The Presidency of Martin Van Buren

By Major L. Wilson and Major L. Wilson

Book Overview

Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, has been judged harshly by some historians as a politician by trade and a spoilsman without principles, a "little magician" who was interested only in his own advancement. This volume provides a thorough recounting of the events and decisions of Van Buren's White House years (1837-1841), and adds to the positive reappraisal of Van Buren as an able statesman and effective chief executive. Wilson stresses that Van Buren faced the major problems of his presidency with courage and consistency, and that he brought repose to a nation wrenched both by sectional differences and by the violent fluctuations of economic expansion and contraction.

Wilson discusses Van Buren's close relationship with Andrew Jackson and substantially qualifies the persistent interpretation of the Van Buren presidency as the "third term" of Jackson. Van Buren, a pragmatic Jeffersonian with a statesmanlike concern for order, reversed Jackson's priorities. Wilson describes how Van Buren resolved the crisis with Mexico and succeeded in keeping peace with Britain at a time when incidents arising out of rebellion in Canada and the disputed Maine boundary might have precipitated war.

The most distinctive contribution of this volume is its in-depth analysis of the economic and political aspects of Van Buren's domestic policy, especialy the Independent Treasury, the issue that gave basic shape to his entire presidency. Jackson had divorced the Treasury from the national bank; Van Buren took one further step and rendered the operations of the Treasury independent of the state banks as well. By the end of his term, debate on the issues of currency and enterprise had brought the second-party system in the U.S. to maturity. In 1840 Van Buren's views in this area would cost him reelection.

This study sheds lights on a turbulent period in American history and contributes to our understanding of Martin Van Buren's achievements. He kept the nation out of war, reduced sectional tensions, and established the basis for a fiscal policy which he believed would bring greater stability to economic development.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700602380
• ISBN13: 9780700602384
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Martin van Buren

A good book about one of America's first true machine politicians. Again of the American Presidency Series a somewhat short book of the intrigues of American Politics

Rich in Detail

Van Buren's presidency was dominated by two major issues: 1) reshaping the government's financial system after President Jackson's successful campaign to destroy the Bank of the United States; 2) rebounding from the economic depression (Panic of 1837). Major Wilson does an excellent job explaining and analyzing the complex economic, social and political issues of the Van Buren presidency. The book is extremely detailed (sometimes overly detailed) in it's account of the efforts to establish an independent treasury to take the place of the former Bank of the US. For readers not well versed (or interested) in the intricacies of specie and credit systems (I include myself in this category), parts of the book can be difficult to get through. However, there are numerous passages which concisely explain the larger implications of the issues involved. For example, there is a passage in which Wilson presents how the bank and currency issues fit into the Democratic and Whig social, economic and political philosophy of the time. It's one of the best and most concise description of Whig philosophy I've read. Naturally, I would've liked to see more about Van Buren's early career as one of the principal founders of the Jacksonian Democratic party. But the book is entitled "The Presidency of Martin Van Buren" and one shouldn't expect a full biography.