which disease caused her death in 1818. She left four sons and her husband, who felt his loss very severely, never remarried. Thus the private and professional life of the subject of this biography may be dismissed.

Mr. Van Buren began his political studies, as has been seen, very early and his practical connection with politics began at the age of eighteen years, when the Democrats of Kinderhook named him a delegate to a convention for the nomination of a candidate for the legislature. Young as he was, he was appointed to prepare an address to the electors of the district in which he resided, and the paper which he then produced was the first of an immense volume of political and state documents which came from his pen. In this department as in everything pertaining to the management of party politics, he stood easily first among his contemporaries.

He gave to Jefferson's administration his warmest support, and for many years sacrificed his friendships and what seemed to be his personal interest to the unswerving support of the candidates of his party, in many cases even whom he did not and could not altogether approve. He held the principles of his party as higher than any personal consideration or the temporary questions as to the fitness of any candidate. Thus he went on with almost dogged persistency for several years, looking to the future for his reward.

This came in 1812, when he was nominated as candidate for state senator in the central district. This district included a number of counties where party strength was very equally divided. His opponent was Edward L. Livingstone, a man of great wealth, powerful family connections, and strong position in the Federal party. The contest was a close and exceedingly bitter one, calling out the utmost resources of the contestants and of the parties which they represented. The total poll was more than twenty thousand votes and Van Buren received a majority of two hundred, and thus at the age of thirty years became a member of the upper house. of the state legislature.

The session was one of great importance, covering the period of the War of 1812, and at every point Van Buren gave to the war measures of President Madison the warm support of which the administration stood surely in need. In 1815 Mr. Van Buren was appointed attorney-general of the state of New York and also a regent of the university. In the spring of the next year he was reëlected to the state senate for the term of four years. As senator all his zeal and ability were given to forwarding the great system of internal improvement advocated by De Witt Clinton, and his services did much to accomplish the speedy building of the Erie canal. His place in state politics was very speedily won, and before the close of the War of 1812 he had attained a position of so great influence and importance that we find his name and that of Governor Tompkins

mentioned as those of the leaders of the New York state Democracy. In 1818 Van Buren became dissatisfied with the administration of Clinton as governor and began the organization of that famous opposition, familiar to every student of political history as the Albany regency. This body is truly said to have swayed the political destinies of New York state for twenty-five years, and, whether avowedly or otherwise, Van Buren was always its head. It was the first organization within a party for the control of that party's action, and finds its legitimate descendant in the "Tammanies," the "Irving Halls" and smaller bodies of to day. As a political expedient the movement was very shrewd, but it introduced into our politics a very vicious and unrepublican practice, which had much better never have been established.

The "regency was the constant object of vituperation among the friends of Clinton, and the internal dissensions in the party soon resulted in a district rupture, with Clinton at the head of one wing and Van Buren of the other. The latter faction carried the majority of the Democrats with it, but was not reduced at once to entire efficiency. The council of appointment, being devoted to the views of the governor, in July, 1819, removed Van Buren from his position as attorney-general. This action only served to render more bitter the feeling between the sections and to cause a war to the knife. However, Clinton was reëlected governor, in spite of the most strenuous efforts of his opponents. An attempt at reconciliation was made, the office of attorney-general being again offered to Van Buren, but he declined it.

In February, 1821, Van Buren was elected by the legislature of the state of New York to the United States senate, in place of Nathan Sandford, a Democrat, whose term expired in March, 1821. In August of the same year, he took a seat in the convention to revise the constitution of the state of New York. In this convention Mr. Van Buren proposed and advocated such amendments as he thought would secure just privileges to citizens of all grades and colors, while they would not prevent the adoption of the constitution by the people. His course was satisfactory to men of all parties and highly honorable to his talents as a statesman.

Mr. Van Buren took his seat in the senate of the United States in December, 1821, and soon became distinguished as an active and influential legislator. He advocated, with zeal and force of reason, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, on actions in the United States courts, amendments to the judiciary system, a bankrupt law, to include corporations as well as persons, and the investment of the proceeds of the sale of public lands, in the states where the lands sold are situated, on some just and equitable terms. When Mr. Crawford became a candidate for the succession to President Monroe, Mr. Van Buren labored to effect his election, but was unsuccessful. He opposed the administration of John Quincy

Adams and lent all his influence to strengthen the party which sought to raise Andrew Jackson to the Presidency.

In February, 1827, Van Buren was reëlected to the United States senate by the legislature of his native state, but circumstances soon caused his resignation. Governor Clinton died in February, 1828, and Van Buren was chosen to succeed him in the gubernatorial office. Entering upon his duties on the first of January, 1828, Mr. Van Buren first devoted himself to financial matters. The famous safety fund system, combining the monied interest of the state, which he proposed to the legislature, was adopted; but the experiences of a few years proved that it could not equal public expectation.

In forming his first cabinet, President Jackson offered the post of secretary of state to Mr. Van Buren. The general said he made the offer as a tribute to acknowledged talents and services, and in accordance with the wishes of the Democratic party throughout the Union. On the twelfth

day of March, 1829, Van Buren resigned the office of governor of the state of New York, and soon after entered upon the discharge of his new duties in connection with the general government.

Van Buren's management of the foreign affairs of the United States did not give general satisfaction. In particular, his instructions to Mr. McLane, minister to England, concerning the opening of the West Indian ports to American vessels, were severely censured. The treaty upon this subject was ultimately beneficial to the United States, but the principles and conditions insisted upon by England were suffered to prevail and it was contended that the honor of the country had been sacrificed. On the seventh of April, 1831, Mr. Van Buren resigned the office of secretary of state, assigning as a reason that circumstances beyond his control had placed him before the country as a candidate for the succession to the Presidency and that the imperious effects necessarily resulting from a cabinet minister's holding that relation to the country, had left him only the alternative of retiring from the administration or of submitting to a selfdisfranchisement hardly reconciliable with propriety and self-respect. Soon after, General Jackson's cabinet was entirely changed.

Mr. Van Buren was now appointed by the President minister to the court of St. James. Upon his arrival in London in September, 1831, he was received with distinguished favor, but his diplomatic career was destined to be very short. Soon after the meeting of congress in December, the President submitted the nomination of Van Buren to the senate and it was rejected by that body, probably on account of the feeling aroused. against him by the matter already mentioned, in relation to the West India trade. The Democratic party condemned the rejection as an act of political persecution. Jackson took to himself all the responsibility of Van Buren's acts, as secretary of state, which he said were the result of

his own deliberate reflection and investigation and still appeared to him to be entirely proper and consonant with his public duty. In spite of this generous endorsement, however, the minister necessarily returned.

On the twenty-second of May, 1832, Van Buren was nominated as a candidate for the vice-presidency, upon the ticket with General Jackson. The result was the triumphant election of both to the offices for which they had been respectively nominated. Van Buren received one hundred and eighty-nine electoral votes to ninety-seven for all other vice-presidential candidates. He thus returned from England to enjoy a decisive triumph over his political enemies. On the fourth of March, 1833, he was inaugurated and presided over the senate for four years, giving general satisfaction.

Van Buren's vice-presidential term had greatly strengthened him, and when, on the twentieth of May, 1836, the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore, the result was almost a foregone conclusion. Van Buren was unanimously nominated for President of the United States, with Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, as the candidate for vicepresident. After a stirring canvass came the national election, and when the electoral college met, Van Buren received one hundred and seventy votes, including three from Michigan thrown out as informal, against one hundred and twenty-four for all other candidates. Johnson did not receive a majority of the electoral votes, but was subsequently elected by the senate, in accordance with the constitutional provision in such cases. Van Buren was duly inaugurated as President of the United States on the fourth of March, 1837. From the assurances of the inaugural address, the people expected that the policy of the government would remain unchanged, and thus Van Buren became, in a way, distinctly responsible for the work of his predecessor. The new President named the following cabinet: John Forsyth, of Georgia, for secretary of state; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, for secretary of the treasury; Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, for secretary of war; Mahlan Dickerman, of New Jersey, for secretary of the navy; Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, for postmaster general; and Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, for attorney-general. All these gentlemen, except Poinsett, were members of Jackson's cabinet, in the positions named, and were simply retained in office by Van Buren.

Early

The new administration commenced its career in cloudy times. in May, the commercial pressure reached a climax, all the banks in New York then suspending specie payments. The banks of Boston, Providence, Hartford, Albany, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and many other large towns followed the same course. On the sixteenth of May, the legislature of New York passed an act authorizing the suspension of specie payments by the banks of that state for one year. During the preceding two

months, unparalleled embarrassments were experienced among the mercantile classes, and in the large cities business was at a standstill. Petitions poured in to the President, praying him to rescind the specie circular issued by President Jackson in 1836, which required all payments for the public lands to be made in gold and silver, to defer commencing suits on unpaid bonds, and to call an extra session of congress. The President for some time declined to act upon the petitions, being probably influenced by Jackson, but the critical condition to which the financial affairs of the government were reduced, finally induced him to convene congress upon the first Monday of September.

The extra session lasted forty-three days. The Democrats were in a majority in both houses, but a small portion of the party did not coincide with the President in his views of financial matters, and the representatives of this portion, voting with the Whigs, defeated the independent treasury scheme, the favorite financial measure of the administration. This measure was proposed at the extra session and again at the first regular session and each time rejected.

In June, 1838, Mahlon Dickerson resigned the office of secretary of the navy, and James K. Paulding of New York, was appointed in his place. It was now evident that the popularity of the administration was fast declining. At the state election in the fall of 1838, the opposition gained several triumphs. Even New York fell away from its fealty to democracy. The great body of the business community was arrayed against the government. In the meantime the disgraceful Seminole war in Florida, which had continued during General Jackson's administration, was drawing considerable sums from the treasury and causing the loss of many valuable lives. To add to the sources of discontent, a difficulty occurred with Great Britain concerning the northeastern boundary of the United States, which for a time threatened war.

In the summer of 1839, President Van Buren visited the state of New York, for the first time since his election. He was received with every mark of respect by the inhabitants of the various places through which he passed upon his route. However, the opposition was doubtless in a majority in the country. It assumed the name of the Whig party and held a national convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on the fourth of December, 1839, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the Presidency and vice-presidency of the United States. Henry Clay of Kentucky, was a favorite of a plurality of the delegates to the convention, but William Henry Harrison of Ohio, was finally adopted as a stronger candidate. John Tyler of Virginia was unanimously nominated for the vice-presidency. These candidates received the support of the entire opposition.

The Democratic convention met on the fifth of May, 1840, and unani