Martin Van Buren's tenure as the eighth president of the United States began on March 4, 1837, and ended on March 4, 1841. Van Buren, a Democrat and vice president under Andrew Jackson, took office after defeating multiple Whig Party candidates in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren's presidency ended following his defeat by Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in the 1840 presidential election.
The central issue facing President Van Buren was the Panic of 1837, a sustained economic downturn that began just weeks into his presidency. Van Buren opposed any direct federal government intervention and cut back federal spending to maintain a balanced budget. He also presided over the establishment of the independent treasury system, a series of government vaults that replaced banks as the repository of federal funds. Van Buren continued the Indian removal policies of the Jackson administration, as thousands of Native Americans were resettled west of the Mississippi River during his presidency. He sought to avoid major tensions over slavery, rejecting the possibility of annexing Texas and appealing the case of United States v. The Amistad to the Supreme Court. In foreign affairs, Van Buren avoided war with Britain despite several incidents, including the bloodless Aroostook War and the Caroline Affair.
Van Buren's inability to deal effectively with the economic depression, combined with the growing political strength of the opposition Whigs, led to his defeat in the 1840 presidential election. His presidency was marked as much by failure and criticism as by success and popular acclaim, and is often ranked as average or below-average by historians. His most lasting achievement was as a political organizer who built the modern Democratic Party and guided it to dominance in the new Second Party System.
Presidential election of 1836
Van Buren had emerged as President Andrew Jackson's preferred successor during the Petticoat affair, and Van Buren won election as vice president in 1832. The two men –charismatic "Old Hickory" and the super-efficient "Sly Fox"—had entirely different personalities but had become an effective team in eight years in office together.Thomas Brown, "From Old Hickory to Sly Fox: The Routinization of Charisma in the Early Democratic Party." Journal of the Early Republic 11.3 (1991): 339–369 online. Jackson declined to seek another term in the 1836 presidential election, but he remained influential within the Democratic Party, and he strongly supported Van Buren's candidacy in the 1836 election. With Jackson's support, Van Buren won the presidential nomination of the 1835 Democratic National Convention without opposition. Two names were put forward for the vice-presidential nomination: Representative Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, and former senator William Cabell Rives of Virginia. Though most Southern Democrats favored Rives, Jackson preferred Johnson, and his influence helped lead to Johnson's nomination for the vice presidency.
The newly established Whig Party, a loose coalition bound by mutual opposition to Jackson, sought to prevent Van Buren's victory in the election of 1836. Lacking the party unity or organizational strength to field a single ticket or define a single platform, the Whigs fielded multiple candidates in the hope of forcing a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Senator Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, a former Jackson ally, emerged as the major Whig candidate in the South, touting himself as the only Southerner in the race. William Henry Harrison, who had gained notoriety for his service in the Battle of Tippecanoe, edged out Senator Daniel Webster to become the main Whig candidate in the North. The Whig Party campaigned on denouncing Jackson's alleged executive tyranny, and attacked Van Buren as an untrustworthy career politician.
Van Buren had to articulate a position on slavery that could win full-throated approval in both the pro-slavery South and the Northern states where slavery was illegal and unpopular. The biggest challenge came in the South, where all Yankees were automatically suspect on the slave question.Joseph Hobson Harrison, "Martin Van Buren and His Southern Supporters." Journal of Southern History 22#4 (1956): 438–458 online. Van Buren moved to obtain the support of Southerners by assuring them that he opposed abolitionism and supported the continued existence of slavery in states where it was present. Van Buren did not discuss his own personal beliefs, which held that slavery was immoral, but was sanctioned by the Constitution. Van Buren's strategy was not to defend his personal position, but to attack abolitionists, who were popular nowhere in the United States. As vice president, he cast the tie-breaking Senate vote in favor of a bill to subject abolitionist mail to state laws, thus ensuring that abolitionist mail would not be circulated in the South. While Southern Whigs cast doubt on his devotion to slavery, his supporters insisted he believed in three things: that Congress could not interfere with slavery in the states, that it would be "impolitic" to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and that agitation about slavery endangered the union. Van Buren and his supporters realized that to build a viable national party and to maintain the union they had to compromise by accepting slavery. The Democrats created the first modern party, but in doing so consciously removed slavery and abolition from the partisan agenda. More than a decade later, in 1848, Van Buren would become a leading opponent of the extension of slavery in the North while running with the Free Soil Party, but by then he had abandoned any hope of Southern support.William G. Shade, "'The Most Delicate and Exciting Topics': Martin Van Buren, Slavery, and the Election of 1836." Journal of the Early Republic 18.3 (1998): 459–484 online.
Van Buren won the 1836 election with 764,198 popular votes, 50.9 percent of the total, and 170 electoral votes. Harrison led the Whigs with 73 electoral votes, White receiving 26, and Webster 14. Willie Person Mangum received South Carolina's 11 electoral votes, which were awarded by the state legislature. Compared to Jackson's 1832 campaign, Van Buren performed better in New England but worse in the South and West. Van Buren's victory resulted from a combination of his own attractive political and personal qualities, Jackson's popularity and endorsement, the organizational power of the Democratic party, and the inability of the Whig Party to muster an effective candidate and campaign. Virginia's presidential electors voted for Van Buren for president but William Smith for vice president, leaving Johnson one electoral vote short of election. In accordance with the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate elected Johnson vice president in a contingent vote. Meanwhile, in the concurrent congressional elections, Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress.
The election of 1836 marked an important turning point in American political history because of the part it played in establishing the Second Party System. In the early 1830s the political party structure was still changing rapidly, and factional and personal leaders continued to play a major role in politics. By the end of the campaign of 1836, the new party system was almost fully formed, as nearly every faction had been absorbed by either the Democrats or the Whigs.Joel H. Silbey, "Election of 1836." in Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., ed. History of American Presidential Elections (1968) 2:577–600.
Inauguration
Van Buren was sworn in as president by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney on March 4, 1837, in a ceremony held on the East Portico of the United States Capitol. At age 54, he was the youngest person at the time to assume the presidency. Taking the oath as the eighth president, Van Buren defined his role as one of preservation: "sacredly to uphold those political institutions" created by the Founders and especially to safeguard the hallowed Jeffersonian principles of a limited national government and the liberty and sovereignty of "the people and the states."
The inauguration marked the departure of a vital personality–Jackson–and the arrival of his chosen successor–Van Buren–in a new presidential dynasty. They rode together in a small phaeton (built from the wood of USS Constitution) drawn by four gray horses. This was the first time that the outgoing president and incoming president rode together to the Capitol. The day's festivities proved less a celebration of the incoming president than a tribute to the outgoing one. Van Buren's inaugural address took wistful note of it:
The inaugural ball was held in the evening at Carusi's Saloon, which was the tradition of the time.
Cabinet
Van Buren retained much of Jackson's cabinet and lower-level appointees, as he hoped that the retention of Jackson's appointees would halt Whig momentum in the South and restore confidence in the Democrats as a party of sectional unity. The cabinet holdovers represented the different regions of the country: Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury came from New England, Attorney General Benjamin Franklin Butler and Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson hailed from the mid-Atlantic states, Secretary of State John Forsyth represented the South, and Postmaster General Amos Kendall of Kentucky represented the West. For the position of Secretary of War, the lone unfilled post in the cabinet, Van Buren first approached William Cabell Rives, who had sought the vice presidency in 1836. After Rives declined to join the cabinet, Van Buren appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett, a South Carolinian who had opposed secession during the Nullification Crisis.
Van Buren's cabinet choices were criticized by Pennsylvanians such as James Buchanan, who argued that their state deserved a cabinet position, as well as some Democrats who argued that Van Buren should have used his patronage powers to augment his own power. But Van Buren saw value in avoiding contentious patronage battles, and his decision to retain Jackson's cabinet made it clear that he intended to continue the policies of his predecessor. Additionally, Van Buren had helped select Jackson's cabinet appointees and enjoyed strong working relationships with them.
Dissatisfied with the discipline and morale of the navy, Van Buren pressured Dickerson to resign in 1838, and Dickerson was succeeded by James K. Paulding. That same year, Butler resigned and was replaced with Felix Grundy, a Senator from Tennessee with close ties to Jackson. Grundy was later succeeded by Henry D. Gilpin of Pennsylvania. John M. Niles, a party loyalist and former Senator from Connecticut, became Postmaster General in 1840.
Van Buren was closely involved in foreign affairs and matters pertaining to the Treasury Department, but the Post Office, War Department, and Navy Department all possessed high levels of autonomy under their respective cabinet secretaries. Van Buren held regular formal cabinet meetings and discontinued the informal gatherings of advisers that had attracted so much attention during Jackson's presidency. Van Buren saw himself as "a mediator, and to some extent an umpire between the conflicting opinions" of his counselors. He solicited advice from department heads, tolerating open and even frank exchanges between cabinet members. The president's detachment allowed him to reserve judgment and protect his own prerogative for making final decisions.
White House hostess