Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren (born Maarten Van Buren, December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the 8th president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was the first president born after the independence of the United States from the British Empire. A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States secretary of state, and the eighth vice president of the United States. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, due in part to the poor economic conditions of the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and important anti-slavery leader, who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election. A delegate to a political convention at age 18, he quickly moved from local to state politics, gaining fame both as a political organizer and an accomplished lawyer. Elected to the U.S. Senate by the New York State Legislature in 1821, he reorganized the Democratic-Republican Party in New York and established the Albany Regency to keep it in power. Van Buren supported William H. Crawford for President in the 1824 election. John Quincy Adams was then made president in a contingent election. The supporters of Jackson, who had won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote, coalesced around Jackson to create the new Democratic Party. Van Buren, alarmed by the nationalist policies of the Adams administration, soon joined them. Van Buren was a major supporter and organizer for Jackson in the 1828 election, and ran for Governor of New York in the hope of using his personal popularity to boost Jackson's campaign. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and after serving as governor for two months, Van Buren resigned to become Jackson's Secretary of State. During Jackson's eight years as President, Van Buren was a key advisor, and built the organizational structure for the coalescing Democratic Party, particularly in New York. He resigned as Secretary of State in 1831 to help resolve the Petticoat affair. Jackson gave Van Buren a recess appointment as American minister to Britain. Van Buren's nomination was rejected by the Senate, cutting short his service in London, but he was elected Vice President in the 1832 election. As president, Van Buren was blamed for the depression of 1837; hostile newspapers called him "Martin Van Ruin". He attempted to cure the economic problems by keeping control of federal funds in an independent treasury—rather than in state banks—but Congress would not approve of this until 1840. In foreign affairs, he denied the application of Texas for admission to the Union, unwilling to upset the balance of free and slave states in the Missouri Compromise, and hoping to avoid war with Mexico over Texas annexation by purchasing the territory from Mexico's government. Additionally, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada proved to be strained from the bloodless Aroostook War and the Caroline Affair. Van Buren died of asthma at his home in Kinderhook in 1862, aged 79. The canceled iteration of Fallout 3 video game, made by Black Isle Studios, was infamously codenamed after the 8th president.