figure out how to fill his days.

With Harrison’s sudden death and Tyler unpopular, VB harbored visions of reclaiming the presidency. He conducted a 7K mile tour of America, and even spent a night in IL with a young Abraham Lincoln. As the presumptive Democratic nominee, he blundered by stating outright that he opposed Texas annexation. The consummate politician did what so many thought him incapable of…he took a stand that cost him the presidency. Despite leading in delegates, he couldn’t get 2/3rds and Polk eventually rose to the top. Despite helping Polk win NY, Polk favored a rival NY clique. The NY Democrat machine that VB worked so hard to build simply unraveled over the slavery issue.

Yet as the Mexican War drew to a close, VB was put forward as the nominee for the anti-slavery barnburners/free-soilers. He won 10% of the popular vote but no states. He pealed off enough votes to throw the election to the Whig Zachary Taylor. This was the US’s first great third party effort.

Later, he supported Clay’s 1850 compromise and came back into the Democrat fold. As he entered old age, he frequently had to take care of his adult sons and their failing health. He accompanied one to Europe, where he began to write his autobiography.

He outlived all his peers (and many of their children). Either a blessing or a curse for he lived to see the Civil War. Despite his love of the South, he stood firmly behind Lincoln and the Union, accusing the South of treason. Upon news of the war, his health deteriorated rapidly and he died in 1862. Lincoln honored him publicly.

Beginning five years after his death, many of his written works, including his autobiography were published.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

was the tender young republic ready for her first dutch president? turns out they was not for they only let him president for four years and it would be a long while before america would ever trust another dutchman again. I’d say that for all the wooliness of his whiskers and the shortness of his stature he was a fiery little fella who i came to like by and by. like his time in office this here book is short and at $22.00 new won’t cause as much a financial panic as ol’ vb presided over (not his fault some day)

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book twenty-six of my presidential challenge.

Everybody likes to read about the great presidents. It's fun to see how Lincoln overcame this or how Washington did that. We like to think that it sets an example of how to be a leader; how to persevere. To be sure, I have enjoyed those books.

But I learn just as much from reading about the "lesser" presidents. The presidents who had problems they couldn't overcome, challenges they couldn't combat. To be frank, presidents that failed.

If you know anything about Van Buren you probably know about his unusual facial hair...and nothing else. Maybe that one passing reference in that episode of "Seinfeld" but I doubt it.

But upon closer inspection, his political pedigree is quite impressive. He basically invented the Democratic party by helping Andrew Jackson get elected. He is the first president to be born in "The United States of America" not just the colonies. He came from very humble beginnings and an incredibly shrewd politician.

So why is his one term presidency considered a failure? A combination of some of his strengths becoming weaknesses and many problems that were not his fault and out of his control.

First, almost immediately upon becoming president, the country experienced the Panic of 1837. This was the worst economic crisis in the nation's history and during that time period, the government had almost no tools at its disposal to deal with it.

This soured the country on Van Buren. People began to criticize him for being to much of a politician and for weaseling his way into the White House.

He didn't want to admit Texas to the country because he was worried it would upset slavery's delicate balance. This pissed of a lot of folks, including Andrew Jackson who began to speak out against him.

His election against William Henry Harrison is often credited as the birth of the modern political campaign. Harrison portrayed Van Buren as a foppish, aloof outsider. This is hilarious because Van Buren was the self-made man from the country and Harrison was the rich politician born into affluence. But the ploy worked just the same.

In the next election, Van Buren ran again, got screwed over by his own party, and started the Free Soil Party to run against them, Teddy Roosevelt style. Just like Teddy, it didn't end well.

The lesson I ultimately take from Van Buren's life is this: Don't get power for powers sake. Have a reason to be there, a moral compass, a purpose. If you don't take a stand on the important issues, no one will be there to get your back when times get tough. If you always straddle the fence, both side is upset you're not on their side. If you want some political friends, you need to make some political enemies.

The other moral? Men make plans and God laughs. President's (and the rest of us for that matter) never know what their emergencies are going to be. Sometimes you're equipped to deal with them, sometimes you're not. Chance plays a larger role in our consideration of greatness than we care to acknowledge.

Fun Fact: Van Buren popularized the expression "OK." That kind of blows my mind for some reason.

The book itself? Delightful! Super insightful and frequently hilarious. I like that this "American Presidents" series is kind of like the "Marvel" movie franchise. You get to see a bunch of interesting authors take a shot at telling a great story. I've got to say, Widmer's is the best I've read of this series so far. A high, high recommend.

Quotable Quotes:
"Has any other president ever held so many (nicknames)? The Red Fox of Kinderhook. The Little Magician. The Enchanter. The Careful Dutchman. The Great Manager. The Master Spirit. The American Talleyrand. King Martin. Matty Van."

"It is odd that we now call this the Era of Good Feelings. So many disgruntled politicians were working to destroy one another, and the absence of a two-party system did little to foster civility."

"About the worst thing that can happen to your reputation is to be cast as the villain in a popular Steven Spielberg film."

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a much better book than the other in the American Presidents series put out by Time Books. Maybe because the author is a better writer. Funny, fast chapters, and the writer tells you a story, instead of instructing. I gave most of the president books in this series below-par rankings. I give this a four-star. I have actually dog-eared pages for later use...... How many times can you say that about a bio of Martin Van Buren?

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay but not really outstanding. I think there was more to Van Buren's presidency that the author never touched upon. I would recommend reading about Van Buren's presidency but not anything written by this author. I hate to give a review like this but I believe in speaking the truth and I'm sorry to say this author fell short of his objective.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you had told me two weeks ago that I would fall head over heels in love with a book about Martin Van Buren, I would have laughed in your face. Martin Van Buren was one of those 19th century one term presidents who coddled the South over slavery and was Millard Fillmore, right? Right, on one count (this book is not about Martin Van Buren being a great president). Ted Widmer's incredible punchy, joyous, witty writing is what made this book so much fun. I never wanted to put it down! Widmer's prose is full of sharp asides or little jokes. He is utterly amused by Martin Van Buren, and lets that show. He also is deeply respectful - dare I say loving - towards Van Buren's political skills (Van Buren, among many other nicknames, not all of them laudatory, was called "The Magician"). Martin Van Buren was not vocal about the evils of slavery and the forced removal of Native Americans; Widmer doesn't gloss over Van Buren's faults. But Martin Van Buren pretty much single handled made the Democratic Party out of scratch, and in about three years. He wiggled and waffled and glad-handed his way through New York and Washington DC until he became Andrew Jackson's Vice President, second term (side note: Andrew Jackson is a very Trumpy character, although Mike Pence is no Martin Van Buren) (also, is Jackson Trumpy - or is Trump Jacksony?) his political skills were magical indeed. His distant cousins were the Roosevelts, who inherited some of that skill (FDR for sure, but FDR spun it into a success that Martin Van Buren was unable to do). History lovers, definitely give this short book a try; I think you will like it!

[Branden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey bud, at least you tried. Thanks for helping create the modern political party apparatus, I guess.

[Chase Parsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The expression “OK” comes from 1839 Boston. As Ted Widmer, author of “Martin Van Buren” recounts, it stood for “oll korrect”, accurately illustrating the American spirit of “informality, optimism, and efficiency.” Van Buren’s campaign took this trendy expression and cunningly morphed its origin to “Old Kinderhook”, referring to Martin Van Buren, who comes from the humble Dutch town of Kinderhook, New York. (Also, if “OK” isn’t to your liking, MVB had a plethora of charming nicknames: the Fox, the Red Fox of Kinderhook, the Little Magician, the Enchanter, the Careful Dutchman, the Great Manager, the Master Spirit, the American Talleyrand, King Martin, Matty Van.) Unfortunately for MVB’s 1840 re-election campaign, it was a losing effort, as William Henry Harrison defeated him at a time when campaigns were becoming recognizable to today. Despite being a one-term and forgotten president, Widmer illuminates needed light on the 8th president of the United States, Martin Van Buren (1837-1841).

There is a lot to learn about Martin Van Buren. He made many good decisions, was a visionary thinker, brilliant organizer, and made some poor decisions. A lawyer coming out of a small town, MVB rose to becoming the right-hand man and heir of Andrew Jackson and founded “The Democracy” which became the Democratic Party. This significant creation became the first modern-day political party machine in the United States.

As president, MVB was dealt a tough hand. He waffled on the growing crisis of slavery but firmly stood against it as he aged. Committing political suicide, he refused to let Texas into the union out of concern of the spread of the institution. However, he also allowed the ugly Cherokee Removal to proceed, and unluckily presided over the worst economy in US history up until that point – the Panic of 1837. After losing re-election, he built another party, the Free Soil Party, that split the Democrats (his “Barnburners” disliked the “Hunkers”; gotta love 1800s nicknames). This split was key in the election of the opposing Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor. As a really old man, MVB staunchly supported Lincoln and the Union in the Civil War. He was also pro-war way back in the War of 1812 years.

Matty Van was an often-unsung politician who worked best behind the scenes. In person, he was thoroughly likeable, and possessed the political smoothness to hide what he actually thought. He met a younger Abe Lincoln later in life, and they befriended each other, laughing extremely hard at each other’s political tales. His head will not be on Mt. Rushmore, but his legacy mattered. I wish Widmer wrote more about Cherokee Removal and MVB’s family life (he was a widower who was president without a wife, and had 5 kids). Nevertheless, this was a very enjoyable book about a disremembered man and time in American history.

4.5/5 stars

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard to find a book on Martin Van Buren. This was looked to be the best my library offered and it is also mentioned in the Presidential Podcast. I have looked on line for Van Buren's Autobiography (first President to write his life story, but refused to call it a memoir because that signified near the end of life) but can only find Volume II. Widmer has mentioned a couple of times that it is rather large and boring to read, and it only goes up to the Presidency. My current challenge is to read about each President in a fair biography and then go back and read what they have written. This makes #8 so I have a long road ahead of me. There were times I really enjoyed Widmer's writing.

I walked in not really knowing anything about Martin Van Buren. Quickly learned he was the first American born president all others were pre-Revolutionary War meaning they were British Subjects. He was the first non-WASP President as he was Dutch. He founded the Democratic Party and even created the platform for the Republican Party. He talked with Jefferson knew Burr and Hamilton along with having a great night of tall tales with a young Lincoln. He was friends with Washington Irving. Overall, this biography was very positive on him - however we must remember, he was great friends with Jackson and was ultimately responsible for the Trail of Tears that Jackson had ordered. Less than a year after taking office the Panic of 1837 occurred and hurt him politically which had the most focus of his Presidency in this book.

He was friends with Burr early in his political career. Thinking of the Hamilton musical, Burr tells Hamilton, "speak less, smile more, never let them know where you stand." It was noted Van Buren took advantage of advice given to him and wondering if Burr had given this advice too, because people never really knew where he stood on any issues. You could stay that he was a fence straddler waiting to figure out the winning side, but he was very much about compromise. This is a skill that is needed in modern politics because winner take all is creating radical shifts in both directions.

Was he a perfect man - far from it. Things beyond his control went wrong with his presidency. The Trail of Tear and the 1837 Panic are things people would rather forget about and therefore have forgotten Martin Van Buren.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a brief account of the life of Martin Van Buren, our 8th US president. Martin Van Buren was not a particularly brilliant president, but he was a very active politician who left an impact on the political history of America, most notably in the development of the Democratic Party. He started his political career in his teenage years and continued until almost the end of his life. He was a master politician: a brilliant orator, possessed a sharp mind, and knew how the “work the system.” He was skilled in speaking about issues and was also skilled in never quite attaching himself to any particular side. The latter skill led to a life plagued by enemies and critics. It’s hard to find a lot of admirable qualities in Martin Van Buren and his life has been the most uninspiring of the presidents I have read about so far. His lasting legacies in American history are the words “OK” and “noncommittal.” These words ironically seem to describe his life well.

Ted Widmer is an unabashed Democrat and it definitely shows in this book. At times his generalizations about Democrats and Republicans were a bit irritating. He paints Democrats as being caring, loving people who look out for the little guy and get picked on mercilessly; the Republicans in contrast are rich, snobby, and cold-hearted. And maybe I’m generalizing in my description of his descriptions, but I definitely came away with a good versus evil look at the Democrats in comparison to the Republicans. At some points it felt like the book was more about the Democratic party than it was about Martin Van Buren. Let me clarify that I don’t mind that Mr. Widmer is a Democrat, I just wish he could be a bit more nonpartisan in his writing.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half stars. If you are interested in Presidential history, I recommend this book. It is one of many in The American Presidents Series. Martin Van Buren was the 8th President of the United States whose presidency had barely begun when the great economic collapse of 1837 began. There would not be another like it til 1929.

The author wrote with humorous asides which I enjoyed. For a history nerd like me, there are great history nuggets of the 1830s-1840’s. The graham cracker was invented by Sylvester Graham, who believed that cold showers,
hard mattresses, a rough diet of fiber (the cracker is born), and no sex will lead to a “healthy life and afterlife.”

Van Buren was the first “President without a trace of Anglo-Saxon bloodlines.” He was born in New York and grew up speaking Dutch in a town along the Hudson River. He is also credited with the origin of the Democratic mechanisms like the nominating convention, and the Democratic party itself.

I look forward to reading more of the books in this series.

[Matt Davenport · Rating 4 out of 5]

After trying and failing to dredge my way through a much more thorough biography of Martin Van Buren, I turned to the American Presidents series to teach me about the Little Magician. I feel as if I'm still processing my actual opinion on him. He was doubtlessly an excellent politician, a shrewd and visionary organizer, and there is much in his world view to be sympathetic to. With that said, his actual Presidency (and his preceding Vice-Presidency for that matter) were categorically bad for the nation in my opinion, and he stands in a crowd of incredibly intelligent, driven politicians in the second political era who utterly failed to stand up to the Slave Power politics of the time.

As for the book itself, this was a wonderfully concise yet still illuminating biography. Widmer captured all the important themes that were much more ponderingly covered in the other biography I read in a tenth of the time. There are certainly areas where I wish there had been more detail, but that is always going to be the case for a book this size. At the end of the day, this was nearly as good of a biography as can be written of such an accomplished human being in so few pages. I would definitely recommend it.

[Matt Vargo · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a number of presidents who simply do not have easily accessible biographies. For those I am resorting to the American Presidents series. These books are short and vary in quality. This one covering Van Buren was not good. Unfortunately I have a few more of these in my future as Pierce, Fillmore and Buchanan also lack biographies that I can pickup easily (ie - still in print).

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy, interesting read about about a remarkable man who is one of the most unremarked-upon presidents.

[Jdetrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a very long biography, but I have to say, its brevity is a feature, not a bug. Its very detailed and the author writes in a very compelling style and I feel like you get a very complete picture of Martin Van Buren, despite it not being an 800 page tome detailing every single aspect of Van Buren's life.

[Ramsey Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very well done not a lot of info but enough to get to know him. Glad I read it.

[Katie Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

President #8 - Born during the Revolutionary Era, Died during the Civil War. He is a much forgotten president. He inherited some serious troubles from his predecessor (Jackson). Overall I learned much of what I know about Van Buren from this book. He is often left out of history books. This book however was poorly sourced and infused with language that was too biased. I didn’t feel it a fair and balanced telling of his life.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short biography about the life of Martin Van Buren, his youth until his death.

This continues my quest to continue to read a biography of each US president. As with John Quincy Adams, I was surprised for my interest in reading about Van Buren, who I knew nothing about. The author was skilled at writing an interesting, yet short take on Van Buren's life. Some takeaways:Van Buren was the one who was behind the creation of the Democratic Party, but that historians aren't quite sure how he did it. The party was created to take away the focus from individual candidates, instead to focus on party ideas and values. Even so, the Democratic party eventually became separate from Van Buren himself as he became insistent that the party should take a stand against slavery. Van Buren kept his own thoughts and ideas close to his in order to create coalitions with people of different political standing, thoughts and beliefs. Van Buren was our first "ethnic" president because he was Dutch and not Anglo Saxon. Van Buren also was concerned to elevate the people of the United States, not the aristocracy or wealthy.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wound up enjoying this. MVB has been a road block in my presidential biography adventure for quite a while, because after getting through those first big 7, it was a struggle to get excited about this next bunch. But this short book gave me a lot of insight and appreciation for our 8th president.

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Van Buren was the first president born in the United States after the Revolutionary War and also the first president from New York. He's the only president who didn't speak English as his native language (he grew up speaking Dutch). He's one of the few presidents who wasn't Ango-Saxon, and one of the few who wasn't either college-educated or a war hero. He was distantly related to Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt.

He was blond, and to compensate for his baldness, he grew ridiculously big sideburns. He was one of the shorter presidents at five feet, six inches. He was an optimist with a sunny disposition and was friends with the famous writer Washington Irving.

Van Buren was born in his father's tavern in Kinderhook in 1782, a middle child with eight siblings. His father owned six slaves, but wasn't particularly wealthy. Van Buren had to drop out of school at 13 due to his father's lack of finances, but he became an apprentice to a lawyer and eventually studied with William Van Ness in New York City. (Van Ness was friends with Vice President Aaron Burr and was his second in the infamous duel with Hamilton.) Aaron Burr liked Van Buren and mentored him. The fact the two looked alike made some think Burr was his real father.

Van Buren became a successful lawyer and married Hannah Hoes, who was his first cousin once removed. (The Van Buren family tended to marry relatives.) We know less about her than other first ladies. No portrait of her exists. Van Buren doesn't even mention her in his autobiography. She gave him four sons and died of tuberculosis before he became president. He never remarried, although there were rumors that he committed an indiscretion with Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter Ellen Randolph.

In 1812, when he was just 29, he got elected to New York's state senate as a Democratic-Republican. He passed legislation to help the war effort and rose in power. He was opposed to debtor's prison, which earned him praise from the poet Ezra Pound. (The poet Walt Whitman also remembered Van Buren fondly.)

He became attorney general and helped found the Albany Argus newspaper. He supported the Erie Canal, which was the biggest public project of the era. He was elected to the US Senate in 1821 and started a new political party called the Democrats.

Virginia had once been the most populous and most wealthy state, however by 1820, New York had the highest population and was extremely wealthy, mostly thanks to the Erie Canal. As Virginia lost influence, it had to form an alliance with New York in order to keep slavery alive and Van Buren was happy to have southern allies.

During the presidency of John Quincy Adams, Van Buren's Congress blocked nearly everything Adams tried to accomplish out of spite. (They thought Andrew Jackson should have won the election.) Van Buren campaigned for Jackson to get elected in the next election, forming secret alliances with journalists and politicians across the country, including Adams' vice president. He also orchestrated what came to be known as the Tariff of Abominations which almost caused the Civil War to start early.

When Andrew Jackson was elected president, Van Buren was elected governor of New York, but he left the position almost immediately to become Jackson's secretary of state. Jackson retained Adams' vice president as his vice president, which is the only time this has ever happened. Van Buren became very close to the short-tempered Jackson who was also a fellow widower. As secretary of state, Van Buren got a favorable trade deal with the UK, got a large payment from France, and a treaty with the Ottoman Empire.

During Jackson's presidency, his secretary of war married a women who he'd begun having a relationship with while she was still married to another man. The other cabinet wives snubbed her, as much because of her low upbringing as for the sexual indiscretion.

This infuriated Jackson who had married a woman who was still another man's wife himself. Van Buren defended Peggy as well, perhaps because her father was a lowly tavern keeper like his own father was. In either case, the affair caused Vice President Calhoun to lose favor in Jackson's eyes, making Van Buren more likely to be the next president.

Calhoun meanwhile was trying to organize secession of the southern and western states from the union. Jackson learned Calhoun had wanted to arrest him years earlier for his illegal raids into Florida. Calhoun's newspaper attacked Van Buren and vice versa.

Jackson's cabinet was deeply divided. To solve this, Van Buren resigned. This gave Jackson an opening to ask other cabinet members to resign. Jackson then appointed Van Buren minister to England. In England, he reconnected with his old friend Washington Irving who was secretary of the American legation. Calhoun blocked Van Buren's appointment to England, but this backfired, since Van Buren returned home and was nominated to replace Calhoun as vice president.

A new political party called the Whigs was formed to oppose Jackson and Van Buren. Davy Crockett questioned Van Buren's masculinity, calling him Aunt Matty and imagining him dressed up in corsets. A novel titled The Partisan Leader caricatured Van Buren as dainty and delicate.

But Van Buren had Jackson's backing and easily won the presidential election. At 53, he was the youngest president up to that time. However, things turned bad after only his thirteenth day in office.

The Panic of 1837 was the worst financial catastrophe to hit the United States before 1929. Prices rose. Financial houses and banks closed. It also spread to financial institutions in Europe which were heavily invested in American businesses.

In 1835, New York was so prosperous it was second in the world only to London. New inventions like the railroad were bringing prosperity. Land sales skyrocketed. A huge number of shaky banks and middlemen came into existence to finance these land deals.

Jackson's Specie Circular in 1836 forced land to be purchased in hard currency (not paper money) which caused people to distrust paper money and led to a gold shortage. Jackson also closed down the Bank of the US, which led to an increase in irresponsible speculation. Jackson certainly contributed to the Panic of 1837, but other factors contributed to it as well.

There was also too much loose credit and inflation, the economy was overextended through speculation, and there was an unfavorable balance of trade with England. Problems in the UK caused England to demand payments from American bankers who couldn't get the money. At the same time, the price of cotton fell and other crop failures occured. Once no credit was available, new businesses couldn't be started. There were a record number of bankruptcies, massive unemployment, and many people died of starvation.

Van Buren was blamed and he began drinking a potion made of soot and water to ease his dyspepsia. To ease the financial crisis, he proposed the creation of the Treasury, the creation of Treasury notes to get more money into circulation, and he delayed lawsuits against banks to help them recover. However, the Treasury failed to get passed through Congress until 1840. Even when it was created, it did little good since the government couldn't regulate Wall Street at the time.

Van Buren generally avoided the topic of slavery. He was a northerner, but needed southern votes, so it was best for him not to take a side. During the debate over Missouri entering the Union, Van Buren seemed to support the anti-slavery side, but in a non-committal way. He was too slaverly friendly for many. He had been a former slave owner himself (he owned a single slave named Tom who had run away). His eldest son married the daughter of a plantation owner (the cousin of Dolley Madison) who served as White House hostess, giving White House parties a Southern feel. Van Buren also suppressed the spread of anti-slavery materials and supported the Gag Rule which prevented anti-slavery petitions from being talked about.

It was becoming more difficult for Americans to ignore the issue. England freed its slaves between 1833-1838. Mexico freed its slaves in 1829. The proliferation of printing presses and fast railroad transportation made it harder for politicians to say one thing to one crowd and the opposite to a different crowd. In 1837, an abolitionist printer named Elisha Lovejoy was brutally murdered by a pro-slavery mob. Van Buren continued being moderate on slavery at a time when he needed to pick a side. Both sides were suspicious of him. The slavery debate in Congress was so intense one representative killed another in a duel over it.

Van Buren delayed annexing Texas into the union. Adding a new slave state would enrage his supporters in the North, but delaying made the South hate him too. Van Buren enraged the south by allowing blacks to testify in a naval case, and he enraged the north by issuing an executive order to return the Amistad slaves to their masters (John Quincy Adams ended up winning the freedom of the Amistad slaves before the Supreme Court.)

Van Buren's vice president Richard Mentor Johnson treated one of his slaves as his wife, seating her and their daughters at dinner with guests and traveling publicly together. He paid for his daughter's education and his wife ran his estate in his absence. This state of affairs, of course, upset slave holders.

While president, Van Buren continued Jackson's Indian removal program, including the Trail of Tears and the Seminole War. One of his nieces hoped he'd lose the election because of his ill treatment of the native americans.

In 1837, a Canadian rebellion against Great Britian erupted. The British boarded an American vessel Caroline which had been supplying the Canadian rebels. One American died, although the rumor mill claimed the number of deaths was much higher. Van Buren cooled tensions and avoided escalating the conflict.

A year later, tensions rose again regarding the boundary between Maine and Canada. Van Buren again kept things from escalating. In 1841, Daniel Webster, then secretary of state, proposed a preemptive war against England.

In 1839, the phrase OK, short for oll korrect (a slang way of saying all right) began to circulate. Van Buren used it to mean Old Kinderhook and wrote OK next to his signature. The phrase is still used today due to him popularizing it. In 1840, Van Buren created a 10-hour workday, an improvement over the standard sunrise to sunset work day of the time.

The 1840 election pitted William Henry Harrison against Van Buren. Because Van Buren had made much needed improvements to the White House, he was caricatured as a big spender on luxury items. Whigs claimed Harrison had humble beginnings growing up in a log cabin, when he actually grew up in a mansion that was much fancier than the tavern Van Buren was raised in.

Van Buren lost the election and retired to be a farmer for a bit. He then took a tour of the country. Poor roads forced him to stop in Rochester, Illinois where he met young Abraham Lincoln who told so many funny stories, Van Buren's sides hurt from laughing. He said he'd never spent a more agreeable night in his life.

Van Buren ran for president again in 1844 after drumming up support during his tour of the country. He was the favorite candidate until he came out boldly against annexing Texas, which made the South hate him. He had the majority of delegates in the Democratic convention, but not the required two thirds. Polk ended up winning the nomination and Van Buren campaigned for him, helping him win New York. Van Buren expected Polk would reward him, but Polk ignored Van Buren's cabinet recommendations.

In 1848, Van Buren wrote the Barnburner Manifesto, a firmly anti-slavery tract and ran for president again with a new Free Soil party with John Quincy Adams' son Charles Francis Adams as his vice presidential running mate. He didn't win, but his third party drew enough votes away from Cass to make Zachary Taylor the winner.

After losing again, he came back into the Democratic fold, even though it was still partly pro-slavery. One of his sons moved in with him along with his children. He traveled Europe with a different son who hoped a more favorable climate would improve his failing health and began writing his memoirs.

When the Civil War came, Van Buren supported Lincoln. He died the day after Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation.

[Josh O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for what it is. Not much out there for in depth biographies on Van Buren which is really a shame given his contributions to modern politics. Maybe Meacham or Chernow or someone like them will take on a Van Buren biography, but for now this is one of the best options there is.

[Megan Bader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two quotes sum it up for me:

“(Insert famous poets name)’s zeal and emotional embrace of Van Buren may have helped him…because it offered convincing proof, as his defense later claimed, that the poet was completely insane”

“For democracy to stay realistic, we need to remain realistic about our leaders and what they can and cannot do…we need books about the not-quite-heroic.”

Ruthless. Not all heroes wear capes, MVB. But magicians do. You’d have my vote.

[Vicki Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer is the next book in my personal presidential biographies challenge. (Reading at least one biography of each president, in order.) Honestly, I was not looking forward to this one. We've got the Founding Fathers, followed by their progeny, and then the fascinating but loathsome Andrew Jackson. After that? I expected MVB to kick off the presidential version of the Israelites wandering through the desert before reaching the promised land of Abraham Lincoln. Much to my surprise, I found MVB a very interesting character. He was the only president who spoke English as a second language (Dutch was his first) and the first president to be born a citizen of the US. He was the force behind the election of Andrew Jackson in a role that he invented, that of political organizer. He was the founder of the Democratic party and subsequently laid the foundation for the Republican party. But arguably, MVB's most lasting legacy may have been his popularization of the word "OK." Who knew??

I selected this particular book about MVB because the two books recommended by Stephen Floyd (of My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies) were not available on Kindle. Considering my low expectations of MVB, the fact that it was mercifully short (189 pages) was not objectionable. That said, there's probably a lot more good stuff to be gleaned from MVB in a heftier volume if one is up to the challenge. Due to the brevity of this book, some important topics were merely summarized, including the "Panic of 1837" (which touched off a major recession in the US) and the infamous Amistad case (which only gets one paragraph),

The American Presidents Series is not meant to be a scholarly work, but instead presents each president in a way that is "enough for the busy reader." Consequently, while important events are neglected, there are some fascinating tidbits thrown into the story. One is that of MVB's Vice President, Richard Mentor Johnson who lived openly with Julia, one of his slaves, and treated her as his common-law wife. After Julia died of cholera in 1833, Johnson married another African-American woman. Widner noted, "If anything had happened to Van Buren during his presidency, this young African-American woman would have become the first lady of the United States - if the nation could have withstood the shock, which of course it could not have."

Once again, I see parallels to our current political situation. Railroads and steamboats (the internet of their day) meant news and information traveled great distances in record time. It was the birth of the global economy. New York became a major economic force and when NY sneezed, the whole country caught a cold. Newfound wealth among the burgeoning middle class gave way to simultaneous obsession and dissatisfaction with the acquisition of material goods. "In the 1830s, Independence Hall in Philadelphia became a clothing store, with a sign that read, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal - that they can obtain clothing as rich, as cheap, and as durable as at any other establishment in the nation.'" Money and patronage ruled the day but everything was overshadowed by the great moral question of whether liberty and justice should be accessible to all - and if yes, how could America make that a reality. Here we sit, 175+ years later, still struggling with the same issues.

MVB may be one of our least-known presidents but he was interesting nonetheless. He crossed paths with both Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. "Van Buren could hardly have chosen his entrance and exit more dramatically. Born to the Revolution that created this country, he died a casualty of the Civil War that nearly destroyed it." There is much to be learned by studying this era of American history.

Next up: William Henry Harrison.

[Len Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometime back in the previous century, I read an article that encourages us to find something to celebrate every day. It concluded with a suggestion for all 366 days. I have forgotten 365 of them but one remains etched in my brain: December 5 - Martin Van Buren's birthday. The tone of the suggestions gave me the impression that they were given in jest. That is not surprising as I suspect that many, if not most, Americans have never heard of our 8th President. Indeed, Van Buren's term in office (1837-1841) began what seems a less than illustrious era of White House occupancy. In the nearly quarter century between the Van Buren and Lincoln inaugurations, eight men "served" as Chief Executive. Three of them died while in office; the vice presidents who succeeded them were not elected to terms of their own; the five who survived four years were not re-elected. If we extend this period eight years, to 1869, Abraham Lincoln was the only President to be elected to a second term as President, and that term was the shortest in American history, save for the thirty-day Presidency of William Henry Harrison, who defeated Van Buren in 1840. To bring Van Buren to more current times --- until 1988, when Vice President George H. W. Bush was elected to succeed Ronald Reagan as President --- no sitting VP had been elected President since Martin Van Buren in 1836.
This snippet of history would seem to give us ample excuse to pay little attention to Van Buren. Most Americans probably don't need any excuse. Ah, but we deprive ourselves of meeting a rather extraordinary fellow by such an attitude.
There are a few biographies of Van Buren available in libraries but I was determined to read the book by Ted Widmer. I cannot tell you why, but I am glad I joined a fourth library system in order to borrow it. I was not so sure about this choice when I learned that the book was less than two hundred pages and that all the volumes of this set were of similar length, the makings of a collection designed for youth.

In the song Do Re Mi from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Maria sings,
“Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start.
The first pages, often skipped if they are not in the main text, are vitally important in this book. Indeed, this book, and the series in which it is incorporated, is worth reading if only to gaze intently upon the brilliance of editor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. If I had the capability, I would send his Editor’s Note, paged in Roman numerals, to every citizen of these United States.

This begins a beautifully written chronicle on a man whose influence in the political arena continues to this day, although few would know it. Ted Widmer picks up the ball and runs with it to the goal line, incorporating a team that produces a biography worthy of any library, public or personal. Widmer's team is of writers of prose and poetry, wordsmiths who bring fresh air to our twenty-first century English language. He brings his story to an end with words from President #33, Harry Truman, who, like Van Buren, was vice president to the President he succeeded, although under far different circumstances. What a glorious conclusion.
Martin Van Buren was not a man without flaws, perhaps his greatest was his posture as a fence-sitter, especially concerning slavery. Yet I see him as a decent man, a man I will continue to remember every December 5th.
One quick note from Widmer:

Page 101
“Once confidence is lost,…it is nearly impossible to restore.”
Widmer is writing of the economic crisis that faced Van Buren in the early dawn of his administration, but that axiom is equally true in other circumstances. With Election Day 2024 looming, many Americans express skepticism about the electoral system —- whether it be the electoral college or an echoing of lies concerning the frauds of four years prior.

Five stars