Library of Congress
- NAME – Martin Van Buren
- NICKNAME(S) – Little Magician / Red Fox of Kinderhook / Wizard of Kinderhook
- BIRTH / DEATH – Dec. 5, 1782 Kinderhook, NY / 1862 Kinderhook
- FATHER – farmer, innkeeper
- MOTHER – housewife
- COLLEGE – none
- WIFE – Hannah
- KIDS – 5 boys (one died as an infant)
- PETS – two tiger cubs who were soon sent to the zoo
- RELIGION – Dutch Reformed
- ANCESTRY – Dutch
- AGE – 54
FIRSTS:
– first born after the Declaration of Independence and last before the ratification of the Constitution
– first President born in New York
MA AND PA: His father ran an inn that was stopping place for politicians going to the state capital.
BACKGROUND:
– becomes a lawyer 1803
– New York Senator 1813-20
– New York Attorney General 1815-19
– U.S. Senator 1821-28
– Governor of NY 1828
– Secretary of State
– Vice President to Jackson
– President 1837-41
– loses nomination to Polk 1844
– runs for President for the Free Soil Party 1848
FIRST LADY: She was a childhood friend. She died soon after the birth of their last son. He was a widower for eighteen years. His son’s wife acted as hostess in the White House. Martin did not mention Hannah in his autobiography.
RETIREMENT: After losing for President in 1848, he retired to his home in Kinderhook, NY.
TRIVIA:
– he went to school in a one-room schoolhouse
– favorite food was oysters; he also liked doughnuts, raisins, and figs
– he signed memos and documents with O.K. for Old Kinderhook and some historians think this was the origin of OK
– he was 5’6” with sandy hair and bushy sideburns
– when he was President, since the White House was not locked, a drunk fell asleep on a sofa
ANECDOTES:
THE VICE PRESIDENT WHO WAS TECHNICALLY A BATCHELOR
Richard Mentor Johnson never married. When he was a young man, he fell in love with a school teacher, but his mother nixed the wedding. He got revenge when his father died and he inherited a slave girl named Julia Chinn. His mother had raised the girl, so it was so sweet to take her as his mistress and parade her around society as his wife. This continued when he was elected to the Senate. They had several children before she died of cholera. From then on he took a series of slave mistresses, even when he was Vice President. Before you deplore his morals, when one of his mistresses cheated on him, he sold her and took up with her sister.
– Shenkman 76-77
NON-COMMITTALISM
Van Buren had a reputation for non-committalism. The term was used for a politician who refused to take a stand on issues. One story to back up this reputation had a man asking Van Buren if the Sun rose in the east. Van Buren responded: “I understand that is the common acceptance, buy as I never get up before dawn, I can not say.”
– Boller 86