8th President Martin van Buren

1782 - 1862  (79 years)    Has 69 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Martin van Buren
  Prefix	8th President
  Birth	5 Dec 1782	Kinderhook, Columbia Co., New York, USA
  Gender	Male
  Prominent People	1837
  US President
  Death	24 Jul 1862	Lindenwald, Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY
  Burial	Kinderhook, Columbia Co., New York, USA
  Siblings	4 Siblings
  1. Derike van Buren,   b. 1777   d. 1865  (Age 88 years) ▻ Barent Hoes   2. Hannah van Buren,   b. 1780   d. Yes, date unknown + 3. 8th President Martin van Buren,   b. 5 Dec 1782, Kinderhook, Columbia Co., New York, USA d. 24 Jul 1862, Lindenwald, Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY  (Age 79 years) ▻ Hannah Hoes,  m. 21 Feb 1807   4. Lawrence van Buren,   b. 1786   d. 1868  (Age 82 years) ▻ Harriet Vosburgh   5. Abraham van Buren,   b. 1788   d. 1836  (Age 48 years) ▻ Catherine Hogeboom
  Person ID	I74836	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	10 Mar 2001

  
  

  Father	Abraham van Buren,   b. 27 Feb 1737   d. 8 Apr 1817, Kinderhook (Age 80 years)
  Mother	Maria Hoes,   b. 16 Jan 1747, Claverick, New York, USA d. 16 Feb 1818, Kinderhook, New York, USA (Age 71 years)
  Family ID	F30420	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Hannah Hoes,   b. 8 Mar 1783, Kinderhook, New York, USA d. 5 Feb 1819, Albany, New York, USA (Age 35 years)
  Marriage	21 Feb 1807	Catskill, New York, USA
  Children	+ 1. Abraham van Buren,   b. 27 Nov 1807, Kinderhook, New York, USA d. 15 Mar 1873, New York, New York, USA (Age 65 years) + 2. John van Buren,   b. 10 Feb 1810, Columbia Co, New York, USA d. 13 Oct 1866 (Age 56 years)   3. Martin van Buren, Jr.,   b. 20 Dec 1812, Hudson d. 19 Mar 1855, Paris, Île-de-France, France (Age 42 years)   4. NN van Buren,   b. 1814   d. 1814 (Age 0 years) + 5. Smith Thompson van Buren,   b. 16 Jan 1817, Hudson d. 1876 (Age 58 years)
  Family ID	F30419	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2000

  
  

• Photos

  Photos (Log in)

  
  

• Notes

  - US President No. 8 Only about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, but trim and erect, Martin Van Buren dressed fastidiously. His impeccable appearance belied his amiability--and his humble background. Of Dutch descent, he was born in 1782, the son of a tavernkeeper and farmer, in Kinderhook, New York. As a young lawyer he became involved in New York politics. As leader of the "Albany Regency," an effective New York political organization, he shrewdly dispensed public offices and bounty in a fashion calculated to bring votes. Yet he faithfully fulfilled official duties, and in 1821 was elected to the United States Senate. By 1827 he had emerged as the principal northern leader for Andrew Jackson. President Jackson rewarded Van Buren by appointing him Secretary of State. As the Cabinet Members appointed at John C. Calhoun's recommendation began to demonstrate only secondary loyalty to Jackson, Van Buren emerged as the President's most trusted adviser. Jackson referred to him as, "a true man with no guile." The rift in the Cabinet became serious because of Jackson's differences with Calhoun, a Presidential aspirant. Van Buren suggested a way out of an eventual impasse: he and Secretary of War Eaton resigned, so that Calhoun men would also resign. Jackson appointed a new Cabinet, and sought again to reward Van Buren by appointing him Minister to Great Britain. Vice President Calhoun, as President of the Senate, cast the deciding vote against the appointment--and made a martyr of Van Buren. The "Little Magician" was elected Vice President on the Jacksonian ticket in 1832, and won the Presidency in 1836. Van Buren devoted his Inaugural Address to a discourse upon the American experiment as an example to the rest of the world. The country was prosperous, but less than three months later the panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. Basically the trouble was the 19th-century cyclical economy of "boom and bust," which was following its regular pattern, but Jackson's financial measures contributed to the crash. His destruction of the Second Bank of the United States had removed restrictions upon the inflationary practices of some state banks; wild speculation in lands, based on easy bank credit, had swept the West. To end this speculation, Jackson in 1836 had issued a Specie Circular requiring that lands be purchased with hard money--gold or silver. In 1837 the panic began. Hundreds of banks and businesses failed. Thousands lost their lands. For about five years the United States was wracked by the worst depression thus far in its history. Programs applied decades later to alleviate economic crisis eluded both Van Buren and his opponents. Van Buren's remedy--continuing Jackson's deflationary policies--only deepened and prolonged the depression. Declaring that the panic was due to recklessness in business and overexpansion of credit, Van Buren devoted himself to maintaining the solvency of the national Government. He opposed not only the creation of a new Bank of the United States but also the placing of Government funds in state banks. He fought for the establishment of an independent treasury system to handle Government transactions. As for Federal aid to internal improvements, he cut off expenditures so completely that the Government even sold the tools it had used on public works. Inclined more and more to oppose the expansion of slavery, Van Buren blocked the annexation of Texas because it assuredly would add to slave territory--and it might bring war with Mexico. Defeated by the Whigs in 1840 for reelection, he was an unsuccessful candidate for President on the Free Soil ticket in 1848. He died in 1862.