Martin Van Buren

Article Outline

Introduction; Early Life; Early Political Career; President of the United States; Later Life

Foreign Affairs

Van Buren assisted in resolving a long-standing dispute with Great Britain involving restrictions placed on U.S. trade with the British West Indies. By the time Jackson became president, neither power would allow direct West Indies trade with the other. After considerable negotiation, in which the United States indicated its determination to settle the problem amicably and quickly, it was agreed that the ports of the British West Indies and the United States would be open to ships of each nation on terms of full reciprocity, without duties against ships of either nation or their cargoes.

Van Buren helped gain a treaty with the French by which France agreed to pay the damage claims from the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), in which France had confiscated U.S. cargoes bound for Britain. Van Buren also assisted in obtaining the United States' first commercial treaty with Turkey, in 1831. That treaty gave the United States most-favored-nation status, which meant that it would have trading status at least as favorable as any other nation trading with Turkey.

Rivalry With Calhoun

As Jackson came to depend on Van Buren more and more, the Little Magician's rivalry with Calhoun intensified. In 1830 it flared into the open because of a scandal involving Secretary of War John H. Eaton and his wife. Eaton had married Peggy O'Neill after (according to rumor) romancing her while she was still married to someone else. The marriage horrified the wives of the other Cabinet officers, who, led by the aristocratic Mrs. Calhoun, refused to socialize with the Eatons. Their actions infuriated the gallant Jackson, whose wife, Rachel, had been treated similarly before her death. Among the Cabinet officers only Van Buren showed Mrs. Eaton any respect. His politeness and deference toward the much-abused lady won Jackson's gratitude at a time when the rift between the president and Calhoun was widening.

The dispute with the Cabinet intensified because of Calhoun's support of nullification, the doctrine that a state could nullify a federal law within its borders. Also, Jackson learned for the first time that Calhoun had sought his censure in 1818, after Jackson had invaded Spanish Florida in pursuit of raiding Seminole and had executed two British subjects. To Calhoun these sudden and unexpected reverses in his political fortune looked very suspicious indeed. Immediately he concluded that they were the products of the machinations of Van Buren and that they were designed to wreck the vice president's career and make Van Buren Jackson's heir apparent. In a rage, Calhoun wrote out his complaints in a long article and published the piece in a Washington newspaper. He named Van Buren as the source of the discord within the cabinet. However, in publicizing the administration's problems, he further alienated Jackson, who was very sensitive about his public image. Consequently, the president decided to rid his administration of Calhoun and his influence.

Jackson's Heir Apparent

After he resigned from the Cabinet, Van Buren left for his post in Great Britain, not waiting for the Senate to confirm his nomination. Then, when the nomination was finally taken up by the Senate in January 1832 and a vote taken, a tie resulted. The tie-breaking vote fell to Calhoun as vice president. Without a moment's hesitation he voted to reject the nomination. Jackson, furious over the rejection, determined to make Van Buren his next vice president. When the Democrats convened in Baltimore in 1832, they unanimously nominated Van Buren to run with Jackson.

The 1832 presidential election was the first in which the major parties used nominating conventions to select their candidates. It was also the first involving a third major party. The National Republican Party chose Henry Clay and John Sergeant, while the Anti-Masonic Party nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker. The following fall, Jackson and Van Buren won a smashing victory.

Vice President

As vice president, Van Buren presided over the Senate during the years when Jackson was concluding his war against the Second Bank of the United States. Previously, Jackson had vetoed a recharter of the bank and had in fact won his reelection to the presidency on this issue. Jackson argued that the bank was unresponsive to the will of the people and benefited only investors and speculators. After the victory, Jackson withdrew government deposits from the bank and placed them in so-called pet, or state, banks. This action hastened the end of the Bank of the United States. Some members of the opposition party believed that the removal of the deposits was undertaken to benefit bankers friendly to the Democratic Party and that Van Buren had been the agent of these bankers. Although Van Buren supported the president in refusing the recharter, he had serious doubts about the wisdom of withdrawing the government's deposits from the bank. Moreover, he would never have engaged in any action that might diminish his chance of being elected president.

Election of 1836

Jackson had long since designated Van Buren as his political successor. The years of devoted service to a president who enjoyed unrivaled popularity with the American people would thus be repaid. Because of his firm control of the Democratic Party, Jackson simply signaled his wish to party leaders, and it was executed without opposition. In May 1835 the Democrats held their convention in Baltimore and unanimously nominated Van Buren on the first ballot. Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky was chosen to run for the vice presidency.

The new Whig Party, which had succeeded the National Republicans, as an expression of its opposition to Jackson's use of strong presidential powers, did not hold a national convention. Instead the Whigs nominated three separate candidates for the presidency, each to run in the section of the country where he was strongest. They hoped that this strategy would deny Van Buren a majority of the electoral votes and force the election into the House of Representatives, where the Whigs believed they could win. The Whig candidates were Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, who ran in the New England states; Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, who ran in the South and Southwest; and William Henry Harrison of Ohio, who ran in the West. South Carolinians organized in support of nullification chose Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina as their anti-Jackson candidate. However, the election did not go as the Whigs hoped. Riding on Jackson's popularity and success as a president, Van Buren won handily with 170 electoral votes as against 73 for Harrison, 26 for White, 14 for Webster, and 11 for Mangum. In the popular vote, Van Buren received a total of 764,176 to Harrison's 550,816, White's 146,107, and Webster's 41,201.

President of the United States