geeky
Van Buren was a northerner from New York who was succeeding a popular southerner. To keep the support of southerners, Jackson had to assure them that he opposed abolitionism and supported the maintaining of slavery in states where it had already existed. He also declared that he agreed with Jackson in his opposition to rechartering the national bank. While still Vice-President, he cast the tie-breaking vote in the senate in favor of passing a bill that would subject abolitionist mail to state laws, ensuring that its circulation would be prohibited in the South.
Van Buren won the election of 1836, defeating three members of the newly established Whig Party who tried the strategy of attempting to win sectionally and throw the election to the House of Representatives. Van Buren won the election with 764,198 popular votes, only 50.9 percent of the total, and 170 electoral votes. Van Buren's victory resulted from a combination of his own political support in the north, Jackson's popularity and endorsement, and the organizational power of the Democratic party. Van Buren was the first president to be born after the Declaration of Independence.
Two months into his presidency, Van Buren faced a major economic crisis. On May 10, 1837, some important state banks in New York began running out of hard currency reserves. They refused to convert paper money into gold or silver, and other financial institutions throughout the nation quickly followed their lead. This financial crisis became known as the Panic of 1837. It preceded a five-year depression in which banks failed and unemployment reached record highs.
Van Buren tried to blame the economic collapse on greedy American and foreign business and financial institutions. He blamed the banks for over-extension of credit. But the Whig leaders in Congress blamed the Democrats, especially Jackson's economic policies. In 1836 Jackson had issued his Specie Circular, an executive order that required payment for government land to be in gold and silver. Whigs demanded that Van Buren rescind this order, but Jackson asked Van Buren not to rescind the order, believing that it had to be given enough time to work. Nicholas Biddle had been the last president of the Bank of the United States. He blamed Jackson's order dismantling the Bank of the United States for the irresponsible creation of paper money by the state banks which had precipitated this panic.
To deal with the crisis, the Whigs proposed rechartering the national bank. Instead, Van Buren proposed the establishment of an independent U.S. treasury. The plan was for the government to hold all of its money balances in the form of gold or silver and be restricted from printing paper money at will, a measure designed to prevent inflation. Van Buren announced this proposal in September 1837, but an alliance of conservative Democrats and Whigs prevented it from becoming law until 1840. The independent treasury lasted only one year. When the Whigs won a congressional majority and the presidency in the 1840 election, they promptly repealed the law. By this time the nation's economy had been stuck in a depression for nearly four years. The depression would be a major issue in his upcoming re-election campaign.
The depression wasn't the only issue to tarnish Van Buren's popularity. In 1838, Van Buren directed General Winfield Scott to forcibly remove of all the members of the Cherokee nation who had not complied with the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. The Cherokee were herded violently into internment camps, where they were kept for the summer of 1838. They were forced to march west in what became known as the Trail of Tears, in which approximately 20,000 people were involuntarily relocated. Although this sad chapter in American history is often associated with Andrew Jackson, Van Buren was equally complicit in the forced removal.
Another forced relocation took place during Van Buren's Presidency. In 1839, Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, visited Van Buren to plead for the U.S. to help roughly 20,000 Mormon settlers of Independence, Missouri, who were forced to leave the state during what was known as the 1838 Mormon War. The Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, had issued an executive order on October 27, 1838, known as the "Extermination Order". It directed troops to use force against Mormons to leave the state. In 1839, after moving to Illinois, Smith and his party appealed to members of Congress and to President Van Buren to intercede for the Mormons. According to one account, Van Buren told Smith, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you; if I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri".
During Van Buren's term in office, an ongoing conflict was taking place between Mexico and Texans, following the Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Van Buren wanted to seek a diplomatic solution to the problem, something that upset political leaders of the pro-slavery states. In August 1837, Van Buren denied Texas' formal request to join the United States. He wanted to prevent the upset of the slave state/free state balance that arose out of the Missouri Compromise, and partly because he wanted to avoid a possible war with Mexico over Texas annexation.
Van Buren also had to contend with a rebellion north of the border, where British subjects in Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Upper Canada (now Ontario) rose in rebellion in 1837. The rebellion in Upper Canada was led by William Lyon Mackenzie. The insurrection in Upper Canada ended quickly, and many of the rebels fled across the Niagara River into New York, where Mackenzie began recruiting volunteers in Buffalo. In order to avoid a war with Great Britain, Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to the border. Scott made it clear that the U.S. government would not support mercenary Americans attacking the British. In January 1838, Van Buren proclaimed U.S. neutrality on the issue of Canadian independence.
During the winter of 1838–39, another conflict near the Canadian border. On December 29, 1838, New Brunswick lumbermen were spotted cutting down trees on an American’s estate near the Aroostook River. American woodcutters rushed to defend their trees. Tensions quickly boiled over into a near war with both Maine and New Brunswick arresting each other's citizens. The crisis appeared as if it would soon turn into an armed conflict. British troops began to gather on the Saint John River and the American press cried out for war. To settle the crisis, Van Buren met with the British minister to the United States. They agreed to resolve the border issue diplomatically. Van Buren sent General Scott to the northern border area for a show of military force, and to lower the tensions. Scott convinced all sides to submit the border issue to arbitration. The dispute was later resolved with the signing of the 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty.
Van Buren won renomination as his party's candidate for president at the 1840 Democratic National Convention, but he knew that he and his party faced a difficult election in 1840. Van Buren's presidency had its share of problems, with the U.S. economy still mired in a severe downturn. Divisive issues of slavery, western expansion, and tensions with Great Britain all provided opportunities for Van Buren's political opponents, and even some fellow Democrats, to criticize him. William Henry Harrison, the "Hero of Tippecanoe," was selected as the Whig Party's candidate for president. The Whigs worked to convince voters that Van Buren was ineffective, corrupt, and aristocratic. Van Buren was blamed for the hard economic times. Whigs called him "Martin Van Ruin". On election day, 80 percent of eligible voters went to the polls on election day. Harrison won by a popular vote of 1,275,612 to 1,130,033, and an electoral vote margin of 234 to 60. Whigs won majorities for the first time in both the U.S. House and the Senate. The support of a popular predecessor could not translate into electoral popularity for Martin Van Buren.