Background
John Van Buren was born on February 18, 1810, in Kinderhook, New York. He was the son of Martin Van Buren and Hannah (Hoes) Van Buren.
John Van Buren was born on February 18, 1810, in Kinderhook, New York. He was the son of Martin Van Buren and Hannah (Hoes) Van Buren.
Van Buren was sent first to the Albany public schools, then to Albany Academy, whence he went to Yale. In college, he drank and gambled freely, studied little, worried the faculty and president of Yale, and cost his father unnecessary expense and sleepless nights.
Upon graduation, he read law with Benjamin F. Butler and later with Aaron Vanderpoel. In July 1831, he was admitted to the Albany bar, and one month later he sailed with his father to London to become an attach of the American Legation.
Before returning home, John traveled on the Continent, and in 1838, he again visited England and Ireland. His activities in politics were so like his father's that he soon won another title, "Young Fox. " By 1834, he was a member of the "Albany Regency. " For a time he was a law examiner in Albany and a law partner of James McKnown (1837 - 45), later taking as a partner Hamilton W. Robinson.
In 1845, he joined the radical wing of the New York Democracy and won the office of attorney general (1845). He prosecuted the anti-rent cases and after his resumption of private practice took part in the notorious Forrest divorce suit, in which he lost prestige. Although he was popular with the New York bar and powerful with juries, his political activities during the forties rather obscured his legal career.
Much of his time was consumed in lobbying in the state legislature. His power was felt in nearly every Democratic state convention from 1836 to 1848, and especially in campaigns for his father. He published a pamphlet, The Syracuse Convention, in 1847. He was influential in organizing the "Barnburners, " and in behalf of them and the Free-soil groups, he persuaded his father to accept the nomination for president at Buffalo in 1848.
Some of their leaders wanted him for their standard bearer, but he chose to fight for his father, who had lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Polk at Baltimore (1844).
Had he grasped the full significance of the Free-soil movement he could have been one of the chief leaders of the forth-coming Republican party, but he was unhappy outside the Democracy and returned to it in 1849. He supported the compromise measures of 1850.
In 1853, he threatened to denounce Pierce but was kept quiet by Marcy and Tilden, and finally came out strongly for popular sovereignty in Kansas. He wanted a convention of states (1860) to arrange for guarantees to the slavery interests and to prevent war. He denounced Lincoln for calling for troops so soon after the firing on Fort Sumter.
In many speeches, he defended General McClellan, bitterly assailed the draft, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and the use of black troops. He supported Seymour for governor in 1862 and McClellan for president in 1864, and was himself defeated in his candidacy for the attorney generalship of the state in 1865. He threw his waning influence to Andrew Johnson (1866), but his failing health caused him to seek its improvement in England.
Van Buren died of a kidney disease while on the Scotia en route to New York, leaving his only child, Anna, and was buried in Albany besides his wife, who had died in 1844.
Van Buren was Chairman of the New York Democratic Party in 1862, and was the party's unsuccessful candidate for state Attorney General in 1865. During the Civil War he continued his opposition to slavery by organizing "Union League" clubs of Democrats and Republicans loyal to the United States.
His fine physique, ready wit and good humor, and aristocratic and gracious bearing made him a favorite at the English court. The Whig press of America dubbed him "Prince John. "
On June 22, 1841, Van Buren married Elizabeth, Aaron Vanderpoel's niece.
December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862 Was an American statesman who served as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party, he held a number of senior positions in the U.S. Federal Government, including eighth Vice President (1833–1837) and tenth Secretary of State (1829–1831), both under Andrew Jackson.
March 8, 1783 – February 5, 1819
November 27, 1807 – March 15, 1873
20 December 1812 - 19 March 1855
22 May 1814 - 19 November 1844
30 July 1842 - 29 October 1923
