Presidents in Retirement: Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren served only one term as President. He lost his bid for re-election largely because the fiscal policies of his predecessor Andrew Jackson had led to a great recession known as the Panic of 1837, and because the Whigs ran a slick campaign against him, painting him as aristocratic and out of touch. At the end of his term, Van Buren returned to his estate of Lindenwald in Kinderhook, New York. He remained interested in political developments, including the battle between the Whig alliance of the Great Triumvirate (Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun) and President John Tyler, who took office after William Henry Harrison's death in April 1841. He was coy about making another presidential run, but Van Buren made several moves determined to maintain his support. This included a post-presidential trip to the Southern United States and the Western United States during which he met with Jackson, former Speaker of the House James K. Polk, and others. President Tyler, James Buchanan, Levi Woodbury, and others were the names dropped as potential challengers for the 1844 Democratic nomination, but Van Buren saw Calhoun as his main challenger.
Van Buren remained silent on major public issues like the debate over the Tariff of 1842. He wanted to arrange for the appearance of a draft movement for his presidential candidacy. When President Tyler made the annexation of Texas his chief foreign policy goal, many Democrats, particularly in the South, were anxious to quickly complete it. After an explosion on the USS Princeton killed Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur in February 1844, Tyler brought Calhoun into his cabinet to direct foreign affairs. Like Tyler, Calhoun pursued the annexation of Texas to extend slavery into new territories.
Shortly after taking office, Calhoun negotiated an annexation treaty between the United States and Texas. Van Buren had hoped he would not have to take a public stand on annexation, but the Texas question came to be a leading issue in U.S. politics. Van Buren decided to make his views on the issue public. On the one hand, he believed that his public acceptance of annexation would likely help him win the 1844 Democratic nomination, but he also thought (correctly as it turned out) that annexation would lead to an unjust war with Mexico. In a public letter published shortly after Henry Clay also announced his opposition to the annexation treaty, Van Buren articulated his opposition to annexation. He wrongly assumed that if he and Clay agreed on the issue, it would become a non-issue. But this move likely cost him a return to the White House.
Van Buren's opposition to immediate annexation cost him the support of many pro-slavery Democrats. In the weeks before the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Van Buren's supporters calculated that he would win a majority of the delegates on the first presidential ballot, but would not be able to win the support of the required two-thirds of delegates. He had lost the support of his mentor Andrew Jackson. Van Buren's supporters attempted to prevent the adoption of the two-thirds rule, but several Northern delegates joined with Southern delegates in implementing the two-thirds rule for the 1844 convention. Van Buren won 146 of the 266 votes on the first presidential ballot, with only 12 of his votes coming from Southern states. Senator Lewis Cass won much of the remaining vote, and he gradually picked up support on subsequent ballots until the convention adjourned for the day. When the convention reconvened and held another ballot, James K. Polk, who shared many of Van Buren's views but favored immediate annexation, won 44 votes. On the ninth ballot, Van Buren's supporters withdrew his name from consideration, and Polk won the nomination. Although he was unhappy with the result, Van Buren endorsed Polk in the interest of party unity. He also convinced Silas Wright to run for Governor of New York so that the popular Wright could help boost Polk in the state. Wright narrowly defeated Whig nominee Millard Fillmore in the 1844 gubernatorial election, and Wright's victory in the state helped Polk narrowly defeat Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. It helped that a third party, the Liberty Party, siphoned off some votes from the Whigs in the state.
After taking office, Polk used George Bancroft as an intermediary to offer Van Buren the ambassadorship to London. Van Buren declined, still hurting from the loss of the nomination, and also because he was otherwise content in his retirement. Polk consulted Van Buren in the formation of his cabinet, but offended Van Buren by offering to appoint a New Yorker only to the lesser post of Secretary of War, rather than as Secretary of State or Secretary of the Treasury. Other patronage decisions also angered Van Buren and Wright, and they became alienated from the Polk administration.
In New York state, the Democrats were split between two factions: the Barnburners and Hunkers. Van Buren had tried to maintain a good relationship with both sides, but after the 1844 Democratic convention he became closer to the Barnburners. The split in the state party got worse during Polk's presidency, because his administration doled out more patronage on the Hunkers.
In his retirement, Van Buren also grew increasingly opposed to slavery. As the Mexican-American War brought the debate over slavery in the territories to the forefront of American politics, Van Buren published an anti-slavery manifesto in which he disputed the notion that Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery in the territories. He argued that the Founding Fathers had favored the eventual abolition of slavery. The document became known as the "Barnburner Manifesto." After its publication, many Barnburners urged Van Buren to run in the 1848 presidential election. The 1848 Democratic National Convention seated competing Barnburner and Hunker delegations from New York, but the Barnburners walked out of the convention when Lewis Cass, who opposed congressional regulation of slavery in the territories, was nominated on the fourth ballot. Angered by Cass's nomination, the Barnburners began to organize as a third party. They held a convention in June 1848, in Utica, New York, at which they nominated 65-year-old Van Buren for president. Van Buren was reluctant to leave the Democratic Party, but he decided to accept the nomination in order to show the power of the anti-slavery movement.
At a convention held in Buffalo, New York in August 1848, a group of anti-slavery Democrats, Whigs, and members of the abolitionist Liberty Party met in the first national convention of what became known as the Free Soil Party. The convention unanimously nominated Van Buren, and chose Charles Francis Adams (son of late former President John Quincy Adams and grandson of former President John Adams) as Van Buren's running mate. In a public message accepting the nomination, Van Buren gave his full support for the Wilmot Proviso, a proposed law that would ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Whig Senator Daniel Webster quipped. "if Mr. Van Buren should meet under the Free-soil flag, the latter with his accustomed good-nature would laugh, that the leader of the Free-spoil party suddenly becoming the leader of the Free-soil party is a joke to shake his sides and mine."
Van Buren and the Free Soil Party did not win any electoral votes in the election, but they finished second to Whig nominee Zachary Taylor in New York, taking enough votes from Cass to give the state-and perhaps the election-to Taylor. Overall, Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote, the strongest showing by a third-party presidential nominee up to that point in U.S. history.
Van Buren never sought public office again after the 1848 election, but he continued to closely follow national politics. He was deeply troubled by talk of secessionism in the South and he supported the Compromise of 1850 as a necessary conciliatory measure despite his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Van Buren began work on a history of American political parties and embarked on a tour of Europe, becoming the first former U.S. president to visit Britain. Coincidentally, he was in London at the same time as another former President, Millard Fillmore. Van Buren returned to the Democratic fold, fearing that a continuing Democratic split would help the Whig Party. He also tried to reconcile the Barnburners and the Hunkers in New York, with limited success.
Van Buren supported the Democratic candidates for President in the next three elections, and was critical of the Know Nothing Party. He also felt that the anti-slavery Republican Party exacerbated sectional tensions. He considered Chief Justice Roger Taney's ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford to be a "grievous mistake" because it overturned the Missouri Compromise. He was also critical of hos the Buchanan administration handled the issue of Bleeding Kansas.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of several Southern states in 1860, Van Buren unsuccessfully sought to call a constitutional convention. In April 1861, former president Pierce wrote to the other living former presidents and asked them to consider meeting to use their stature and influence to propose a negotiated end to the war. Pierce asked Van Buren to use his role as the senior living ex-president to issue a formal call. Van Buren thought that Buchanan should be the one to call the meeting, since he was the former president who had served most recently. Nothing more resulted from this effort. Once the Civil War began, Van Buren made it cleat that he supported the Union cause.
Van Buren's health began to fail later in 1861. He was confined to bed because of severe pneumonia during the fall and winter of 1861-1862. He died of bronchial asthma and heart failure at his Lindenwald estate at 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 24, 1862. He is buried in the Kinderhook Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery, the resting place of his wife Hannah, his parents, and his son Martin Van Buren Jr. He outlived all four of his immediate successors: (Harrison, Tyler, Polk, and Taylor)and at the time he saw more successors ascend to the presidency than anyone else (eight), living to see Abraham Lincoln elected as the 16th President before his death. (Jimmy Carter has seen seven successive Presidents).
Van Buren remained silent on major public issues like the debate over the Tariff of 1842. He wanted to arrange for the appearance of a draft movement for his presidential candidacy. When President Tyler made the annexation of Texas his chief foreign policy goal, many Democrats, particularly in the South, were anxious to quickly complete it. After an explosion on the USS Princeton killed Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur in February 1844, Tyler brought Calhoun into his cabinet to direct foreign affairs. Like Tyler, Calhoun pursued the annexation of Texas to extend slavery into new territories.
Shortly after taking office, Calhoun negotiated an annexation treaty between the United States and Texas. Van Buren had hoped he would not have to take a public stand on annexation, but the Texas question came to be a leading issue in U.S. politics. Van Buren decided to make his views on the issue public. On the one hand, he believed that his public acceptance of annexation would likely help him win the 1844 Democratic nomination, but he also thought (correctly as it turned out) that annexation would lead to an unjust war with Mexico. In a public letter published shortly after Henry Clay also announced his opposition to the annexation treaty, Van Buren articulated his opposition to annexation. He wrongly assumed that if he and Clay agreed on the issue, it would become a non-issue. But this move likely cost him a return to the White House.
Van Buren's opposition to immediate annexation cost him the support of many pro-slavery Democrats. In the weeks before the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Van Buren's supporters calculated that he would win a majority of the delegates on the first presidential ballot, but would not be able to win the support of the required two-thirds of delegates. He had lost the support of his mentor Andrew Jackson. Van Buren's supporters attempted to prevent the adoption of the two-thirds rule, but several Northern delegates joined with Southern delegates in implementing the two-thirds rule for the 1844 convention. Van Buren won 146 of the 266 votes on the first presidential ballot, with only 12 of his votes coming from Southern states. Senator Lewis Cass won much of the remaining vote, and he gradually picked up support on subsequent ballots until the convention adjourned for the day. When the convention reconvened and held another ballot, James K. Polk, who shared many of Van Buren's views but favored immediate annexation, won 44 votes. On the ninth ballot, Van Buren's supporters withdrew his name from consideration, and Polk won the nomination. Although he was unhappy with the result, Van Buren endorsed Polk in the interest of party unity. He also convinced Silas Wright to run for Governor of New York so that the popular Wright could help boost Polk in the state. Wright narrowly defeated Whig nominee Millard Fillmore in the 1844 gubernatorial election, and Wright's victory in the state helped Polk narrowly defeat Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. It helped that a third party, the Liberty Party, siphoned off some votes from the Whigs in the state.
After taking office, Polk used George Bancroft as an intermediary to offer Van Buren the ambassadorship to London. Van Buren declined, still hurting from the loss of the nomination, and also because he was otherwise content in his retirement. Polk consulted Van Buren in the formation of his cabinet, but offended Van Buren by offering to appoint a New Yorker only to the lesser post of Secretary of War, rather than as Secretary of State or Secretary of the Treasury. Other patronage decisions also angered Van Buren and Wright, and they became alienated from the Polk administration.
In New York state, the Democrats were split between two factions: the Barnburners and Hunkers. Van Buren had tried to maintain a good relationship with both sides, but after the 1844 Democratic convention he became closer to the Barnburners. The split in the state party got worse during Polk's presidency, because his administration doled out more patronage on the Hunkers.
In his retirement, Van Buren also grew increasingly opposed to slavery. As the Mexican-American War brought the debate over slavery in the territories to the forefront of American politics, Van Buren published an anti-slavery manifesto in which he disputed the notion that Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery in the territories. He argued that the Founding Fathers had favored the eventual abolition of slavery. The document became known as the "Barnburner Manifesto." After its publication, many Barnburners urged Van Buren to run in the 1848 presidential election. The 1848 Democratic National Convention seated competing Barnburner and Hunker delegations from New York, but the Barnburners walked out of the convention when Lewis Cass, who opposed congressional regulation of slavery in the territories, was nominated on the fourth ballot. Angered by Cass's nomination, the Barnburners began to organize as a third party. They held a convention in June 1848, in Utica, New York, at which they nominated 65-year-old Van Buren for president. Van Buren was reluctant to leave the Democratic Party, but he decided to accept the nomination in order to show the power of the anti-slavery movement.
At a convention held in Buffalo, New York in August 1848, a group of anti-slavery Democrats, Whigs, and members of the abolitionist Liberty Party met in the first national convention of what became known as the Free Soil Party. The convention unanimously nominated Van Buren, and chose Charles Francis Adams (son of late former President John Quincy Adams and grandson of former President John Adams) as Van Buren's running mate. In a public message accepting the nomination, Van Buren gave his full support for the Wilmot Proviso, a proposed law that would ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Whig Senator Daniel Webster quipped. "if Mr. Van Buren should meet under the Free-soil flag, the latter with his accustomed good-nature would laugh, that the leader of the Free-spoil party suddenly becoming the leader of the Free-soil party is a joke to shake his sides and mine."
Van Buren and the Free Soil Party did not win any electoral votes in the election, but they finished second to Whig nominee Zachary Taylor in New York, taking enough votes from Cass to give the state-and perhaps the election-to Taylor. Overall, Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote, the strongest showing by a third-party presidential nominee up to that point in U.S. history.
Van Buren never sought public office again after the 1848 election, but he continued to closely follow national politics. He was deeply troubled by talk of secessionism in the South and he supported the Compromise of 1850 as a necessary conciliatory measure despite his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Van Buren began work on a history of American political parties and embarked on a tour of Europe, becoming the first former U.S. president to visit Britain. Coincidentally, he was in London at the same time as another former President, Millard Fillmore. Van Buren returned to the Democratic fold, fearing that a continuing Democratic split would help the Whig Party. He also tried to reconcile the Barnburners and the Hunkers in New York, with limited success.
Van Buren supported the Democratic candidates for President in the next three elections, and was critical of the Know Nothing Party. He also felt that the anti-slavery Republican Party exacerbated sectional tensions. He considered Chief Justice Roger Taney's ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford to be a "grievous mistake" because it overturned the Missouri Compromise. He was also critical of hos the Buchanan administration handled the issue of Bleeding Kansas.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of several Southern states in 1860, Van Buren unsuccessfully sought to call a constitutional convention. In April 1861, former president Pierce wrote to the other living former presidents and asked them to consider meeting to use their stature and influence to propose a negotiated end to the war. Pierce asked Van Buren to use his role as the senior living ex-president to issue a formal call. Van Buren thought that Buchanan should be the one to call the meeting, since he was the former president who had served most recently. Nothing more resulted from this effort. Once the Civil War began, Van Buren made it cleat that he supported the Union cause.
Van Buren's health began to fail later in 1861. He was confined to bed because of severe pneumonia during the fall and winter of 1861-1862. He died of bronchial asthma and heart failure at his Lindenwald estate at 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 24, 1862. He is buried in the Kinderhook Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery, the resting place of his wife Hannah, his parents, and his son Martin Van Buren Jr. He outlived all four of his immediate successors: (Harrison, Tyler, Polk, and Taylor)and at the time he saw more successors ascend to the presidency than anyone else (eight), living to see Abraham Lincoln elected as the 16th President before his death. (Jimmy Carter has seen seven successive Presidents).