By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY
Continued from ‘Van Buren, new book looks at his history’
FROM DAY 1, Martin Van Buren’s presidency was fraught with economic crises fomenting the Panic of 1837, international clashes with Canada, Mexico and Spain, and lingering domestic fallout over Indian removal policies.
Cotton was dubbed “white gold” and cotton fields replaced tobacco fields in the South. (Hence the need to remove Native Americans to the southwest.) Because southern plantations used enslaved labor cotton produced there was the cheapest and Great Britain was America’s largest trade partner.
British banks overextended themselves and demanded repayment of loans to American cotton growers, who could not repay. The Bank of England pressured their banks to limit trade with the U.S. until the loans were satisfied. Compounding the problem was a poor grain crop, which forced the Bank of England to purchase grain in specie (paper money known as “soft” currency). The Bank of England cut credit to U.S. businesses further devastating the cotton market and causing a sharp hike in food prices.
At home the Bank of the U.S. in Philadelphia suspended specie payments. Other Philadelphia banks as well as those in Baltimore and D.C. followed suit. Almost 800 American banks closed and depositors could not exchange their paper currency for “hard” money (gold and silver).
Van Buren abandoned laissez-faire and embraced federal stewardship of the national economy. He called for “retrenchment and reform” and demanded across the board austerity from banks, the federal government and the people. Bradley writes, “Austerity was exactly the wrong prescription for an ailing economy. The president needed to prime the pump not drain the tank.”
When Van Buren assumed the presidency, 123,000 Native Americans were displaced over seven years to Oklahoma, Kansas and the Great Plains states. However the Seminoles in Florida proved especially resistant to U.S. efforts. Florida was considered a haven for runaway slaves. The Seminoles sold their northern lands to Blacks and moved south to Florida’s swamplands. Despite sending 9,000 troops to subdue the Seminoles, 300 evaded U.S. forces and remained in the Everglades, an embarrassing defeat to the Van Buren administration. Bradley writes, “The 2nd Seminole War was largely about race and slavery.”
Billed as a benevolent mission “to save America’s original inhabitants from extinction” in reality Indian Removal was grueling, time consuming and costly. Although tribes were compensated for confiscated lands, they had to bear the costs of their transport west. Then, as well as now, Indian Removal is called “one of the great humanitarian crimes in U.S. history.” Nevertheless Van Buren expanded Indian removal to include tribes from the Great Lakes region and western New York.
The Erie Canal created a lust for land among investors, politicians and removal agents. The prime target was the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Senecas because their lands included Buffalo. The 1838 Treaty of Buffalo Creek was negotiated with a minority group of tribal members, who were bribed with alcohol.
This treaty Van Buren opposed, New York Governor William Seward remained neutral and Buffalo Congressman Millard Filmore favored it. The U.S. Senate approved the treaty with the caveat it be re-submitted to the tribes for “their free and voluntary assent.” The second vote resulted in a tie, which VP Johnson broke with an affirming vote.
The Iroquois Confederacy successfully resisted removal through the courts. Van Buren recognized the issue would be an albatross for him and other Democrats in 1840.
On the international front American militias along the northern border, professing to fight for “Canadian Independence” led excursions into New Brunswick from Maine, Ontario from Michigan and New York, and Quebec from Vermont. Fearing a third war with Great Britain, Van Buren dispatched General Winfield Scott to negotiate a settlement. The military presence alarmed the American insurgents and laws passed allowing confiscation of their assets turned them against the Democrats in the 1840 election.
Van Buren was “cool toward his party’s expansionist wing.” He believed “small government and empire [building] were incompatible.” He argued “with every acquired acre came a renewed, fractious debate over slavery.” In his inaugural address Van Buren bashed Abolitionist activists as “the prominent sources of discord and disaster.” He also thought annexation was unconstitutional because the Treaty of 1832 specifically forbade U.S. interference in Mexico’s internal affairs.
President Jackson supported American rebels in Texas, then a province of Mexico. He also wanted to annex Texas into the U.S. Van Buren persuaded Jackson not to speak on Texas annexation during the campaign. But once Van Buren was elected Jackson pressed hard for Texas’ addition to the Union. He sent U.S. troops to the border to maintain peace and issued 57 claims against Mexico for $3 million to cover damages suffered by Americans during the rebellion. Mexico refused to pay and both sides agreed to international arbitration by the King of Prussia. Texas then withdrew its request for annexation.
The most high profile international crisis was with Spain. In April 1839, 500 kidnapped Africans were shipped to Cuba, a Spanish colony. Two slave traffickers, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, bought 53 of the Africans, who were provided falsified documents identifying them as Spanish citizens. They were boarded onto the Amistad destined to Cuban sugar plantations.
Led by ‘Jose Cinque’ the Africans mutinied, killing the Amistad captain and cook. The mutineers demanded passage back to Africa but Ruiz and Montes steered the ship toward the U.S., where the U.S.S. Washington intercepted it off the coast of New London, CT. The Africans were arrested. Spain demanded return of the prisoners, citing the Treaty of 1795, and Van Buren agreed.
But a district court judge charged the prisoners with murder, mutiny and piracy. The Friends of the Amistad Africans Committee raised money for their legal defense and the case became a cause celebre. The trial was slated for January 7, 1840. Van Buren was confident about a conviction. The presiding judge, Andrew Judson, was a staunch Democrat appointed by Van Buren. Also, the “prosecutor was in constant contact with the White House…[which] worked closely with Spain.”
Hoping to pre-empt an appeal, Van Buren ordered the U.S.S. Grampus to New London to transport the prisoners back to Cuba at the trial’s end.
But Judson ruled in favor of the Amistad captives declaring “the defendants were born free…and still are free and not slaves.” The government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was dominated by Democrats and southerners. However the appeal prolonged the controversy. Bradley writes, “Martin Van Buren clearly was siding with the slaveocracy. The president was determined to see the ‘erroneous principles’ in Judson’s decision reversed.” However the Supreme Court would not hear the case until after the election.
There was a line-up of Whig candidates – Senators Webster and Clay and Generals Harrison and Scott — to challenge Van Buren. Harrison won the Whig contest; Van Buren defeated him in 1836. The election of 1840 was the first to have presidential candidates electioneer in person.
The Harrison campaign featured a float with a log cabin, adorned with coonskins and hard cider kegs atop it to underscore Harrison’s common man persona.
Van Buren was portrayed as living a life of “princely magnificence” at taxpayer expense. The “Gold Spoon” published this ditty: “Proud Martin rides forth in his splendor and pride/ And beyond are his lands upon Kinderhook side/ The roof of a palace is over his head/ And his table with plate and with dainties is spread.”
Harrison won by 6 points, receiving 234 electoral votes and carrying 19 states. Van Buren did not win New York. He had 60 electoral votes and carried seven states. In New York 92% of the electorate voted and nationally 80.2% of eligible voters cast ballots.
After his re-election defeat Martin Van Buren returned to Kinderhook and his 225-acre Lindenwald estate. (12.5 acres is preserved at the National Park Service’s Historic Site.) Van Buren left the presidency financially comfortable. He received his salary of $100k in a lump sum payment.
Bradley writes that the transition from Van Buren to Harrison was “the first friendly transition of power.” As his last official act, Van Buren appointed Peter Daniel to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bradley describes Daniel as a “hardline Jacksonian” and “brooding, pro-slavery fanatic.” Five minutes before the end of Van Buren’s term the Senate confirmed Daniel. Five days later the Supreme Court ruled against Van Buren in the Amistad case.
Van Buren was the head of the Democratic Party and many supporters hoped that he would challenge Harrison in 1847. But Van Buren professed no interest in pursuing the presidency or any elective office again. Not even a five-month, 7,000 mile farewell tour of the South and Midwest, where he was well received, could tempt Van Buren. The forces of Clay, Calhoun and President Tyler, who assumed office after Harrison’s death, aligned against him.
However Van Buren wielded his influence to defeat his nemeses. Despite reservations about the Democrats’ expansionist wing, Van Buren backed James K. Polk, who won nomination by acclamation. Polk defeated Clay and Van Buren helped Polk carry New York. Yet no New Yorker served in Polk’s cabinet.
Polk’s expansion plans called for the U.S. to stretch from “coast to coast at the 49th parallel.” From Great Britain he peacefully acquired land that became Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The U.S. went to war with Mexico and seized what would become California and New Mexico, equaling a half million square miles.
Van Buren’s son John took up the political mantle. John was a member of the “Barnburners” wing of the Democratic Party. They favored “popular sovereignty” and called for territorial voters to decide whether to be free or slave holding states. They believed slavery was “fatal to industry, false to economy, injurious to morals and dangerous to liberty.” In 1847 the Barnburners formed their own political party, the Free Soil Party. But it needed a standard bearer.
Van Buren, expressing “matured convictions” regarding slavery, unretired. “New York and national Democrats adopted an intolerable ideology,” adding he “was finished trying to placate the South.” Free Soilers, a coalition of Barnburners, Whigs of “Conscience” and Abolitionists convened in Buffalo and adopted a platform of homesteading, cheap postage, tariffs for revenue only, internal improvements, cuts in government spending and paying off the national debt.
Van Buren was vilified as the “Judas Iscariot” of the 19th Century and the Free Soil Party was excluded from 11 slave holding states that accounted for 93 electoral votes. Although he won 10% of the popular vote, Van Buren received no electoral votes.
The Free Soil challenge was the most successful third party effort ever, electing 10 members to Congress. Bradley writes, [while] “big enough to disrupt, [it] was too small to lead.” Van Buren and son returned to the Democratic Party after passage of the Compromise of 1850.
Bradley’s book quotes The New York Times on the occasion of Van Buren’s passing at age 79. “[Van Buren] has identified his name with no measure which entitles him to the permanent gratitude of our people…he did nothing distinguishable to advance the cause of humanity and civilization…His place in our history is not in any way pronounced. He will be calendered as a President, and be characterized as a skilled and not unsuccessful politician, but not as an elevated statesman, or a benefactor of his country.”
“Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician” by James Bradley is published by Oxford University Press and available locally.
