III.

Early Political Career

On his return to Kinderhook, Van Buren joined the Democratic-Republican Party. Because he became one of the best lawyers in Columbia County and because the county was dominated by the Federalist Party, he was constantly asked to appear in court against Federalist lawyers. Van Buren's repeated successes in these encounters catapulted him into a leading position in the Democratic-Republican Party in Columbia County. As a result, he was appointed to a local office, then to a county position, and finally, in 1812, he was elected to the state senate.

A.

State Senator

Van Buren began his legislative career the same year the United States declared war against Great Britain. He actively supported the war measures proposed by the governor. However, many of these measures died in the legislature because of Federalist opposition to them and to the war in general. As a result, the state stumbled through the war doing less than it could to assist the national government in its prosecution of the war.

In 1816 Van Buren was reelected to the state senate and was also appointed state attorney general. Later he was designated judge advocate. As such he prosecuted Brigadier General William Hull for treason because Hull had surrendered Detroit to the British in 1812. Van Buren won a conviction of Hull for cowardice and neglect of duty, and the general was sentenced to be shot. However, President James Madison rescinded the sentence of execution.

B.

The Bucktails

When Van Buren began his political career, the Democratic-Republican Party in New York was divided into three factions: followers of the Livingston family, followers of the Clinton family, and followers of Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Van Buren soon identified himself with the Clintonians and rose rapidly to a position of leadership in their ranks. One reason for his success was his skill in manipulating and controlling caucus meetings, where party policy was decided.

Because of his rapid rise, Van Buren was forced into a personal rivalry with De Witt Clinton, then governor of New York. For the next 15 years the two men battled for control of the state Democratic-Republican Party, with Van Buren assuming leadership of his own faction. Van Buren's followers were known as Bucktails because the leaders of the Tammany Society, a New York City political organization that supported Van Buren, wore bucktails on their hats when they attended political meetings.

In this long struggle with Clinton, Van Buren resorted to a number of devious schemes to strengthen his position and weaken the opposition. His methods and his uninterrupted string of extraordinary successes earned him much criticism. Van Buren trained himself to disregard all attacks, no matter how personal or severe. This attitude, in turn, brought on the criticism that he was too cautious and too much under the control of a calculating mind ever to be hindered from the attainment of his political ambitions.

The Clintonians cited as one example of Van Buren's unscrupulous methods his support of a convention in 1821 to revise the state's constitution. Van Buren and his Bucktails said they wanted to make the constitution more democratic. The Clintonians retorted that the real aim was to oust them from office. Both sides were right. The revised constitution introduced a needed extension of voting rights and improved the operation of the state government. However, it also removed many Clintonians from the government by abolishing the offices they held.

Van Buren played an important role in the convention. Invariably he took the middle ground and adopted resolutions that would win the support of the largest number of delegates. His enemies accused him of having no position at all, but this was untrue. Although he was cautious, he believed in popular rule. However, his brand of democracy included safeguards to ensure that the people acted “not by the feelings of temporary excitement, but by that sober second thought which is never wrong.”

C.

United States Senator

C.1.

Albany Regency

In 1821 Van Buren was elected to the U.S. Senate, the upper chamber of the Congress of the United States. Before departing for Washington, D.C., he established a political machine, called the Albany Regency, to run the state in his absence.

A political machine is a tightly disciplined organization set up to ensure that a party or faction maintains control of political offices. Van Buren could set up the Regency because the revised constitution had placed a great deal of patronage, or the power to appoint people to political positions, in the hands of the Bucktails.

The Albany Regency was the first statewide political machine in New York history. Among its members were some of the best political talents in the state. Into the hands of these men Van Buren placed what had taken him almost ten years to acquire: control of the state legislature and control of patronage. With these instruments the Regency directed the political affairs of the party and of the state. Although Van Buren was away from New York for much of the remainder of his political career, he continued to be recognized as chief of the Regency.

C.2.

Election of 1824

In Washington, Van Buren's political talents were quickly discovered, and he soon occupied an important position within the national party. At that time the dominance of the Democratic-Republicans was so complete that James Monroe had been unopposed in the presidential election of 1820. However, the party was already splitting into factions. Van Buren was a leader of the faction that supported states' rights and was opposed to a strong central government.

In 1824 Van Buren summoned the last congressional caucus to nominate a presidential candidate. Then he managed the campaign of Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, the caucus nominee. However, several other Republican candidates chose to run in this election, including General Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and Congressman Henry Clay. Because none of the candidates won a majority of electoral votes, the election went to the House of Representatives (the lower chamber of Congress) for decision.

It is perhaps a fair example of Van Buren's political skill that he got 41 electoral votes for Crawford, enough to place him third in the race, despite the fact that Crawford had suffered a severe paralytic stroke many months before the election and should have been eliminated from the contest. Clay, who had been eliminated from the contest because he ran fourth, threw his support to Adams, and the House elected Adams president.

C.3.

Jackson Supporter

Although Adams won the presidency, Van Buren had already gauged the rising popularity of Andrew Jackson and had decided that the future belonged to those who rode with “Old Hickory,” as Jackson was called. Moreover, Adams's political philosophy differed from Van Buren's. The new president was committed to a strong national government and Henry Clay's American System, which called for a high protective tariff, federally financed internal improvements, and a strong central bank.

For the duration of Adams's administration, Van Buren worked in and out of Congress to block executive action and to win the presidency for Jackson in 1828. To achieve these ends, he united several Democratic-Republican factions in various states into a new political party that reasserted the principles of the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. Van Buren said he hoped his actions would bring about a new political combination that would effect the substantial reorganization of the old party. He continued: “Political combinations between the inhabitants of the different states are unavoidable and the most natural and beneficial to the country is that between the planters of the South and the plain Republicans of the North.” This new political combination nominated Jackson for the presidency and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina for the vice presidency in 1828. These followers of Jackson, Calhoun, and Van Buren formed the political organization that became the Democratic Party.

D.

Election of 1828

To help Jackson find electoral votes across the country, Van Buren maneuvered the Tariff of 1828, commonly called the Tariff of Abominations, through Congress. His strategy was to appeal to voters of the middle and Western states by promising high protective duties on imports of raw materials. This angered Southerners, who depended on those imports. They retaliated by plotting to raise the duties on manufactured goods, on which New England businessmen depended. The result they expected was that even the supporters of protection would vote against the bill and defeat it. Although this plan misfired and the tariff bill was voted into law, the result did not hurt Jackson. The South believed that only through the election of Jackson and Calhoun would the tariff be repealed.

E.

Governor of New York

To assist Jackson in securing New York's 36 electoral votes, Van Buren agreed to run for governor of the state in 1828. The race was a three-way contest. The Anti-Masonic Party nominated a journalist, Solomon Southwick. The badly divided National Republicans chose a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Smith Thompson. Van Buren won, but he did not get a majority of the total vote.

In contrast, Jackson won the presidency by an overwhelming margin. This victory was in large measure due to the splendid organization of the Democratic Party. In appreciation for Van Buren's part in shaping this victory, Jackson invited him to become secretary of state. Although he had only been governor since the beginning of the year, Van Buren resigned on March 12, 1829, after the Senate confirmed the appointment.

Despite the fact that Van Buren's term as governor was short, he initiated a number of notable reforms while in office. The most significant of these reforms was the Safety Fund System, which required all incorporated banks to join an association and contribute to a fund that would insure depositors from loss through the failure of any one bank. The system was supervised by a three-man commission that visited each bank periodically and inspected its affairs. Within a few years the fund had more than $30 million and provided a safe banking system for the people of New York. Van Buren's Safety Fund System was one of the wisest and most important banking innovations of the 19th century.

F.

Secretary of State

Van Buren had resigned as governor because he knew that the office of secretary of state was usually the fastest road to the presidency. Not unexpectedly, his presence in the Cabinet excited the jealousy of other ambitious men, most noticeably Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun hoped to succeed Jackson after his expected two terms as president, and he resented the close working relations that quickly developed between Van Buren and Jackson. At first, Jackson had some doubts about his secretary of state because of his reputation as an unscrupulous politician, but he soon developed a profound regard for Van Buren's abilities and for his devotion and loyalty to the administration.

F.1.

Maysville Veto

As secretary, Van Buren not only counseled the president on foreign and domestic policy and on politics, but assisted him in drafting state papers. One of the most important documents that Van Buren drafted was the president's veto of the Maysville Road Bill. The bill would have provided federal funds to build a highway from Maysville to Lexington, both in the state of Kentucky. Van Buren argued against the bill on constitutional grounds, insisting that the road was of concern only to Kentucky. He went on to challenge a basic premise of Clay's American System: that a state's internal improvements were a federal concern. The effect of the Maysville veto was the transfer of the building of roads and canals to the states, a policy that Van Buren, as a Jeffersonian, had long advocated.

F.2.

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.

F.3.

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 objective was to purge the Cabinet without starting a party battle in Congress. Van Buren neatly resolved the problem by suggesting that he resign as secretary of state. His departure would provide the president with an excuse to request the resignations of other Cabinet officers. Once the Calhoun men were gone, the Cabinet could be remade without a political fuss. Although Jackson agreed to the scheme, he would not let Van Buren's sacrifice go unrewarded. After the resignations were submitted, the president showed his gratitude by appointing Van Buren U.S. diplomatic representative to Great Britain. Most of the members of the new Cabinet were Van Buren's friends.

F.4.

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.

G.

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.

G.1.

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.