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Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the USA. He was born in 1782 at Kinderhook, New York and died in 1862. He was the son of a tavern keeper, and was called to the Bar in 1813.
He rose to eminence in his State both as a lawyer and as a Democratic politician. He is noted as an adroit party manager, and was styled in his time the 'Little Magician'.
He was a State Senator, US Senator from 1821 until 1828, Governor from 1828 to 1829, and Secretary of State under Jackson from 1829 until 1831. In 1831 President Jackson appointed him US Minister to England, but the Senate refused to confirm the nomination.
He was elected with Jackson for the latter's second term, serving as Vice-President from 1833 until 1837, and was the chosen heir to the succession. Elected by 170 electoral votes over the Whig candidate, Harrison, in 1836, he inherited the results of Jackson's measures.
The two foremost places in President Martin Van Buren's Cabinet were held by Forsyth in the State and Woodbury in the Treasury Department. Among the features of public interest in his administration, were the disastrous panic of 1837, the independent treasury system and the preemption law. In 1840 he was pitted against his former antagonist, but with the opposite result; he received only sixty electoral votes.
In 1844 former President Martin Van Buren had a majority, but not a two-thirds majority of votes in the Democratic National Convention; he opposed the annexation of Texas, and was discarded for Polk. In 1848 he was the Free Soil candidate, and diverted enough Democratic votes to defeat Cass and elect Taylor.
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