Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/260

232 ship in June, 1831, and was sent as minister to England. The senate refused in 1832 to confirm his nomination, by the casting-vote of John C. Calhoun, the vice-president. Conscientious Whigs, like Theodore Frelinghuysen, confessed in after days the reluctance with which they consented to this doubtful act. A clause in one of Van Buren's despatches while secretary, containing an invidi- ous reference to the preceding administration, was alleged as the ground of his rejection. The of- fence was venial, compared with the license taken by Robert R. Livingston when, in negotiating the Louisiana purchase, he cited the spectre of a Federalist administration playing into the hands of "the British faction." Moreover, the pretext was an afterthought, as the clause had excited no remark when first published, and, when the out- cry was raised, Jackson " took the responsibility " for it. The tactical blunder of the Whigs soon avenged itself by bringing increased popularity to Van Buren. He became, with Jackson, the sym- bol of his party, and, elected vice-president in 1832, he qame in 1833 to preside over the body which a year before had rejected him as foreign minister. He presided with unvarying suavity and fairness. Taking no public part in the envenomed discus- sions of the time, he was known to sympathize with Jackson in his warfare on the United States bank, and soon came to be generally regarded by his party as the lineal successor of that popular leader.

He was formally nominated for the presidency on 20 May. 1835, and was elected in 1836 over his three competitors, William H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, and Daniel Webster, by a majority of 57 in the electoral college, but of only 25,000 in the popular vote. The tide of Jacksonism was beginning to ebb. South Carolina, choosing her electors by state legislature and transferring to Van Buren her hatred of Jackson, voted for Willie P. Mangum. During the canvass Van Buren had been opposed at the north and championed at the south as " a northern man with southern principles." As vice-president, he had in 1835 given a casting-vote for the bill to prohibit the circula- tion of " incendiary documents " through the mails, and as a candidate for the presidency he had pledged himself to resist the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of the slave-states and to oppose the " slightest inter- ference " with slavery in the states. He had also pledged himself against the distribution of surplus revenues among the states, against internal im- provements at Federal expense, and against a na- tional bank.

Compelled by the fiscal embarrassments of the government, in the financial crash of 1837, to sum- mon congress to meet in special session, 4 Sept., 1837, he struck in his first message the key-note of his whole administration. After a detailed an- alysis of the financial situation, and of the causes in trade and speculation that had led to it, he pro- ceeded to develop his favorite idea of an independ- ent treasury for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys. This idea was not new. It was as old as the constitution. The practice of the government had departed from it only by in- sensible degrees, until at length, in spite of the protests of Jefferson, it had been consolidated into a formal order of congress that the revenues of the government should be deposited in the United States bank. On the removal of the deposits by Jackson in 1833, they had been placed in the cus- tody of " the pet banks," and had here been used to stimulate private trade and speculation, until the crisis in 1837 necessitated a change of fiscal policy. By every consideration of public duty and safety, conspiring with what he believed to be eco- nomic advantage to the people, Van Buren enforced the policy of an independent treasury on a reluc- tant congress. There was here no bating of breath or mincing of words; but it was not until near the close of his administration that he succeeded in procuring the assent of congress to the radical measure that divorced the treasury from private banking and trade. The measure was formally repealed by the Whig congress of 1842, after which the public moneys were again deposited in se- lected banks until 1846, when the independent treasury was reinstalled and has ever since held its place under all changes of administration. He signed the independent treasury bill on 4 July, 1840, as being a sort of " second Declaration of Independence," in his own idea and in that of his party. Von Hoist, the sternest of Van Buren's critics, awards to him on " this one question " the credit of " courage, firmness, and statesman-like insight." It was the chef d'eeuvre of his public career. He also deserves credit for the fidelity with which, at the evident sacrifice of popularity with a certain class of voters, he adhered to neutral obligations on the outbreak of the Canada rebel- lion late in 1837.

The administration of Van Buren, beginning and ending with financial panic, went down under the cloud resting on the country in 1840. The enemies and the friends of the United States bank had equally sown the wind during Jackson's ad- ministration. Van Buren was left to reap the whirlwind, which in the " political hurricane " of 1840 lifted Gen. Harrison into the presidential chair. The Democratic defeat was overwhelming. Harrison received 234 electoral votes, and Van Buren only 60. The majority for Harrison in the popular vote was nearly 140,000. Retiring after this overthrow to the shades of Lindenwald, a beautiful country-seat which he had purchased in his native county, Van Buren gave no vent to repin- ings. In 1842 he made a tour through the southern states, visiting Henry Clay at Ashland. In 1843 he came to the front with clear-cut views in favor of a tariff for revenue only. But on the newly emergent question of Texas annexation he took a decided stand in the negative, and on this rock of offence to the southern wing of his party his can- didature was wrecked in the Democratic national convention of 1844, which met at Baltimore on 27 May. He refused to palter with this issue, on the ground of our neutral obligations to Mexico, and when the nomination went to James K. Polk, of Tennessee, he gave no sign of resentment. His friends brought to Polk a loyal support, and se- cured his election by carrying for him the decisive vote of New York.

Van Buren continued to take an interest in public affairs, and when in 1847 the acquisition of new territory from Mexico raised anew the vexed question of slavery in the territories, he gave in his adhesion to the " Wilmot proviso." In the new elective affinities produced by this "burning question" a redistribution of political elements took place in the chaos of New York politics. The "Barnburner" and the "Hunker" factions came to a sharp cleavage on this line of division. The former declared their " uncompromising hostility to the extension of slavery." In the Herkimer Democratic convention of 26 Oct.. 1847, the Free-soil banner was openly displayed, and delegates were sent to the Democratic national convention. From this convention, assembled at Baltimore in May, 1848, the Herkimer delegates se-