Up for auction "Martin Van Buren" Piece Of Wood From His House Encapsulated. This item is certified authentic by Todd
Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-5058E
Martin Van Buren (/væn ˈbjʊərən/ van BEWR-ən;
born Maarten Van Buren Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmaːrtə(n) fan ˈbyːrə(n)]; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862)
was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United
States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party,
he had 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,
thanks in part to the poor economic conditions surrounding the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an
elder statesman and an important anti-slavery abolitionist leader who led
the Free Soil Party ticket
in the presidential
election of 1848. Van Buren was born into a family of Dutch Americans in Kinderhook, New York;
he was the first President to have been born after the American Revolution —
in which his father served as a Patriot —
and is the only President to speak English as a second language. Trained as a
lawyer, he quickly became involved in politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican
Party, and won a seat in the New York State Senate,
then the United States Senate in
1821. As the leader of the Bucktails faction, Van Buren emerged as the most
influential politician from New York in the 1820s and established a political
machine known as the Albany Regency. Following
the 1824
presidential election, Van Buren led to re-establish a two-party
system with partisan differences based on ideology rather than personalities or
sectional differences; he supported Jackson's candidacy in the 1828
presidential election with this goal in mind. He ran
successfully for Governor of New York in
order to support Jackson's campaign, but resigned shortly after Jackson was
inaugurated so he could accept appointment as Jackson's Secretary of State.
In his cabinet position, Van Buren became a key Jackson advisor, and built the
organizational structure for the coalescing Democratic Party. He ultimately
resigned to help resolve the Petticoat affair, and briefly served as the U.S. ambassador to
the United Kingdom. At Jackson's behest, the 1832
Democratic National Convention nominated Van Buren for Vice
President of the United States, and he took office after the Democratic ticket
won the 1832
presidential election. With Jackson's strong support, Van Buren won
the presidential nomination at the 1835
Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig
opponents in the 1836
presidential election. However, his presidency soon eroded with his
response to the Panic of 1837, which centered on his Independent Treasury system,
a plan under which the Federal government of the United States would store its
funds in vaults rather than in banks; more conservative Democrats and Whigs in
Congress ultimately delayed his plan from being implemented until 1840. His
presidency was further marred by the costly Second Seminole War (a
result of continuing Jackson's Indian removal policy); and his refusal to admit Texas to
the Union as a slave state, done as an attempt to avoid heightened sectional
tensions. In 1840, a surge of new voters — who nicknamed him "Martin Van
Ruin" — helped turn out of office. Van Buren was initially the leading
candidate for the Democratic party's nomination again in 1844, but his
continued opposition to the annexation of Texas angered Southern Democrats,
leading to the nomination of James K. Polk. Van Buren led a third-party ticket in 1848, and
his candidacy most likely helped Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeat Democrat Lewis Cass. Van Buren returned to the Democrats after 1848,
but grew increasingly opposed to slavery, and became one of the party's
outspoken abolitionists.
He supported Abraham Lincoln's policies
during the American Civil War. He
died in Kinderhook in July 1862, at age 79. In historical rankings, historians and political scientists often
rank Van Buren as an average or below-average U.S. president, due to his
handling of the Panic of 1837. However, Van Buren is largely regarded today as
a leader in the formation of the two-party system in the United States.