Martin Van Buren

POLITICAL PARTIES
Democratic-Republican (thru 1825), Democrat (1828-48)

RELIGION
Dutch Reformed

EDUCATION
Read law with Francis Sylvester, Kinderhook, & William P. Van Ness, New York City

VITALS
5 ft 6 in / 164 lbs

CAREER
1803-13 Practiced law in Kinderhook
1813-15 New York State Senator
1815-19 New York Attorney-General
1821-29 U.S. Senator, New York
1829 Governor of New York
1829-31 U.S. Secretary of State (Jackson)
1831-32 Minister to England (appointment rejected)
1833-37 Vice President (Jackson)

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
November 4 - 23, 1836
Popular: Van Buren 764,176 (51%) William Henry Harrison 550,816 (37%) Hugh L. White 146,107 (10%)
Electoral: Van Buren 170 Harrison 73 White 26 Daniel Webster 14 Willie Mangum 11

VICE PRESIDENT
Richard M. Johnson (1937-1841)

ADMINISTRATION
Panic of 1837 (1837); Trail of Tears (1838); Amistad Case (1839)

SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
John McKinley, Peter V. Daniel

FIRST LADY
Angelica Singleton Van Buren, daughter-in-law (1838-1841)

POST-PRESIDENCY
1848 Free Soil Party nominee for president

“All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess.”
Inaugural Address, March 4, 1837

Portrait of Martin Van Buren by Francis Alexander, ~1830-40.