Martin Van Buren Read online

  death of

  Van Buren, John (son)

  letter from his father of 1858

  Van Buren, Maria Hoes (née Van Alen) (mother)

  Van Buren, Marten

  Van Buren, Martin

  Albany Regency and, see “Albany Regency, the”

  ambitiousness

  ancestry of

  appearance of

  apprenticeship with Silvester

  as attorney general of New York

  autobiography of, see autobiography of Martin Van Buren

  birth of

  Burr and, see Burr, Aaron childhood of

  communities named after

  death of

  democracy, commitment to, see democracy, Van Buren’s commitment to

  Democratic Party and, see

  Democratic Party

  education of

  eloquence of

  enemies and attacks on

  as first ethnic president

  as first president born in the U.S.

  foreign policy

  Free Soil movement and, see Free Soil campaign of 1848

  inaugural

  inscrutability of

  Andrew Jackson and, see Jackson, Andrew, Van Buren and

  legal career

  legal education

  marriage of

  middle-of-the-road positions

  milestones

  as minister to England

  New York governors’ race of 1828

  nicknames

  as optimist

  parentage, suspicions about

  political skills

  presidential election of 1836

  presidential election of 1840

  presidential election of 1844

  presidential election of 1848

  ranking among the presidents

  in retirement

  as secretary of state

  slavery issue and

  sociability of

  as state senator

  Texas annexation and

  as U.S. senator from New York

  as vice president

  Van Buren, Martin, Jr. (son)

  Van Buren, Smith (son)

  Van Buren family

  history of

  marriage of kin

  Van Ness, John

  Van Ness, William

  Van Ness family

  Van Rensselaer, Stephen

  Van Rensselaer family

  Van Schaack family

  Victoria, Queen of England

  Virginia

  –New York alliance

  War of 1812

  Washington, D.C.:

  gossip and scandal in

  population in 1820s

  slavery and

  social life during Van Buren’s presidency

  Washington, George

  Washington Globe

  Webster, Daniel

  Weed, Thurlow

  Welles, Gideon

  West Point

  Whigs

  Panic of 1837 and

  presidential election of 1940 and

  White, Hugh Lawson

  White House:

  refurbishing of

  social life during Van Buren presidency

  Whitman, Walt

  Wilkes, Charles

  Williams, Elisha

  Willis, N. P.

  Woolf, Virginia

  Wright, Silas

  ALSO BY TED WIDMER

  Young America

  Campaigns

  with Alan Brinkley

  THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS SERIES

  Joyce Appleby on Thomas Jefferson

  Louis Auchincloss on Theodore Roosevelt

  Jean H. Baker on James Buchanan

  John M. Blum on William Howard Taft

  H. W. Brands on Woodrow Wilson

  Douglas Brinkley on Gerald R. Ford

  Josiah Bunting III on Ulysses S. Grant

  James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn on George Washington

  Charles W. Calhoun on Benjamin Harrison

  Robert Dallek on Harry S. Truman

  John W. Dean on Warren G. Harding

  John Patrick Diggins on John Adams

  E. L. Doctorow on Abraham Lincoln

  Annette Gordon-Reed on Andrew Johnson

  Henry F. Graff on Grover Cleveland

  Gary Hart on James Monroe

  Hendrik Hertzberg on Jimmy Carter

  Roy Jenkins on Franklin Delano Roosevelt

  Zachary Karabell on Chester Alan Arthur

  William E. Leuchtenburg on Herbert Hoover

  Timothy Naftali on George Bush

  Kevin Phillips on William McKinley

  Robert V. Remini on John Quincy Adams

  John Seigenthaler on James K. Polk

  Hans L. Trefousse on Rutherford B. Hayes

  Tom Wicker on Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Ted Widmer on Martin Van Buren

  Sean Wilentz on Andrew Jackson

  Garry Wills on James Madison

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ted Widmer is the director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. He is the author of Young America and the coauthor, with Alan Brinkley, of Campaigns. Widmer served as senior adviser to President Clinton and as director of speechwriting at the National Security Council.

  Times Books

  Henry Holt and Company, LLC

  Publishers since 1866

  115 West 18th Street

  New York, New York 10011

  Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

  Copyright © 2005 by Ted Widmer

  All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Widmer, Edward L.

  Martin Van Buren / Ted Widmer.—1st ed.

  p. cm.—(The American presidents)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 0-8050-6922-4

  EAN 978-0-8050-6922-8

  1. Van Buren, Martin, 1782–1862. 2. Presidents—United States—Biography. 3. United States—Politics and government—1837–1841. I. Title. II. American presidents series (Times Books (Firm))

  E397.W535 2005

  973.5'7'092—dc22

  2004053652

  First Edition 2005

  eISBN 9781466832718

  First eBook edition: October 2012