When Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, the new Mexican government allowed U.S. settlers into Texas. In the early 1830s, the U.S. settlers, headed by the Austin family, outnumbered the native Mexicans by almost 4 to 1. Mexico started to impose new laws on the settlers, and they began to rebel. Mexico’s insistence that slavery be abolished and that U.S. settlers convert to Catholicism proved to be the major cause for rebellion. By 1832, many of the U.S. settlers demanded a repealing of the laws. After Mexico refused, a rebellion broke out in 1835.
In 1836, the U.S. settlers, or Texians, declared their independence from Mexico. The Mexican president, General Santa Anna, was not amused — he fought to keep his country intact. A small group of Texians, helped by U.S. citizens, set up a fort in an old Spanish mission in San Antonio called the Alamo. Shortly thereafter, the Mexican army (5,000 men strong) attacked and killed all 187 defenders. This action incensed many U.S. citizens and the remaining Texians in Texas. Six weeks later, a larger force, led by Sam Houston, defeated the Mexicans, and Texas won its independence.
After declaring independence, the new country of Texas ratified the U.S. Constitution and wanted to join the United States. Jackson faced some problems. First, Mexico made it clear that it objected to Texas joining the United States. Jackson didn’t want to go to war over the matter. Second, many Northern Whigs and Democrats opposed the admission of Texas as a slave state. So Jackson did what every good politician does — he delayed the decision until his last days in office. Before he stepped down, Jackson recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country. This move proved to be the first step toward the annexation of Texas.
Andrew Jackson was the first president to face an assassination attempt. In 1835, he was attending a funeral when a guest pulled out a pistol and tried to shoot him. The assassin had two pistols. He fired the first, which broke its cap and failed to ignite its powder, and then he drew the second, which did the same thing. The pistols were later examined and found to be in perfect working order. The odds of two such weapons malfunctioning in succession were figured as 1 in 125,000.
Reaching retirement
By 1836, Jackson was ill with tuberculosis and wanted to abide by Washington’s two-term limit. Unlike Monroe, Jackson sought to make sure that his ideas and policies survived his retirement, so he handpicked his successor. His choice was Vice President Martin Van Buren, one of his most loyal allies and advisors. Van Buren won easily in 1836.
Jackson returned home to his plantation. Like his predecessors, he ran into financial troubles and borrowed heavily in his last years. In 1844, Jackson came out of retirement for the upcoming election. Disappointed with Van Buren, who lost in 1840, and now opposed to annexing Texas, Jackson turned away from his old friend and backed James Polk, another good friend, for the presidency in 1844. Jackson’s selection was good enough for the Democrats. Polk received the nomination and won the presidency in 1844. A few months later, in June 1845, Andrew Jackson passed away in his sleep.
Chapter 7
Forgettable: Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and Tyler
In This Chapter
Succeeding as a politician, failing as president: Van Buren
Dying just one month into his term: Harrison
Becoming president by default: Tyler
I t was tough to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history, Andrew Jackson. Sadly, Jackson’s three successors failed to duplicate his successful presidency.
Martin Van Buren was a master politician. He knew how to play the political game, manipulating issues and people, but he failed as a president.
William Henry Harrison was a great American hero. On the battlefield, he vanquished his foes. But he only lived to serve one month of his term in office.
John Tyler was an old-style southern politician and slave owner. He was almost impeached by Congress. Tyler got expelled from his party and found himself all alone when he left office.
While these three presidents served their country well before they became president, they didn’t accomplish much after they entered the White House. Their terms are utterly forgettable.
Martin Van Buren, Master of Politics
Despite a well-developed understanding of politics, Martin Van Buren’s presidency was unsuccessful. Like John Quincy Adams (see Chapter 5), Van Buren made his major contributions before he became president.
Van Buren, shown in Figure 7-1, was a mediocre president, but a master politician. He asked, “Is it possible to be anything in this country without being a politician?” He was instrumental in establishing the modern Democratic Party. He may also be regarded as the father of the political-machine style of politics (see “Establishing a political machine,” later in this chapter) that dominated U.S. politics in the late 19th century. In his home state of New York, Van Buren single-handedly created one of the most powerful political machines in U.S. history — the Albany Regency. For more on Van Buren’s influence on American politics, read Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics, by John Niven (Oxford University Press).
Figure 7-1: Martin Van Buren, 8th president of the United States.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
According to some sources, Martin Van Buren gave us one of the most commonly used terms in the English language — “okay.” One of Van Buren’s nicknames was “Old Kinderhook,” from his childhood village of Kinderhook, New York. People showed approval of Van Buren and his policies by using the term “O.K.”
Going from law to politics
Van Buren’s legal career got him involved in politics. He was the only Democratic-Republican lawyer in Columbia County, New York, which was heavily dominated by the Federalist Party. His legal successes gave him the reputation of being one of the best lawyers in the county. The Democratic-Republican Party took notice, backing Van Buren in his successful run for the state senate in 1812.
When Van Buren entered New York politics in 1812, the Democratic-Republican Party was split into two factions. The Clinton family headed the dominant faction; “the Bucktails” referred to whoever opposed the Clintons. (The Bucktails wore tails cut from deer on their hats at political meetings, hence the name “Bucktail.”)
Van Buren knew that he didn’t have a shot at rising to the top of New York politics in the Clinton faction, so he took over the Bucktails to oppose the Clinton family. In 1816, he won reelection to the state senate and was also appointed the attorney general for the state of New York. To Van Buren’s great dismay, DeWitt Clinton, his major political opponent, won the governorship in 1818, and Van Buren lost his job as attorney general.
After Clinton fired him, Van Buren decided that Clinton had to go. Van Buren slowly started to manipulate political meetings and conventions, packing them with his followers and using legal rules to further his political goals. For example, in 1821, his faction controlled a convention to revise the state constitution. The new constitution removed many Clintonians from office by abolishing the offices they held. Van Buren essentially had control of the state.
Not an aristocrat
Martin Van Buren was born in 1782 in the small village of Kinderhook, New York. (He was the first U.S. president born a U.S. citizen. All previous presidents were British citizens.)
Van Buren truly had politics in his blood. His father was active in the Democratic-Republican Party and owned a small tavern that was a polling station, as well as a favorite stop for New York legislators on their way to the capital. Van Buren was surrounded by politicians and political talk surrounded Van Buren at an early age. This exposure sparked his interest in the legislative world.
Van Buren attended a small village school. At the age of 14, he started working for a local lawyer. Van Buren absorbed ideas and concepts from the legal field, and at age 15, he presented his first legal argument to a local court. He liked law so much that, after turning 20, he moved to New York City to finish his legal studies. In 1803, he was admitted to the bar. He then mo
ved back to Kinderhook to practice law.
Van Buren married in 1807. He and his wife Hannah had four sons before Hannah passed away in 1819. Van Buren never remarried. One of their sons, John Van Buren, later became the leader of the Free Soil Party.
Establishing a political machine
In 1821, Van Buren successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Afraid that the Clintonians might try to stage a comeback during his absence, Van Buren established the first political machine in New York history — the Albany Regency. For the next two decades, Van Buren ran New York politics through his political machine while serving in Washington.
A political machine is a centralized organization that controls the political structure of a city or region by rallying its membership to vote for a particular candidate and appointing supporters to positions of power. A party boss heads the organization and controls all political offices within the machine. The machine possesses the power of patronage, or the power to appoint people to political offices. The boss doesn’t appoint opposition candidates to office, so the dominant party is truly in charge.
The concept of a political machine is Irish in origin. Irish immigrants brought the idea with them during the wave of Irish immigration that began in 1775 and lasted until 1850. By the late 19th century, political machines had control of most large industrial cities, including Chicago, Boston, and New York. Some political machines are still around today.
Politicking at the national level
When Martin Van Buren arrived on the national scene as a senator in 1821, James Monroe had just won reelection without facing any opposition, and U.S. politics were the equivalent of Democratic-Republican politics.
However, the dominant Democratic-Republican Party eventually started to fall apart. Factions developed, and Van Buren was in his element. He aligned himself with the faction that supported a weak federal government and states’ rights. In the presidential race of 1824, Van Buren became the campaign manager for Secretary of Treasury William Crawford. Van Buren won 41 Electoral College votes for his candidate, even though Crawford suffered a stroke and became paralyzed months before the election.
When Andrew Jackson lost the presidency to John Quincy Adams (see Chapter 6), Van Buren went over to the Jackson faction. Van Buren, who disagreed with Adams on many issues, saw that Jackson was the rising star in the Democratic-Republican Party.
Creating a new Democratic Party
After Van Buren won reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1827, he started gearing up for the 1828 presidential election. He decided that Jackson needed his own political party to defeat Adams this time around. Van Buren united several Democratic-Republican factions into the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party adhered to truly Jeffersonian principles, supporting a weak national government and strong states’ rights, and opposing tariffs. In 1828, the new Democratic Party nominated Andrew Jackson for president and John Calhoun for vice president.
Van Buren knew that Jackson had to win New York to win the election. So Van Buren left the U.S. Senate to run for governor of New York in 1828. He figured that he could easily win the governorship and that his coattails would be large enough to carry the state for Jackson in the presidential race. Van Buren was right. Van Buren became governor of New York, and Jackson won the state and the presidency in a landslide.
As Van Buren had expected, Jackson never forgot who helped create the Democratic Party for him or who gave up his national political career to carry New York for him.
Playing politics
For the next few years, Van Buren held a slew of political offices, including
Governor of New York (1829): After only two months in office, Van Buren resigned as governor of New York when Jackson appointed him secretary of state.
Secretary of state (1829–1831): Van Buren happily accepted the office of secretary of state because he knew that the position was the first step to the presidency. He proved to be a very capable secretary of state, opening trade with Turkey and the British West Indies.
Ambassador to Great Britain (1832): Van Buren resigned as secretary of state during a political ploy so that Jackson could fire more members of his cabinet. Van Buren left for Great Britain but returned home when the Senate refused to ratify Jackson’s choice for ambassador to Great Britain.
Vice president of the United States (1833–1837): Van Buren became Jackson’s choice for vice president in 1832 when Jackson sacked his old vice president, John Calhoun.
The politics of reputation
Peggy Eaton, the wife of Secretary of War John Eaton, became a hot topic in Washington D.C. in 1830. Scandalmongers disapproved of her because she had an affair with John Eaton while she was married to another man.
Van Buren defended Mrs. Eaton — probably more for political reasons than any other. Van Buren knew that Jackson’s beloved and now deceased wife Rachel had been subjected to similar criticism (see Chapter 6), and he knew how much the talk angered Jackson. Jackson appreciated the fact that Van Buren stood up for Peggy Eaton. Vice President Calhoun’s wife, on the other hand, ostracized the Eatons, which annoyed Jackson.
Feuding with the vice president to become the vice president
The period of 1828 until 1832 proved interesting for Van Buren. He became involved in a bitter struggle with Vice President Calhoun, who was jealous of him and his close relationship with Jackson. Calhoun didn’t realize that Van Buren was an expert at playing political games. Van Buren slowly subverted his political opponent.
Van Buren defended Mrs. Eaton (“The politics of reputation” sidebar has info on the Eaton situation) and also backed Jackson when Calhoun supported nullification, or the right of a state to refuse to abide by federal law. To top it off, someone close to the president, possibly Van Buren, told Jackson that Calhoun had supported censuring Jackson back in 1818 when Jackson pursued the Seminoles in Florida and executed two British officers. (See Chapter 6 for more of Jackson’s story.)
Calhoun struck back by publicizing the struggles within Jackson’s cabinet. With Jackson angry with Calhoun, Van Buren offered to resign as the secretary of state so that Jackson could get rid of all the Calhoun supporters in his cabinet at the same time. If Van Buren were fired, it wouldn’t look like Jackson was playing politics, but was just replacing a few members of his cabinet.
Jackson went along with Van Buren’s plan and named him ambassador to Great Britain. The Senate refused to ratify Van Buren, with Calhoun casting the tie-breaking vote against him. Jackson trumped Calhoun’s defection by naming Van Buren his choice for vice president in 1832. Van Buren had spun his magic and become the next vice president of the United States.
As vice president, Van Buren became Jackson’s closest advisor and friend. He backed Jackson on all issues, including his efforts to resettle Native Americans and destroy the federal bank.
When Jackson decided not to seek a third term, he insisted that Van Buren become the presidential nominee for the Democrats. Van Buren received the nomination without any opposition within the party and won the presidency easily in 1836.
President Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
As Andrew Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren had very large shoes to fill. Unlike Jackson, Van Buren wasn’t a man of the people. He did not feel comfortable around people, and he had a very unappealing personality — he was constantly flip-flopping on issues and scheming against other people.
On the other hand, Van Buren was a born politician. While Jackson despised politicking, Van Buren loved it. He enjoyed political intrigues and was a master at the political game. His whole political career was a political game — this was reflected in how he ran the country as president. His opponents respected his political talents by calling him “The Little Magician.” Somehow Van Buren always managed to get what he wanted in politics. He truly was the first political animal in the United States.
Prolonging economic chaos
Van Buren’s presidency started out disastrously, and h
e never recovered politically. In 1837, just after he assumed office, the Panic of 1837 started. The U.S. economy suddenly collapsed, and a worldwide recession took place.
In the United States, the financial crisis was caused by speculation, or the buying and selling of land at higher than normal risk with the hope of making a quick profit. From 1825 until 1836, the economy boomed, the country expanded westward, and production increased dramatically. But the demise of the National Bank, coupled with some of President Jackson’s other financial blunders (check out Chapter 6 for details), led to the collapse of the state banking system, as well.
Van Buren didn’t react to the banking disaster because he believed that the government shouldn’t intervene in the economy. The crisis lasted for three years. Finally, in 1840, at Van Buren’s urging, Congress put an independent treasury system into place, with the federal government depositing money in vaults that were located in larger cities throughout the United States.
In the midst of all his inactivity, President Van Buren did issue an executive order stating that nobody employed by the federal government should work more than 10 hours a day.
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