Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren and the American Political System by Donald B. Cole

Tier 4

Ok, we’ve hit a flat patch. I don’t mean to insult the great MVB, but this section of the list leaves something to be desired in terms of political biographies. There are many reasons for this. One that I find particularly compelling is that the years between Jackson and Lincoln were dominated more by the legislative than the executive branch. People like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun were more responsible for the nation's direction than the president. Because of this, historians don’t seem to be clamoring to write biographies on these pre-Civil War presidents.

With MVB, I find this to be a shame. No, he didn’t have the magnetism of a Jackson or the brilliant international career of a Quincy Adams, but he was fascinating in his own right. When one thinks about it, it’s far more impressive for a Van Buren to become president than a Jackson. Jackson instilled love (and hate), captivated the nation, and left an indelible mark. As for Van Buren, he was such an obscure president that Seinfeld chose to use him as a punch line.

MVB was a classic politician. He rose through the ranks of the Democratic party (of which he was a founding member of), serving as New York’s AG, a senator, governor, minister to Great Britain, Secretary of State, and finally, Andrew Jackson’s Vice President before taking the top office in his own right. He is credited with building the Democratic political machine and reestablishing a two-party system after the chaos of the 1824 presidential election. He was a staunch supporter of Jackson, making him one of many bland politicians who latched onto a more compelling individual and rode that attachment to the presidency.

As opposed to some other forgettable presidents, MVB left a lasting legacy. His work towards entrenching a two-party system and building up the Democratic Party is still seen in our political system.

Even with his diligent work toward helping Jackson secure the presidency, there was no reason to believe Van Buren would become president as late as 1832. John C. Calhoun was Vice President and was seen as Jackson’s heir apparent. And then came the infamous Petticoat affair.

The Petticoat affair centered around Secretary of War John Eaton’s new wife, Peggy. Peggy had been previously married, and there was some dispute regarding when her relationship with Secretary Eaton began. There were claims that before her husband committed suicide, she had already started seeing Secretary Eaton. Additionally, there were rumors regarding her other dalliances. As to the validity of these rumors, I cannot speak to that. Peggy would be far from the first woman smeared as a harlot on dubious grounds.

Due to her scurrilous reputation, the wives of Jackson’s Cabinet decided to ostracize Peggy. They refused to invite Peggy to their social gatherings and wouldn’t speak to her at joint functions. One of the women who led the boycott of the new Mrs. Eaton was Floride Calhoun, the wife of the Vice President and heir apparent.

A bit more relevant background is that Jackson’s wife, Rachel, had been the victim of heinous attacks on her character. She had still been technically married to another man when she and Jackson eloped. They believed her ex-husband had secured a divorce, but he hadn’t. This made their marriage bigamous, and they were forced to remarry after her divorce was finalized. During the contentious election of 1828, Adams’ supporters used this information to launch vicious attacks against Rachel that Jackson blamed for hastening her death.

As you can imagine, Jackson never forgot how these rumors could destroy a person, and when the Petticoat affair broke out, he sided with the Eatons. Calhoun entrenched his position and, in the end, nearly all of Jackson’s Cabinet resigned.

Now, I know this all sounds a bit Mean Girls-y, but it does illustrate how important social politics were (and are) to the fabric of our national political system. This spelled the end of Calhoun’s presidential hopes, transforming him from a national to a regional figure, and likely made him even more hateful toward the North. Calhoun is a crucial figure in the lead-up to the Civil War and, along with Clay, the most important political figure of the nineteenth century to have not been president.

If not for the Petticoat affair, how would the nation have evolved? Would Calhoun have been president? Would he have further entrenched slavery as a part of our national identity? Would this have hastened the Civil War or forestalled it? How many more innocent men and women would have been sold into bondage under a Calhoun presidency?

It’s truly amazing the seemingly minor things on which the nation turns. An inconsequential Secretary of War marries a woman with a reputation, and as a result, one man becomes president, and another becomes the most hateful Senator in US history.

As for Van Buren, he was named Vice President on Jackson’s 1832 presidential ticket and became president in 1836. His presidency was marred by the Panic of 1837, which it has to be said he handled terribly. This panic was another in a long line of arguments about centralized banking, and it doomed his re-election bid.

He likely would’ve still managed the 1844 Democratic nomination if it hadn’t been for his opposition to the annexation of Texas and his growing anti-slavery position. He again contemplated a run in 1848, but his anti-slavery stance only made him less palatable in 1848 than in 1844. He ran on the third-party Free-Soil ticket in 1848 (quite the statement for a man who fought so hard to entrench the two-party system), which only helped doom Democrat Lewis Cass and elect Whig Zachary Taylor.

After that election, he returned to the Democratic party but no longer felt connected to its ravenously pro-slavery form. He supported Lincoln during the Civil War and died in 1862, with the nation ripped open amid that war.

He’s not a figure that inspires much devotion, and he’s not someone who is often discussed in the history of this nation. But he was consequential. He left a lasting legacy and was present for many critical moments in our history. I only wish there was a better biography of him. There’s plenty of intrigue, and his life awaits a great biographer to remind the nation of MVB.

I will leave you with his Seinfeld reference.