| Show FIVE MINUTE CHATS ABOUT OUR presidents by JAMES MORGAN 1 0 THE FIRST politician 1782 dec 5 martin van buren born at kinderhook N Y state senator 1815 19 attorney general of new york 1821 29 united states senator 1829 governor of new york secretary of state of the united states 1832 nominated for vice dent 1833 elected ARTIN VAN BUREN was va the M MARTIN first machine made politician in tile ilie presidency and lie was more than that wilt when n put to the test lie was vas the first of the presidents to have been born under the american flag rather than under tile british and he be and roosevelt nrc are the only presidents not wholly descended from inhabitants of the united kingdom sprung from dutch families on both idos idel van buren married into a dutch family and was able to speak the language of his ancestors ile he was lorn born and he be died in a little ittle rip V van an winkle village on the eilt east bank of the Il hudson where liis ills father was a funner former and incidentally a keeper leaving school and entering a law to office in ills his native town at fourteen after the manner mander of most american leaders from jackson to lincoln he picked up as he went along such education its as lie he gained yet not dot one of our many lawyer presidents has yron won a higher rank in it his is profession while only a boy so small that lie he had to stand on a bench to addi address e the th jury he be scored his first success at the bar at forty he retired from practice with willi money enough for a man with a dutch thrift which was mistaken tak en tor for t stinginess by the less prudent anglo americans who knew him equally precocious in politics van buren was climen a delegate to a political convention before be was of age was appointed a county surrogate at twenty five elected to the state senate fit at thirty appointed attorney general of the state stale at thirty two and at thirty eight lie he was as selected a senator of tile the united states already he iva was s at the head of the albany regency which continued to run the democratic machine in yew new 41 york tork and to dominate the nation ill councils of hint party t f placing the game ala e of oj politics only B a ney new yorker can and as all new yorkers corkers lit in public life do a buren was nas th e hr firs lt f aiace m ate bia h into the he L boue in guiu gumshoe shoes per haps his caution as a politician has lost him the credit due him for his statesmanship which he displayed in more than one grave emergency A popular a story reflected the general impression of his artful dodging once while he was a passenger on a hudson river boat on an anti van buren man said to a van buren ruan man ill bet you the price of the passage that you cant go to him now dow and get a straight answer to the simplest question that you con can ask i 1 the challenged man confidently taking the bet went up to his favor W MR angelina van buren lie ile find inquired if he be did not think tile the weather was fine well wag vms the careful measured reply that Is A relative term find and by thunder thun derl 1 the van burenice Hur Bur enite broke lu lit us he turned to ills chal lenker lenger youve yon won van P buren uren become became the pioneer national campaign manager when he roade an extended electioneering electioneer ing tour for jackson AV webster ebster dLe declared lared that he did more for the election of 0 old hickory Ilic kory than any other 10 men in that fierce jackson campaign van ivan buren took the party nomination lor for governor of 0 new york being elected he resigned from the senate and then after only two months in the governorship he resigned again to be secretary of tate late in the new cabinet thus thui lie he held within ith n 12 weeks three of the highest prizes in public life atil and at the same time was peir fir apparent to the presidency itself MARTIN VAN BUREN 1837 martin van buren inaugurated eighth president aged 54 revolution in ontario revolution in texas the seminole war 1840 the sub treasury law van buren defeated for reelection election re 1844 defeated for nomination 1848 free soil sail candidate for president 1862 july 24 died at kinderhook N Y aged 79 I 1 6 ol 01 I 1 I 1 el most notable event of van T ane buroos r ens administration a was the he occurrence of one of 0 tile great brent panics from which in the nineteenth century centar y the country regularly collapsed every 15 or 20 years its as in 1819 1837 1857 1851 1873 and in 1803 alio those e periodic prostrations prost rations always followed wild de to in speculation but since it la Is convenient and consoling to blame some one else elbe for our own sins sing the pre president aident invariably has been made the lie scapegoat in e eacle ach period of hard times no doubt jacksons removal of the public deposits from the united states bank caused financial disturbance ari and ills his distribution of the fed 8 f W I 1 martin van buren cral surplus among adiong the state treasuries also albo was mas disturbing the government the banks and the people generally had all merrily joined in sowing the wind nind harvest was the whirlwind of 1837 the nation had been indulging in the first of its big ni estern booms the river steamboat aided to open up new regions where mushroom states in ambitious emulation of new york and its erie canal ran wild in appropriations tor for the building of canals van buren was vas the first president elect to ride in a train even part of the way to washington and the expansion of the steam railway system was beginning to inflame the national imagination when the day of reckoning and remorse came when brend bread riots broke out when laborers stood in line near new york to get jobs at i a wage of 4 a month and board when banks suspended payments in coin i and NN when bell business houses were tumbling into bankruptcy the bankers aud and business me men n who mho had always been violently anti antidemocratic democratic turned upon van I 1 buren pud lind ula accusing filli igers ecra at tile the white house the fore ore 1 most man of business lit in conservative new england abbott lawrence dil d td not hesitate to hint to a public meeting in boston the incendiary i alon that the time might come for forcible resistance to the government when tile the crew as lie he said would moul have to mutiny and seize the blila of state van buren faced the kale gale without bending ile he rose above political maneuvering the president did call congress la Is atra session but only to recommend I 1 filie llie adoption of oe the sub treasury sy tern tem the banks having failed he proposed that uncle sam like a timid old woman naoman should lock up ills his money in the bureau drawer and the economic folly of the sub treasury was persisted in until the establishment of the federal reserve system it as squally weather all around with the costly seminole war dragging its slow course through the malarial lal everglades eer eNer glades of florida with embarrass ing revolutions on both sides of us in the revolted mexican uce J texas and in ontario the defeats sf t tile democratic ticket in the lie on off years plainly foreshadow fore shado ed the ill starred presidents own defeat in its ills candidacy for reelection reelect re lon in 1840 no prophet was needed to write the retrain refrain of the popular campaign song of the whigs van van I 1 Is a used up man nevertheless van buren aerna remained I 1 ned in active politics 10 years for still another 10 years yearb he lived on in retirement at his country estate in his native village where he be died la in tte the midst of the civil war 1114 bir r jamell jarn |
