Potus Geeks Book Review: Martin Van Buren-America's First Politician
Martin Van Buren is a President who is usually not the subject of biographies. He only served one term in an era of giants like Jefferson, Madison and Jackson and he was not a great orator. His presidency is best remembered for its unseemly aspects like Van Buren's continuation of Andrew Jackson's horrible Trail of Tears removal of Native Americans from land they had occupied for generations, or his catering to the southern slaveholding interests. Yet as biographer James Bradley notes in his 2024 book Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician, Van Buren's greatest accomplishment was undoubtedly his pivotal role in the creation of the Democratic Party and of "machine politics." Dubbed "the Little Magician," apparently a pejorative, Van Buren's story is one of a remarkable rise from being the son of a tavern keeper, through the ranks of New York state politics, to becoming Jackson's king-maker, and ultimately to becoming king himself.
Martin Van Buren was an odd duck. Although he was an affable man, as well as someone who was competent at most tasks he undertook, he was verbose and wrote an autobiography of over 750 pages in length that never mentioned his late wife once. But as Bradley thoroughly examines in this book, Van Buren had an uncanny ability to win most of the political battles he fought, not an easy thing to do amidst his state's perpetually divided political climate. He seemed to understand that today's political enemies might be tomorrow's allies so he didn't hold deep grudges. He could often forgive, but never forgot.
Bradley shows the reader what a fascinating and overlooked historic figure Van Buren was, present for all of the important political developments at his time, usually working behind the scenes to achieve the desired result in victory, or planning conditions for the next battle in defeat. The author explores his subject's entire life in his 516 page work, as well as sketching the lives of the major players in the events of the day.
While it seems at times that Bradley acquires a liking for his subject, or at least a respect, he does not excuse the worst aspects of Van Buren's political decisions, such as the horrendous manner in which the Native American residents of the southern states were removed, or Van Buren's obliviousness to the immorality of slavery. As Bradley points out, Van Buren saw questions of morality not in terms of right and wrong so much, but more so in terms of their political consequences. What course of action would best result in success at the polls for his party in the next election? Bradley makes an unconvincing attempt to portray Van Buren's support, later in his life, for the anti-slavery Free Soil Party, as a moral rehabilitation of sorts, but that argument is undermined by Van Buren's later support for "doughface" Presidents like Franklin Pierce or James Buchanan. One even wonders whether Van Buren's strong support for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War was based on moral grounds or because he took the political temperature of the nation and followed the prevailing winds?
Bradley produces an outstanding work, thorough in its research and masterful in its telling of Van Buren's story. We learn so much about this unique political player, so often glossed over in other histories, or included only as a bit player in the story of other political giants of his time. Yet there is also much left unanswered, mysteries remaining about who Van Buren really was, and what made him tick, not because of any shortfall of effort on the part of the author, but because that's who Van Buren was. In that sense, Bradley allows us to know Van Buren as well as anyone can, and in doing so he hits the bullseye in this superb biography.