[141] Van Buren's victory resulted from a combination of his own attractive political and personal qualities, Jackson's popularity and endorsement, the organizational power of the Democratic party, and the inability of the Whig Party to muster an effective candidate and campaign. Clay was deeply disappointed by his defeat at the convention, but he nonetheless threw his support behind Harrison. In an effort to win the proslavery vote in the election of 1840, Van Buren sided against African slaves on trial in the United States for their part in the Amistad mutiny in 1839. [213] Van Buren had hoped he would not have to take a public stand on annexation, but as the Texas question came to dominate U.S. politics, he decided to make his views on the issue public. [240] Van Buren also worked on a history of American political parties and embarked on a tour of Europe, becoming the first former American head of state to visit Britain. Jacksons running mate. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [175], Considerable sentiment arose within the United States to declare war, and a British ship was burned in revenge. [68] He hoped to engineer a Crawford victory on the second ballot of the contingent election, but Adams won on the first ballot with the help of Clay and Stephen Van Rensselaer, a Congressman from New York. [77] Van Buren believed that these national parties helped ensure that elections were decided on national, rather than sectional or local, issues; as he put it, "party attachment in former times furnished a complete antidote for sectional prejudices". [249], After the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of several Southern states in 1860, Van Buren unsuccessfully sought to call a constitutional convention. After losing his bid for reelection in 1840, Van Buren ran again unsuccessfully in 1844 (when he lost the Democratic nomination to the pro-southern candidate James K. Polk) and 1848 (as a member of the antislavery Free Soil Party). [35], During the War of 1812, Van Buren worked with Clinton, Governor Tompkins, and Ambrose Spencer to support the Madison administration's prosecution of the war. Jackson was determined to help elect Van Buren in 1836 so that the latter could continue the Jackson administration's policies. Livingston. [122] The JacksonVan Buren ticket won the 1832 election by a landslide,[123] and Van Buren took office as vice president in March1833. [150], Federal policy under Jackson had sought to move Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River through the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the federal government negotiated 19treaties with Indian tribes during Van Buren's presidency. [216], Van Buren's opposition to immediate annexation cost him the support of many pro-slavery Democrats. Newspaper coverage of this, and the claim that she intended to re-landscape the White House grounds to resemble the royal gardens of Europe, was used in a political attack on her father-in-law by a Pennsylvania Whig Congressman Charles Ogle. [134] Rather than re-nominating Johnson, the Democratic convention decided to allow state Democratic Party leaders to select the vice-presidential candidates for their states. [264] On the television show Seinfeld, the episode "The Van Buren Boys" is about a fictional street gang that admires Van Buren and bases its rituals and symbols on him, including the hand sign of eight fingers pointing up. [209] President John Tyler made annexation of Texas his chief foreign policy goal, and many Democrats, particularly in the South, were anxious to quickly complete the annexation of Texas. [258] Several writers have portrayed Van Buren as among the nation's most obscure presidents. He was deeply troubled by the stirrings of secessionism in the South and welcomed the Compromise of 1850 as a necessary conciliatory measure despite his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Through his use of patronage, loyal newspapers, and connections with local party officials and leaders, Van Buren established what became known as the "Albany Regency", a political machine that emerged as an important factor in New York politics. The Amistad case was a freedom suit that involved international issues and parties, as well as United States law, resulting from the rebellion of Africans on board the Spanish schooner La Amistad in 1839. He lost his wife to tuberculosis and never remarried. In 1820, he was elected to the United States Senate. Martin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York on December 5, 1782. Antislavery Democrats known as Barnburners (after a legendary Dutch farmer who burned his barn to get rid of rats) rallied behind Van Buren, joining the movement that led to the formation of the Free Soil Party. [112] The rejection of Van Buren was essentially the work of Calhoun. [131], President Andrew Jackson declined to seek another term in the 1836 presidential election, but he remained influential within the Democratic Party as his second term came to an end. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party.