Martin Van Buren.

Martin Van Buren. I INTRODUCTION Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), eighth president of the United States (1837-1841) and the first president born after the United States won its independence. He was regarded by his contemporaries as such a wily and artful politician that they dubbed him the "Little Magician" and the "Red Fox of Kinderhook." However, these unflattering nicknames could not obscure his statesmanlike qualities or his valuable contributions to the political development of the nation. He was a political broker, pragmatic in his approach to problems and constantly concerned about winning elections. Nevertheless, he was intellectually committed to Jeffersonian democracy, and as governor of New York and president of the United States he instituted a number of farsighted economic and political reforms. These included bank deposit insurance, the independent treasury system, and a limit on labor hours. He also played a major role in the creation of the Democratic Party. II EARLY LIFE Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in the village of Kinderhook, New York. He was the son of Abraham and Maria Hoes Van Buren, both of Dutch descent, whose families had lived in New York for several generations. His father operated a tavern on the post road between New York City and Albany. The tavern, which was part of the Van Buren home, was frequently visited by state legislators on their way to and from the state capital. Abraham Van Buren served as town clerk, and his tavern was frequently used as a polling place in state and national elections. Since he was a staunch supporter of the Jeffersonian Party, which emphasized agrarianism, states' rights, and a limited national government, his son Martin absorbed these ideas. Thus, at an early age, Van Buren became acquainted with politicians, heard their discussions of issues and events, and presumably learned a great deal about history, politics, and the means by which men attempt to influence one another to achieve their political goals. A Education Martin Van Buren's formal education was acquired at the local village academy, from which he was graduated at the age of 14. Later he was placed in the law office of Francis Sylvester. There he swept floors, ran errands, and copied documents. Presumably through this exposure to the legal profession a young apprentice could learn enough law to gain admission to the practice of law. Several early biographers tell a story that at the age of 15, Van Buren was in court during the trial of a minor case. The judge suddenly turned to him and invited him to sum up the arguments for the jury. Because he was rather short, he was told to stand on a bench so he could be seen. "There, Mat, beat your master," was what the judge supposedly said as he instructed Van Buren to begin the summation. Regardless of the truth of the story, Van Buren's cleverness was noticed from the start of his career. Van Buren remained at Sylvester's law office until he was 20, after which he moved to New York City and entered the law office of William P. Van Ness. He completed his studies there and the following year was admitted to the practice of law. In 1803 he returned to Kinderhook and began a successful law practice there, building a reputation as a zealous and resourceful lawyer. B Marriage and Family On February 21, 1807, Van Buren married his distant cousin Hannah Hoes. They had four sons: Abraham, Martin, John, and Smith Thompson. Abraham served as his father's secretary during his presidency, and John became attorney general of New York and a leader of the Free-Soil Party. After 12 years of marriage, Hannah Van Buren died of tuberculosis. Van Buren never remarried. III EARLY POLITICAL CAREER On his return to Kinderhook, Van Buren joined the Democratic-Republican Party. Because he became one of the best lawyers in Columbia County and because the county was dominated by the Federalist Party, he was constantly asked to appear in court against Federalist lawyers. Van Buren's repeated successes in these encounters catapulted him into a leading position in the Democratic-Republican Party in Columbia County. As a result, he was appointed to a local office, then to a county position, and finally, in 1812, he was elected to the state senate. A State Senator Van Buren began his legislative career the same year the United States declared war against Great Britain. He actively supported the war measures proposed by the governor. However, many of these measures died in the legislature because of Federalist opposition to them and to the war in general. As a result, the state stumbled through the war doing less than it could to assist the national government in its prosecution of the war. In 1816 Van Buren was reelected to the state senate and was also appointed state attorney general. Later he was designated judge advocate. As such he prosecuted Brigadier General William Hull for treason because Hull had surrendered Detroit to the British in 1812. Van Buren won a conviction of Hull for cowardice and neglect of duty, and the general was sentenced to be shot. However, President James Madison rescinded the sentence of execution. B The Bucktails When Van Buren began his political career, the Democratic-Republican Party in New York was divided into three factions: followers of the Livingston family, followers of the Clinton family, and followers of Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Van Buren soon identified himself with the Clintonians and rose rapidly to a position of leadership in their ranks. One reason for his success was his skill in manipulating and controlling caucus meetings, where party policy was decided. Because of his rapid rise, Van Buren was forced into a personal rivalry with De Witt Clinton, then governor of New York. For the next 15 years the two men battled for control of the state Democratic-Republican Party, with Van Buren assuming leadership of his own faction. Van Buren's followers were known as Bucktails because the leaders of the Tammany Society, a New York City political organization that supported Van Buren, wore bucktails on their hats when they attended political meetings. In this long struggle with Clinton, Van Buren resorted to a number of devious schemes to strengthen his position and weaken the opposition. His methods and his uninterrupted string of extraordinary successes earned him much criticism. Van Buren trained himself to disregard all attacks, no matter how personal or severe. This attitude, in turn, brought on the criticism that he was too cautious and too much under the control of a calculating mind ever to be hindered from the attainment of his political ambitions. The Clintonians cited as one example of Van Buren's unscrupulous methods his support of a convention in 1821 to revise the state's constitution. Van Buren and his Bucktails said they wanted to make the constitution more democratic. The Clintonians retorted that the real aim was to oust them from office. Both sides were right. The revised constitution introduced a needed extension of voting rights and improved the operation of the state government. However, it also removed many Clintonians from the government by abolishing the offices they held. Van Buren played an important role in the convention. Invariably he took the middle ground and adopted resolutions that would win the support of the largest number of delegates. His enemies accused him of having no position at all, but this was untrue. Although he was cautious, he believed in popular rule. However, his brand of democracy included safeguards to ensure that the people acted "not by the feelings of temporary excitement, but by that sober second thought which is never wrong." C United States Senator C1 Albany Regency In 1821 Van Buren was elected to the U.S. Senate, the upper chamber of the Congress of the United States. Before departing for Washington, D.C., he established a political machine, called the Albany Regency, to run the state in his absence. A political machine is a tightly disciplined organization set up to ensure that a party or faction maintains control of political offices. Van Buren could set up the Regency because the revised constitution had placed a great deal of patronage, or the power to appoint people to political positions, in the hands of the Bucktails. The Albany Regency was the first statewide political machine in New York history. Among its members were some of the best political talents in the state. Into the hands of these men Van Buren placed what had taken him almost ten years to acquire: control of the state legislature and control of patronage. With these instruments the Regency directed the political affairs of the party and of the state. Although Van Buren was away from New York for much of the remainder of his political career, he continued to be recognized as chief of the Regency. C2 Election of 1824 In Washington, Van Buren's political talents were quickly discovered, and he soon occupied an important position within the national party. At that time the dominance of the Democratic-Republicans was so complete that James Monroe had been unopposed in the presidential election of 1820. However, the party was already splitting into factions. Van Buren was a leader of the faction that supported states' rights and was opposed to a strong central government. In 1824 Van Buren summoned the last congressional caucus to nominate a presidential candidate. Then he managed the campaign of Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, the caucus nominee. However, several other Republican candidates chose to run in this election, including General Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and Congressman Henry Clay. Because none of the candidates won a majority of electoral votes, the election went to the House of Representatives (the lower chamber of Congress) for decision. It is perhaps a fair example of Van Buren's political skill that he got 41 electoral votes for Crawford, enough to place him third in the race, despite the fact that Crawford had suffered a severe paralytic stroke many months before the election and should have been eliminated from the contest. Clay, who had been eliminated from the contest because he ran fourth, threw his support to Adams, and the House elected Adams president. C3 Jackson Supporter Although Adams won the presidency, Van Buren had already gauged the rising popularity of Andrew Jackson and had decided that the future belonged to those who rode with "Old Hickory," as Jackson was called. Moreover, Adams's political philosophy differed from Van Buren's. The new president was committed to a strong national government and Henry Clay's American System, which called for a high protective tariff, federally financed internal improvements, and a strong central bank. For the duration of Adams's administration, Van Buren worked in and out of Congress to block executive action and to win the presidency for Jackson in 1828. To achieve these ends, he united several Democratic-Republican factions in various states into a new political party that reasserted the principles of the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. Van Buren said he hoped his actions would bring about a new political combination that would effect the substantial reorganization of the old party. He continued: "Political combinations between the inhabitants of the different states are unavoidable and the most natural and beneficial to the country is that between the planters of the South and the plain Republicans of the North." This new political combination nominated Jackson for the presidency and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina for the vice presidency in 1828. These followers of Jackson, Calhoun, and Van Buren formed the political organization that became the Democratic Party. D Election of 1828 To help Jackson find electoral votes across the country, Van Buren maneuvered the Tariff of 1828, commonly called the Tariff of Abominations, through Congress. His strategy was to appeal to voters of the middle and Western states by promising high protective duties on imports of raw materials. This angered Southerners, who depended on those imports. They retaliated by plotting to raise the duties on manufactured goods, on which New England businessmen depended. The result they expected was that even the supporters of protection would vote against the bill and defeat it. Although this plan misfired and the tariff bill was voted into law, the result did not hurt Jackson. The South believed that only through the election of Jackson and Calhoun would the tariff be repealed. E Governor of New York To assist Jackson in securing New York's 36 electoral votes, Van Buren agreed to run for governor of the state in 1828. The race was a three-way contest. The AntiMasonic Party nominated a journalist, Solomon Southwick. The badly divided National Republicans chose a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Smith Thompson. Van Buren won, but he did not get a majority of the total vote. In contrast, Jackson won the presidency by an overwhelming margin. This victory was in large measure due to the splendid organization of the Democratic Party. In appreciation for Van Buren's part in shaping this victory, Jackson invited him to become secretary of state. Although he had only been governor since the beginning of the year, Van Buren resigned on March 12, 1829, after the Senate confirmed the appointment. Despite the fact that Van Buren's term as governor was short, he initiated a number of notable reforms while in office. The most significant of these reforms was the Safety Fund System, which required all incorporated banks to join an association and contribute to a fund that would insure depositors from loss through the failure of any one bank. The system was supervised by a three-man commission that visited each bank periodically and inspected its affairs. Within a few years the fund had more than $30 million and provided a safe banking system for the people of New York. Van Buren's Safety Fund System was one of the wisest and most important banking innovations of the 19th century. F Secretary of State Van Buren had resigned as governor because he knew that the office of secretary of state was usually the fastest road to the presidency. Not unexpectedly, his presence in the Cabinet excited the jealousy of other ambitious men, most noticeably Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun hoped to succeed Jackson after his expected two terms as president, and he resented the close working relations that quickly developed between Van Buren and Jackson. At first, Jackson had some doubts about his secretary of state because of his reputation as an unscrupulous politician, but he soon developed a profound regard for Van Buren's abilities and for his devotion and loyalty to the administration. F1 Maysville Veto As secretary, Van Buren not only counseled the president on foreign and domestic policy and on politics, but assisted him in drafting state papers. One of the most important documents that Van Buren drafted was the president's veto of the Maysville Road Bill. The bill would have provided federal funds to build a highway from Maysville to Lexington, both in the state of Kentucky. Van Buren argued against the bill on constitutional grounds, insisting that the road was of concern only to Kentucky. He went on to challenge a basic premise of Clay's American System: that a state's internal improvements were a federal concern. The effect of the Maysville veto was the transfer of the building of roads and canals to the states, a policy that Van Buren, as a Jeffersonian, had long advocated. F2 Foreign Affairs Van Buren assisted in resolving a long-standing dispute with Great Britain involving restrictions placed on U.S. trade with the British West Indies. By the time Jackson became president, neither power would allow direct West Indies trade with the other. After considerable negotiation, in which the United States indicated its determination to settle the problem amicably and quickly, it was agreed that the ports of the British West Indies and the United States would be open to ships of each nation on terms of full reciprocity, without duties against ships of either nation or their cargoes. Van Buren helped gain a treaty with the French by which France agreed to pay the damage claims from the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), in which France had confiscated U.S. cargoes bound for Britain. Van Buren also assisted in obtaining the United States' first commercial treaty with Turkey, in 1831. That treaty gave the United States most-favored-nation status, which meant that it would have trading status at least as favorable as any other nation trading with Turkey. F3 Rivalry With Calhoun As Jackson came to depend on Van Buren more and more, the Little Magician's rivalry with Calhoun intensified. In 1830 it flared into the open because of a scandal involving Secretary of War John H. Eaton and his wife. Eaton had married Peggy O'Neill after (according to rumor) romancing her while she was still married to someone else. The marriage horrified the wives of the other Cabinet officers, who, led by the aristocratic Mrs. Calhoun, refused to socialize with the Eatons. Their actions infuriated the gallant Jackson, whose wife, Rachel, had been treated similarly before her death. Among the Cabinet officers only Van Buren showed Mrs. Eaton any respect. His politeness and deference toward the much-abused lady won Jackson's gratitude at a time when the rift between the president and Calhoun was widening. The dispute with the Cabinet intensified because of Calhoun's support of nullification, the doctrine that a state could nullify a federal law within its borders. Also, Jackson learned for the first time that Calhoun had sought his censure in 1818, after Jackson had invaded Spanish Florida in pursuit of raiding Seminole and had executed two British subjects. To Calhoun these sudden and unexpected reverses in his political fortune looked very suspicious indeed. Immediately he concluded that they were the products of the machinations of Van Buren and that they were designed to wreck the vice president's career and make Van Buren Jackson's heir apparent. In a rage, Calhoun wrote out his complaints in a long article and published the piece in a Washington newspaper. He named Van Buren as the source of the discord within the cabinet. However, in publicizing the administration's problems, he further alienated Jackson, who was very sensitive about his public image. Consequently, the president decided to rid his administration of Calhoun and his influence. Jackson's objective was to purge the Cabinet without starting a party battle in Congress. Van Buren neatly resolved the problem by suggesting that he resign as secretary of state. His departure would provide the president with an excuse to request the resignations of other Cabinet officers. Once the Calhoun men were gone, the Cabinet could be remade without a political fuss. Although Jackson agreed to the scheme, he would not let Van Buren's sacrifice go unrewarded. After the resignations were submitted, the president showed his gratitude by appointing Van Buren U.S. diplomatic representative to Great Britain. Most of the members of the new Cabinet were Van Buren's friends. F4 Jackson's Heir Apparent After he resigned from the Cabinet, Van Buren left for his post in Great Britain, not waiting for the Senate to confirm his nomination. Then, when the nomination was finally taken up by the Senate in January 1832 and a vote taken, a tie resulted. The tie-breaking vote fell to Calhoun as vice president. Without a moment's hesitation he voted to reject the nomination. Jackson, furious over the rejection, determined to make Van Buren his next vice president. When the Democrats convened in Baltimore in 1832, they unanimously nominated Van Buren to run with Jackson. The 1832 presidential election was the first in which the major parties used nominating conventions to select their candidates. It was also the first involving a third major party. The National Republican Party chose Henry Clay and John Sergeant, while the Anti-Masonic Party nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker. The following fall, Jackson and Van Buren won a smashing victory. G Vice President As vice president, Van Buren presided over the Senate during the years when Jackson was concluding his war against the Second Bank of the United States. Previously, Jackson had vetoed a recharter of the bank and had in fact won his reelection to the presidency on this issue. Jackson argued that the bank was unresponsive to the will of the people and benefited only investors and speculators. After the victory, Jackson withdrew government deposits from the bank and placed them in so-called pet, or state, banks. This action hastened the end of the Bank of the United States. Some members of the opposition party believed that the removal of the deposits was undertaken to benefit bankers friendly to the Democratic Party and that Van Buren had been the agent of these bankers. Although Van Buren supported the president in refusing the recharter, he had serious doubts about the wisdom of withdrawing the government's deposits from the bank. Moreover, he would never have engaged in any action that might diminish his chance of being elected president. G1 Election of 1836 Jackson had long since designated Van Buren as his political successor. The years of devoted service to a president who enjoyed unrivaled popularity with the American people would thus be repaid. Because of his firm control of the Democratic Party, Jackson simply signaled his wish to party leaders, and it was executed without opposition. In May 1835 the Democrats held their convention in Baltimore and unanimously nominated Van Buren on the first ballot. Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky was chosen to run for the vice presidency. The new Whig Party, which had succeeded the National Republicans, as an expression of its opposition to Jackson's use of strong presidential powers, did not hold a national convention. Instead the Whigs nominated three separate candidates for the presidency, each to run in the section of the country where he was strongest. They hoped that this strategy would deny Van Buren a majority of the electoral votes and force the election into the House of Representatives, where the Whigs believed they could win. The Whig candidates were Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, who ran in the New England states; Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, who ran in the South and Southwest; and William Henry Harrison of Ohio, who ran in the West. South Carolinians organized in support of nullification chose Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina as their anti-Jackson candidate. However, the election did not go as the Whigs hoped. Riding on Jackson's popularity and success as a president, Van Buren won handily with 170 electoral votes as against 73 for Harrison, 26 for White, 14 for Webster, and 11 for Mangum. In the popular vote, Van Buren received a total of 764,176 to Harrison's 550,816, White's 146,107, and Webster's 41,201. IV PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES A Panic of 1837 In his inaugural address, Van Buren acknowledged his intention of continuing the policies of his predecessor. Indeed, he continued Jackson's Cabinet virtually unchanged. However, soon after Van Buren took office, a severe economic depression swept across the nation. The Panic of 1837 was a worldwide depression, but it was particularly sharp in the United States because the nation had been involved in rapid economic expansion for the past several years. Production jolted to a halt; hundreds of companies went bankrupt; factories closed down; and unemployment rose rapidly. In May 1837, New York banks suspended specie (gold and silver) payments on their bank notes because they did not have enough specie in reserve to cover all the notes that panicked investors were trying to cash in. Almost immediately, other banks across the country did the same. Many state governments also felt the full impact of the panic because, having invested heavily in canal and railroad projects, they were forced to default on their financial obligations. To meet the distress, Van Buren, on May 15, 1837, called a special session of Congress to convene on September 4. At that time the central government was not expected to assist individual members of society; the best that Van Buren could offer in his message to the special session was a reform of fiscal problems facing the federal government. "Those who look to the action of this government for specific aid to the citizen to relieve embarrassments arising from losses by revulsions in commerce and credit," he said, "lose sight of the ends for which it was created, and the powers with which it is clothed. It was established to give security to us all. ... It was not intended to confer special favors on individuals. ... The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity." B Independent Treasury System In Van Buren's mind, the depression was caused by unrestrained issuing of credit by state banks that had received federal funds when President Jackson transferred funds out of the Bank of the United States. His proposed solution was to "divorce" federal funds from state banking. He asked Congress to establish a subtreasury, or independent treasury system, by which the government would build its own vaults or subtreasuries in the leading cities around the country and deposit its revenues in these vaults, where they would be stored until needed. This so-called divorce would eliminate problems created by the use of federal money by state banks. After a prolonged congressional debate, which went on year after year and which caused many conservative Democrats to desert to the Whigs, the law establishing the Independent Treasury System was passed by Congress on July 4, 1840. C Problems With Great Britain Van Buren faced other grave problems. In foreign affairs a series of unfortunate incidents occurred that nearly brought war between the United States and Great Britain. The first incident, in 1837, resulted from an uprising in Canada against British rule. Americans were sympathetic toward the rebel cause, and supplied the Canadians with munitions. When the rebels established a base on Navy Island, in the Niagara River just a short distance from the falls, Americans began transporting materials to them from the U.S. side of the river. The U.S. steamer Caroline provided the transportation. On December 29, 1837, a British force crossed the river, seized the Caroline, towed it to the middle of the river, and set it ablaze. During the fracas an American, Amos Durfee, was killed. This outrage generated such hostile feeling in the United States that a number of raids into Canada were carried out as reprisals. A British steamer was seized and burned. The United States demanded reparations for the Caroline incident, but this demand was refused. Meanwhile, Van Buren warned Americans against further participation in the border conflicts and promised a strict enforcement of the law against those who fomented trouble. He sent Major General Winfield Scott to the frontier with instructions to see to it that Americans refrained from hostile actions against the British. A second incident that heightened tensions occurred a few years later when a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, boasted in a New York City tavern that he had killed Durfee during the attack on the Caroline. Immediately, McLeod was arrested and placed on trial for murder. Britain demanded his release, but the United States was powerless to intervene because it had no jurisdiction over New York state law. A third source of trouble with Great Britain was a boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick in the valley of the Aroostook River. In 1839 an undeclared war broke out among the people in the area about ownership of the land. The governor of Maine called out the militia and took forcible possession of the disputed territory. Congress promptly passed a bill authorizing the president to summon 50,000 volunteers and appropriating $10 million for defense. Again, Van Buren sent General Scott to restore order and maintain peace. The president's response to the disturbance was motivated by the determination to obtain "peace with honor." In time the governor of Maine was persuaded to withdraw his troops, and eventually both sides agreed to a truce in the so-called Aroostook War. A final settlement of these foreign problems was not worked out until after Van Buren left office. However, there is no question that the president showed courage and rare wisdom in taking the necessary action to avoid war with Great Britain. Later, in the administration of President John Tyler, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was concluded, which amicably settled the northeastern boundary dispute and the Caroline affair. In the meantime a New York jury had acquitted McLeod. D Native American Policy Van Buren's administration was also troubled by the continuing war with the Seminole in Florida that had begun during Jackson's term in office. The war resulted from the efforts of the government to move all Native American peoples west of the Mississippi River. The Seminole resisted the seizure of their lands and rallied behind their war leader, a young chief named Osceola. Eventually Osceola was seized under a flag of truce and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he died not long afterward. Although it cost many millions of dollars to fight the Seminole, they were finally subdued and most of them driven westward. E Labor Reform One of Van Buren's most enlightened acts as president was his executive order stating that no person was to labor more than ten hours a day on federal public works. The order, issued near the end of his administration, was a natural result of his expressed concern for laboring people. F Election of 1840 Because of the depression and his temperate handling of the Canadian problem, Van Buren became increasingly unpopular with the American people. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party unanimously renominated him for the presidency at their national convention in 1840. The Whig Party realized that they had a splendid opportunity to win the presidential office at last. Having learned that modern politics required the nomination of a man who could appeal to the masses and that military heroes have such an appeal, they nominated General William Henry Harrison, who had made a remarkably good showing in the election of 1836. Harrison was known as "Tippecanoe" because of his victory over the Shawnee nation at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Along with Harrison the Whigs nominated John Tyler of Virginia. The Whig campaign had log cabin and cider symbols, brass bands, parades, floats, and songs. "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too," they chorused. "Van, Van, is a used up man." Democrats tried to imitate the Whigs. Although they, too, used slogans, such as "O.K.," referring to Van Buren's birthplace in Old Kinderhook, they were not equal to the ingenuity of the Whigs. Van Buren lost the election by an electoral count of 234 to 60. The popular vote gave him 1,128,854 to Harrison's 1,275,390. The depression and the problems with Great Britain all hurt Van Buren, but perhaps the single most important issue responsible for his defeat was the fact that the Whigs convinced the American people that unlike Harrison, Van Buren was not a "man of the people," but rather an aristocrat with extravagant tastes who lacked genuine sympathy for the problems of the ordinary citizen. V LATER LIFE After his defeat, Van Buren set about to improve his political image. In 1842 he toured the West, where he visited Jackson in Tennessee, and Henry Clay in Kentucky. At this time Van Buren and Clay may have agreed to come out publicly in opposition to the annexation of Texas because of its divisive effect in the North. In a letter published a short time later, Van Buren argued against annexation because it involved the danger of war with Mexico. If the people really wanted Texas, then he was willing to yield to their wishes. However, at the moment, he said, he was against adding Texas to the Union. Clay also published a similar letter. A Split in the Democratic Party Although Van Buren had been the leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 1844, his public disavowal of annexation lost him the nomination. Instead the Democrats chose James K. Polk, an expansionist from Tennessee who went on to win against Clay. Polk offered Van Buren the ambassadorship to England, but he refused it. In New York the Democratic Party split into two factions. The Hunker, or conservative, faction had the support and patronage of the administration. Van Buren became the leader of the Barnburner faction, which continued to advocate the radical economic policies of Jacksonian democracy and which also opposed the extension of slavery. B Free-Soil Candidate In 1848, at the end of the Mexican War, Van Buren was again a presidential candidate, this time on the ticket of the Free-Soil Party. The question of slavery had grown so ominous that the Free-Soil Party had been formed to oppose the extension of that institution. At their national convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1848, the Free-Soilers nominated Van Buren for the presidency. He had the support of the Barnburners, who had already bolted the Democratic national convention, and of dissident New England Whigs, called Conscience Whigs because of their opposition to slavery. The Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, while the Whigs named General Zachary Taylor. Van Buren took so many votes away from Cass in New York that Taylor won the state and with it the election. Van Buren did not win any electoral votes, but he captured about 10 percent of the popular vote, or 291,500 votes. C Last Years Despite his sojourn among Free-Soilers, Van Buren was a Democrat at heart and soon returned to the party he had done so much to organize. Following the election in 1852 of Franklin Pierce, whose candidacy Van Buren endorsed, he took a trip to Europe, where he spent the next two years. He was then 70 years old and the first expresident to leave the United States. He caused something of a commotion in Europe because no one seemed to know how to salute an elected, nonaristocratic head of state or where to seat him at a banquet table. But Van Buren asked to be treated like any other American tourist. While visiting Italy, Van Buren began to write his political memoirs. The document became massive and was eventually published as his autobiography, even though its narrative stopped in 1831. Politics continued to hold Van Buren's interest, and he opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which had limited the spread of slavery in the new U.S. territories, as well as other measures of the 1850s that appeased the slaveholding aristocracy. Although he supported Democrat James Buchanan for president in 1856, he came to oppose President Buchanan's policy of conciliating the Southern states and in 1860 supported Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. Van Buren had retired to his home at Lindenwald, in Kinderhook, following his return from Europe. He died there on July 24, 1862, at the age of 79. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.