Martin Van Buren

F

Election of 1840

Because of the depression and his temperate handling of the Canadian problem, Van Buren became increasingly unpopular with the American people. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party unanimously renominated him for the presidency at their national convention in 1840. The Whig Party realized that they had a splendid opportunity to win the presidential office at last. Having learned that modern politics required the nomination of a man who could appeal to the masses and that military heroes have such an appeal, they nominated General William Henry Harrison, who had made a remarkably good showing in the election of 1836. Harrison was known as “Tippecanoe” because of his victory over the Shawnee nation at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Along with Harrison the Whigs nominated John Tyler of Virginia.

The Whig campaign had log cabin and cider symbols, brass bands, parades, floats, and songs. “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too,” they chorused. “Van, Van, is a used up man.” Democrats tried to imitate the Whigs. Although they, too, used slogans, such as “O.K.,” referring to Van Buren's birthplace in Old Kinderhook, they were not equal to the ingenuity of the Whigs. Van Buren lost the election by an electoral count of 234 to 60. The popular vote gave him 1,128,854 to Harrison's 1,275,390. The depression and the problems with Great Britain all hurt Van Buren, but perhaps the single most important issue responsible for his defeat was the fact that the Whigs convinced the American people that unlike Harrison, Van Buren was not a “man of the people,” but rather an aristocrat with extravagant tastes who lacked genuine sympathy for the problems of the ordinary citizen.

V

Later Life

After his defeat, Van Buren set about to improve his political image. In 1842 he toured the West, where he visited Jackson in Tennessee, and Henry Clay in Kentucky. At this time Van Buren and Clay may have agreed to come out publicly in opposition to the annexation of Texas because of its divisive effect in the North. In a letter published a short time later, Van Buren argued against annexation because it involved the danger of war with Mexico. If the people really wanted Texas, then he was willing to yield to their wishes. However, at the moment, he said, he was against adding Texas to the Union. Clay also published a similar letter.

A

Split in the Democratic Party

Although Van Buren had been the leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 1844, his public disavowal of annexation lost him the nomination. Instead the Democrats chose James K. Polk, an expansionist from Tennessee who went on to win against Clay. Polk offered Van Buren the ambassadorship to England, but he refused it.

---

---

In New York the Democratic Party split into two factions. The Hunker, or conservative, faction had the support and patronage of the administration. Van Buren became the leader of the Barnburner faction, which continued to advocate the radical economic policies of Jacksonian democracy and which also opposed the extension of slavery.

B

Free-Soil Candidate

In 1848, at the end of the Mexican War, Van Buren was again a presidential candidate, this time on the ticket of the Free-Soil Party. The question of slavery had grown so ominous that the Free-Soil Party had been formed to oppose the extension of that institution. At their national convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1848, the Free-Soilers nominated Van Buren for the presidency. He had the support of the Barnburners, who had already bolted the Democratic national convention, and of dissident New England Whigs, called Conscience Whigs because of their opposition to slavery.

The Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, while the Whigs named General Zachary Taylor. Van Buren took so many votes away from Cass in New York that Taylor won the state and with it the election. Van Buren did not win any electoral votes, but he captured about 10 percent of the popular vote, or 291,500 votes.

C

Last Years

Despite his sojourn among Free-Soilers, Van Buren was a Democrat at heart and soon returned to the party he had done so much to organize. Following the election in 1852 of Franklin Pierce, whose candidacy Van Buren endorsed, he took a trip to Europe, where he spent the next two years. He was then 70 years old and the first ex-president to leave the United States. He caused something of a commotion in Europe because no one seemed to know how to salute an elected, nonaristocratic head of state or where to seat him at a banquet table. But Van Buren asked to be treated like any other American tourist.

While visiting Italy, Van Buren began to write his political memoirs. The document became massive and was eventually published as his autobiography, even though its narrative stopped in 1831. Politics continued to hold Van Buren's interest, and he opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which had limited the spread of slavery in the new U.S. territories, as well as other measures of the 1850s that appeased the slaveholding aristocracy. Although he supported Democrat James Buchanan for president in 1856, he came to oppose President Buchanan's policy of conciliating the Southern states and in 1860 supported Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. Van Buren had retired to his home at Lindenwald, in Kinderhook, following his return from Europe. He died there on July 24, 1862, at the age of 79.

	More from Encarta
	•  Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be discontinued. Learn more. •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain