Martin Van Buren: Not really an OK guy

Martin Van Buren

President from: Mar. 4, 1837–Mar. 3, 1841

Age at inauguration: 54

Political Party: Democrat

What I read:

Martin Van Buren and the American Political System by Donald B. Cole

Age at death: 79

Cause of Death: Heart failure. Possibly brought on by asthma or sleep apnea.

Health & Appearance: Van Buren stood only 5’6” tall with sandy red hair and blue eyes. He dressed meticulously. Compared to his predecessors, he was in good health. He was a heavy drinker. By the age of 25, he could drink large quantities of alcohol without showing drunkenness. This lead to his nickname “Blue Whiskey Van.” Not surprisingly, he suffered from gout. The Presidency did not slow his drinking but only increased it.

Pre-Presidency: 

He was a very sought-after lawyer and, though poor at writing, was dogged in his ability to out research anyone.

His political background as New York’s Attorney General, Governor, and Senator should have set him up to be a great president. As a senator during Jackson’s presidency, Van Buren blocked every bill JQ Adams put forward.

Van Buren was Jackson’s Secretary of State then his second term Vice President. He was very good in these roles. He negotiated a settlement with Great Britain that eased long held tensions between the two countries. 

Van Buren moved political parties away from cults of personalities and into parties of ideas with defined platforms of goals and values. Until Van Buren's era, presidents campaigned through surrogates and party newspapers. But after Congress expanded suffrage to include all white men, not just land holders (the Senate was still elected by state houses), candidates had to reach significantly more voters. As a founder of the Democratic Party, Van Buren aimed to serve the people vs. the political elite, and was the first to develop party infrastructure like political rallies and direct campaigning by candidates. He organized Jackson’s campaign, which was the first to appeal directly to average voters.

For his ability to get his candidates elected he was called “The Little Magician.”

Major accomplishments:  The economic panic of 1837 moved Van Buren to call for an independent treasury. This was in opposition to his own party and President Jackson, who had moved the nation's money into private banks.  The bill was eventually passed but it burned much of Van Buren's political capital. 

He averted another war with England by settling a border dispute between Canada, New York, and Maine.  U.S. citizens in the two states wanted Van Buren to take a stronger stance and their interpretation of his negotiations as weakness hurt him in his run for reelection.

He eased tensions between the North and South by disagreeing with Jackson on annexing Texas, which would have created another slave state.  By leaving Texas as an independent entity, the pressure decreased.

Are you kidding me? He was the first president born on U.S. soil. The other presidents were born British. His reelection nickname was “Old Kinderhook” (he was from Kinderhook, Maine) and his campaign signs had the tag "Vote for OK."  The "OK" stuck as a common phrase in American English, but Van Buren lost.

Other nicknames: “Red Fox of Kinderhook,” “Sly fox,” "Blue Whiskey Van," and “Little Magician.”

He is tied for second shortest president.

What I learned: His great ability to study all angles of a problem became the albatross around his neck during his presidency. His indecisive ways left room for his political enemies to take advantage and control the message.

Van Buren’s administration oversaw the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation and other tribes. The brutal, tragic Trail of Tears occurred under Van Buren, not Jackson. His administration fought a long war with the Seminole tribe in Florida, leading to over 5,000 deaths. The fighting in Florida lasted past Van Buren’s presidency.

The economic panic of 1837 was a blow he could not recover from and, although he ran for the presidency two more times, he was a one term president. Van Buren followed a pattern of several U.S. presidents. They were much more effective out of the presidency than in it. 

His refusal to support the annexation of Texas doomed his nomination in 1844, leading to the dark horse candidate James Polk getting the nomination.

Van Buren was brilliant pre-presidency, but is remembered for his ineffectual leadership while in office.

PRECEDED BY: Andrew Jackson

SUCCEEDED BY: William Henry Harrison