Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/274

 254: VAN BUKEN rogate of Columbia co. In 1812 he was elected to the senate of the state, and in that body voted for electors pledged to support De Witt Clinton for president of the United States. From 1815 to 1819 he was attorney general of the state, and in 1816 was again a member of the senate, the two offices being held together. In 1818 Mr. Van Buren set on foot a new or- ganization of the democratic party in the state, and became the ruling spirit of a coterie of able politicians, known as the Albany regency, among whom B. F. Butler, W. L. Marcy, and Edwin Croswell were afterward prominent, who held the political control of the state uninterruptedly for more than 20 years. In 1821 Van Buren was chosen to the United States senate, and was elected a member of the convention to revise the state constitu- tion. In the latter body he advocated an ex- tension of the elective franchise, but opposed universal suffrage, as also the plan of appoint- ing justices of the peace by popular election. He voted against depriving colored citizens of the franchise, but supported the proposal to require of them a freehold qualification of $250. In 1827 he was reflected United States senator, but resigned that office on be- ing chosen governor of New York in 1828. As governor he proposed the safety fund banking system adopted by the legislature in 1829. In March, 1829, he became secretary of state in the administration of President Jackson, but resigned on April 7, 1831. He was appointed minister to England, and ar- rived in that country in September; but his nomination to the office, submitted to the sen- ate in December, was rejected, on the ground that while secretary of state Mr. Van Buren had instructed the United States minister to England to beg from that country as a favor certain concessions in regard to trade with her colonies in the West Indies, which he should have demanded as a right; and that he had carried our domestic party contests and their results into foreign diplomatic negotiations. This event was followed on May 22, 1832, by the nomination of Mr. Van Buren for the vice presidency by the same democratic national convention which nominated Gen. Jackson for reelection to the presidency ; and in the subse- quent election Mr. Van Buren received the elec- toral votes of all the states which voted for Gen. Jackson, with the exception of Pennsylvania. The democratic national convention which met at Baltimore on May 20, 1835, unanimously nominated him for president. The election in November, 1836, resulted in giving him 170 electoral votes out of 283, 73 being cast for his principal antagonist, Gen. W. H. Harrison, 26 for Hugh J. White, and 14 for Daniel Webster. He was inaugurated March 4, 1837. The coun- try, for some time a prey to pecuniary excite- ments and embarrassments, was now involved in a crisis of unprecedented severity. Com- merce and manufactures were prostrate ; hun- dreds of wealthy mercantile houses in every quarter were bankrupt; imposing public meet- ings attributed these disasters to the policy of the government; and two months after the president's inauguration the crash was consum- mated by the universal suspension of specie payments by the banks. On May 15 he sum- moned an extraordinary session of congress to meet the following September. The president in his special message advised that a bankrupt law for banking and other corporations should be 'enacted; and that the approaching deficit in the treasury be made good by withholding from the states the fourth and last installment of a previous large surplus ordered to be de- posited with them by act of June 23, 1836, and by the temporary issue of $6,000,000 of treasury notes. He also recommended the adoption of what was called the independent treasury sys- tem, which was passed in the senate, but was laid on the table in the other house. The pay- ment of the fourth installment to the states was postponed, and the emission of $10,000,000 of treasury notes was authorized. The inde- pendent treasury, again recommended in the president's annual message in December, was again rejected by the house of representatives, after it had been passed by the senate. Another presidential measure was more fortunate, a so- called preemption law being enacted, giving settlers on public lands the right to buy them in preference to other persons. An insurrec- tionary movement begun in Canada in the lat- ter part of 1837 having found aid and sym- pathy within our borders, Mr. Van Buren is- sued two proclamations, enjoining all citizens to refrain from violating the laws and the treaties of the country ; and he sent a military force to the frontier under Gen. Scott to pre- serve the peace there. The closing session of the 25th congress witnessed the temporary stoppage in the house of representatives of the agitation of slavery. Mr. Slade of Vermont introduced the subject in a long and elaborate anti-slavery speech, whereupon the southern members withdrew for separate deliberation, and Mr. Rhett of South Carolina proposed to declare that it was expedient that the Union should be dissolved ; but on motion of Mr. Patten of Virginia it was determined by the house that for the future all petitions or other papers touching slavery should be laid on the table without being debated, printed, read, or referred. For this resolution the friends of the president unanimously voted, as did many of his opponents. Van Bnren's third annual message, in December, 1839, was largely occu- pied with financial discussions, and especially with the argument for the divorce of the gov- ernment from the banks, and for the exclusive " receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions;" that is to say, for the independent treasury. This measure, by which his administration is especially distinguished, became a law on June 30, 1840. The canvass preliminary to the presidential election of 1840 was begun uncommonly early and with un-