Biography of Martin Van Buren, vice president of the United States. With an appendix, containing selections from his writings ... with other valuable documents, among which will be found the late letter of Colonel Thos. H. Benton, to the Convention of the state of Mississippi

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Preface

In presenting to the American citizens a Biography of one of our distinguished Democratic Statesmen, I kel that I need not apologize, — as I do it with feelings of patriotic ardour, and for the purpose of vindicating a character on whom has been lavished much personal and public abuse for a long series of years, on account of his early opposition to a party once recognized as the "Essex Junto,'^ but more recently known as the War Party in peace ! and the Peace Party in war ! occasionally mantling themselves beneath the imposing shelter of Washington and benevolence! And for this devotion to the cause of the people, he was proscribed! by the very Senate where you, my countrymen, have now placed him to preside, as a merited rebuke to such as proclaimed they were no man's men! As a further proof that the American people are capable of self government, a portion of my fellow-citizens have informed such Senators that they arc no longer their men!!

He has long been denounced as a Magician ! his opponents, however, have been taught satisfactorily^ I trust, that the magic he deals in has been approved by YOU, the people ! hence, I cannot, as an Independent freeman, but rejoice at the cheering lY PREFACE.

prospects before him, confident as I am, that the same power which has sustained and propelled him onward, will again cluster around, and through him, carry out the principles begun by a Jefferson, and thus far perfected by the venerable Jackson, whose fame will endure " while the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.^' No doubt he will again be opposed by a phalanx, sustained as they have been, from the vaults of a gigantic British institution, in the disguise of a United States Bank, which. Vampire-like, was fast preying on the VITALS of the Republic ! Thanks to an over-ruling Providence! A Jackson, and a Benton, dared encounter, and stay the further progress of that many headed Monster ! seconded, on all occasions, by the firm friend to Democracy, Martin Van Bu- BEN, and nobly sustained by the American people.

For one, I do not doubt the native as well as adopted freemen of my country, will, at the approaching Presidential Election, prove to the surrounding nations of the earth, that American citizens are superior to any and all combinations that have been or may be entered into for the overthrow of Democracy. If such an overthrow be accomplished, you then indeed would have a constructive, instead of a practical Democratic Republican Government.

Forget not, the Government is your own, and your children demand at your hands its transmission

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unimpaired to them as your last best legacy. Remember the Reign of Kings is hastening to decay.

The Government then of right, belongs to the sovereign people, before whom all officers must bow — at whose shrine I would ever be a worshipper.

Behold then, Fellow-citizens, the tree of Liberty! — perched thereon is the American Eagle with his broad and spreading wings, holding in his beak a SCROLL, on which is inscribed Van Buren, Democracy, Union and Liberty.

With these remarks I submit to my countrymen the following compilation. The biographical sketch was written by a gentleman intimately acquainted with the public and private history of Mr. Van Buren, for the Cabinet, a literary publication which appeared in 1830. It was afterwards enlarged by its author in the summer of 1832. As Mr. Van Buren was then in nomination for the office of Vice President, special reference was made to that circumstance, and a strong conviction was expressed that he would be elected to that high office. 1 have preferred to retain this part of the memoir, although the particular language is no longer precisely applicable to the present state of things, because I have no right to alter the language of another, and more especially, because by the energy and virtue of the people, that part of it which looked to the future, has already become history. — The selection I have made from the speeches and writings of Mr. Van Buren, will

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not only illustrate and verify many of the statements in the biography; but will exhibit the sound, democratic and statesman-like principles, by which his public conduct has been governed, and which have hitherto commanded the public approbration. The speech of Mr. Forsyth, on the nomination of Mr. Van Buren as minister to Great Britain, in secret session of the Senate in 1832, the correspondence with the PIl^:sIDE^T on the same point, and the late letter of Col. Benton, being all connected with the subject of this volumcj and highly valuable in themselves, will, I hope, be interesting to my readers. And I trust that the cheerino; anticipations and patriotic wishes, which have led me to prepare this compilation, will be confirmed by the sovereign People of these United States in the election of 1S36. To the American public,

BIOGRAPHY

OF

OF NEW-YOllK.

Martin Van Buren was born at Kinderhook, in the county of Columbia, and state of New- York, on the 5th of December, 1782. He is the eldest son of Abraham Van Buren, an upright and intelligent man, whose virtuous conduct and amiable temper enabled him to pass through a long life, not only without an enemy, but without ever being involved^in contention or controversy. His mother, a woman of excellent sense and pleasing manners, was twice married, Mr. Van Buren being her second husband. Both parents were exclusively of Dutch decent; their ancestors being among the most respectable of those emigrants from Holland, who established themselves, in the earliest period of our colonial history, in the ancient settlement of Kinderhook. They died at advanced ages; the father in 1814, the mother in 1818, but not until they had witnessed, and, for a series of years, participated in, the prosperity of their son.

The subject of this memoir displayed, in early boyhood, endowments so superior, that his family resolved to educate him for the bar. He was accord- ' jpgly placed, at the age of fourteen, in the office of Francis Sylvester, Esq., then and still a much respected resident of Kinderhook, and at the time referred to, a practitioner of the law. Prior to the conclusion of his term of study, he spent about twelve months in the office of William P. Van Ness, thena distinguished lawyer and politician in the city of New-York.* His residence in that city affiDrded Mr. Van Buren opportunities of instruction and improvement, superior to any that he had before enjoyed, and as he was both eager in persuing, and apt in acquiring knowledge, he employed these advantages with diligence and profit.

In. November, 1S03, he was licensed as an attorney of the Supreme Court, and immediately thereafter commenced professional business in his native village, in connexion with a half brother, considerably his senior. At the next term of the county courts, he

* This gentleman having afterwards held the office of District Judge of the United States for the southern distilct of New-York, is some times confounded with William W. Van Ness, for manyyears a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State — a mistake which happens the more readily, from their being both natives of Columbia county, and both greatly distinguished by their talents and their connexion with political affairs, though they belonged, the former to the republican, and the latter to the federal party.

was admitted as attorney and councellor, and thus enrolled in the Columbia bar, then numbering among its members several of the first men in the state; but the field was not fairly spread before him until his admission as councellor in the Supreme Court, which took place in February, 1807.

He had always aspired to distinction at the bar; but though he had within him not only the desire, but the elements of success, he was obliged to force his way through an opposition at once powerful and peculiar. The political dissensions which then agitated the Union, were carried, in Columbia county, to the greatest extremities. The title to a large portion of the soil was vested in a few ancient families, the founders of which had been endowed, during the colonial government, with a species of baronial prerogative. The members of these families were generally federalists, and as they carried with them most of the wealthy freeholders, and the great mass of the merchants and professional men, they were enabled to maintain, for many years, an uninterrupted ascendency in the county. Their reign was not that of toleration or liberality; on the contrary, the federalists of Columbia, partly perhaps from the spirited and inflexible character of their opponents, were among the most decided and thorough going partizans in the state. Mr. Van Buren was an object, with them, of peculiar hostility. He was a plebeian and a democrat; he was destitute of fortune and in need of patronage; and yet he would neither wor ship at the shrine of wealth, nor court the favor of the powerful — worse than all — he possessed talents, and was not afraid to exert them, in the face, and to the prejudice, of his political enemies. It was therefore thought to be a matter of interest if not of duty, to keep him in the shade; and nothing was omitted that seemed likely to produce such a result.

Undismayed by persecution, unruffled by the petty arts of loquacity and slander, and over leaping the obstacles by which his progress was obstructed, Mr. Van Buren pressed forward in the race before him. *'He that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men," says Lord Bacon " hath a hard task." That task, and more than that Mr. Van Buren undertook, for he strove not only for eminence but mastery. There was a noble daring in the very attempt to cope with these formidable adversaries, which would almost have compensated for the want of success; but by unremitted attention to business, by diligent preparation, and by the utmost exertion of his powers, such an issue was prevented. His faculties, naturally acute, were not only sharpened by these conflicts, but invigorated and rapidly enlarged; and it was not long before he was enabled to contend on high and equal ground, with the ablest of the group. This, after the promotion of Judge W. W. Van Ness, was Elisha Williams, the most celebrated jury lawyer in the state, and probably in the Union, then in the prime of manhood, and nearly at the zenith of his fame.

In 1809, Mr. Van Buren removed to the city of Hudson, which was also the residence of Mr. Williams ; and from that time they divided, and for many years continued to divide, the professional business of the county. They stood also at the head of the political parties to which they were respectively at" tached.

The writer has often witnessed, in other places, displays of great forensic talent ; but he has never seen causes tried with any thing like the zeal, the skill, or the effect, which were always exhibited at a Columbia circuit, during the period referred to. A trial there was an intellectual combat of the highest order ; the antagonists were stimulated, not only by professional duty and the love of fame, but by a rivalry political and personal, which never suffered intermission or decline. This rivalry to which we have alluded, continued for more than ten years ; and if time and space permitted, it would be interesting, at least to the professional reader, to develope more fully than we can now do, the characters of the parties and the history of their conflicts.

In the mean time, Mr. Van Buren had followed

his distinguished rival to the higher courts, and to

he tribunal of the last resort. He there encountered the first talents in the state, and with such success, that on the republicans regaining their ascendency, he was appointed, in February, 1815, Attorney-General of the state, in the room of Abraliani Van Vechten, then equally eminent for political sagacity and professional reputation, but now reverenced and loved as the father of the New York bar. The duties of •this office, and the extension of his practice, induced ^Ir. Van Buren, in the following year, to change his residence from Hudson to Albany. From this time until his retirement, he was deservedly ranked with those distinguished civilians, to whom, in connexion with her judiciary, the state owes so large a portion of her renown. Amongst such competitors, it was impossible to acquire, still more to maintain, a factitious reputation. Mr. Van Buren's was based on materials the most durable. Gifted with a large share of good sense, with a quickness of apprehension almost intuitive, with a nice discrimination, and with great accuracy of judgment, and illustrating these qualities by powers of reasoning and oratory rarely surpassed, he was peculiarly qualified for the discussion of those varied and complicated questions of law and of fact, which are so often presented for decision in our higher tribunals. It was accordingly in the management of important cases in the superior courts, that his most successful efibrts as an advocate were made. His talents and reputation soon

MARTIN TAN BUREN. 7

secured to him an extensive and lucrative business, which would doubtless have increased to the highest amount known to the American bar, if his labors in his profession had not been frequently interrupted, and at length finally suspended, by his attention to political concerns.

Whether before a jury, or bar, he particularly excelled in the opening of this subject. The facts out of which arose the questions for discussion, the nature of those questions, and the mode in which he intended to treat them, were always stated with great clearness and address. In the exposition of his argument, he was usually copious and difilisive, presenting his case in all its lights, and bringing to bear upon it every consideration vyhich could tend to elucidate its merits or to cover its defects. His style and manner were judiciously adapted to the character of his subject, and of his hearers ; sometimes direct and argumentative, and at others discursive and impassioned; but even in the management of the most abstruse legal topics, he was able by the perspicuity of his statements, the aptness of his illustrations, the vivacity and force of his tone and gesture, and the felicity of his whole manner, to excite and to retain the undivided attention of all classes of his auditors.

No one was better qualified to speak with ability and effect, upon little, or without any preparation; but no one could be more careful or laborious in hia

8 BIOGRAPHY. OP

preparatory studies. We mention this for the purpose of reminding the junior members of the bar, that if they would emulate and equal the successful career we have delineated, they must rely not on genius alone, nor on general knowledge or a diversified experience, but on the surer aids to be derived from a perfect acquaintance with their subject, and a careful premeditation of what they are to say.

The public life and services of Mr. Van Buren, to which we shall now direct the attention of our readers, demand a fuller notice than that bestowed on his professional career. It must, however, necessarily be brief; for to bring them out, in their just proportions, would require a volume, and would lead to discussions foreign to this place. His first connexion with political affairs was in the great contest which preceded the civil revolution of IBOl. His father, a whig in the revolution, and an anti-federalist of 1788, was among the earliest supporters of Mr. Jefferson. The son, then a law student at Kinderhook, espoused with great warmth the same principles ; but his course was emphatically his own. It was the result of a decided conviction, that the conduct and doctrines of the men in power, were not only repugnant to the spirit of the constitution, but subversive of the rights of the people, and calculated to lead to an aristocratic government. The strength and integrity of these convictions were severely tested. The gentleman in whose office he was a student was a high toned federaHst; so was a near and much loved relative, his earliest patron. A majority of the inhabitants, including nearly all the wealthy families, and most if not all his youthful associates, belonged to the same party, and that party then had the ascendency, not only in his own town, but in the county, the state, and the Union. Aware of his superior endowments, and anxious to save him from what was deemed by many of his friends a fatal, if not a criminal heresy, great exertions were made to attach him to the dominant party. Every motive which could operate on the mind of an ardent and ambitious young man, was held^out to him but without success. He persisted in maintaining the principles he had espoused, and he spared no pains to inculcate them upon others, especially by animated addresses at the meetings of the people. His devotion, thus early, to the popular cause, though it exposed him to the implacable hostility of the federalists, secured for him the confidence and affections of the democracy of the town, and soon made him so conspicuous in his county, that in the latter part of 1800 or beginning of 1801, when only in his eighteenth or ninete'^nth year, he was one of her representatives in a republican convention composed of delegates from the counties of Rensselaer and Columbia, and held for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the house of representalives. On that occasion he assisted the veteran politicians, with whom he v^^as associated, in preparing an address to the electors. During the residue of his minority he was in the habit of representing the republicans of his town in the county conventions, and of taking as active and efficient a part in the political contests of the day, as any of his seniors.

His first appearance as an elector, was in the spring of 1804, when, in common with the great mass of the party in which he had been bred, he supported Morgan Lewis for governor of New York in opposition to Aaron Burr. Here again his integrity and independence were strikingly exemplified. Mr. Van Ness, with whom he had recently been a student, was the intimate friend of Col. Burr; and Mr. Van Buren himself, whilst a resident in the city of New York, had received many flattering attentions from that gentlemen. Several of the leading republicans of Columbia county, including some of Mr. Van Buren^s earliest friends, were among the warmest supporters of Col. Burr. Yet Mr. Van Buren took a decided stand against Col. Burr, on the ground that he was the candidate of the party opposed to Mr. Jefferson, and to the democracy of the state. — His course on this occasion subjected him to some temporary antipathies; but its wisdom and propriety were sanctioned by the judgment of the people, and at the present day, will hardly be called in question.

MART'N VAN rUREN. , J|

In 1807 the democratic party was again divided between Lewis and Tompkins, and Mr. Van Buren again acting in unison with the majority, was among the most decided supporters of the latter. In 1808, he was appointed Surrogate of the county, an office which he held until February, 1813, when the federal party having acquired the ascendency in that branch of the legislature which controlled the appointing power, he was promptly removed.

PVom the moment when, in early youth, he espoused the democratic principle, he never wavered in his course. Mr. Jefferson's administration received his uniform support; though in the ardor of youthful patriotism, he sometimes wished for a more decided policy towards the invaders of our neutral rights. During the whole period of the British encroachments, he was among those who labored to awaken. In our councils and people, a spirit of indignation and resistance. The embargo, and other retrictive measures adopted by congress, met his decided approbation; and were frequently vindicated by him in popular addresses, and on other occasions. In the dark days which followed these measures, he neither apostatized, nor flinched, nor doubted. His support of the government was not merely active, but zealous; nor was his the zeal of ordinary men. — It absorbed his whole soul; it led to untiring exertion; it was exhibited on all occasions, and under

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all circumstances. Neither the contumely of inflated wealth, nor the opposition of invidious talent, nor the weekly revilings of a licentious press, nor a succession of defeats in his own county, could induce him to conceal or to modify his political sentiments, or to temporize in his policy or conduct.

The influence of such principles, accompanied by talents like those of Mr. Van Buren, was not to be circumscribed within the limits of a single county. It accordingly extended in the same proportion with his professional reputation; and as early as 1811, we find him taking the lead in a meeting held at the seat of government, and composed chiefly of the democratic members of the legislature. In 1811, he took great interest irt the question of the renewal of the United States Bank. In connexion with the venerable George Clinton, and other leading members of the party in his state, he strenuously opposed the re-chartering of that institution. After congress had decided this question, a powerful association was formed, for the purpose of procuring from the state legislature a charter for the Bank of America, to be established in the city of New^ York, with a capital (enormous for a local bank) of iS6, 000,000. — As the democracy of the state, with but few exceptions, considered this application a sort of substitute for the renewal of the national bank, they took strong ground against it. Mr. Van Buren was one of its most prominent. Opponents. The republicans of his county were convened on the subject. He delivered to Ihem a powerful speech against the proposed application, which was denounced in a series of resolutions prepared by him and adopted by the meeting, as a most dangerous and anti-republican measure. — His sentiments on the main question, and his belief that improper means had been resorted to by the agents of the bank, conspired to recommend to his approbation and support, the prorogation of the legislature by Governor Tompkins, in April, 1812; and he accordingly sustained that energetic measure by the active exertion of his influence and talents. At this juncture he was, for the first time, put in nomination for an elective office — that of state senator for the then middle district. A more violent struggle was hardly ever known in the state ; Mr. Van Buren succeeded, but by a majority o[ less than two hundred out of twenty thousand votes.

He took his seat in the senate in November, 1812, at the meeting held for the choice of presidential electors. The republican members of the legislature having, in the preceding summer, nominated De Witt Clinton for president, in opposition to Mr. Madison, then a candidate for re-election, and that nomination having been tendered to, and accepted by Mr. Clinton, Mr. Van Buren thought it due to consistency and good faith, to support electors friend-

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ly to that gentleman. He was also prompted to this course by an impression, that the character and measures of the existing administration were not sufficiently decisive and energetic ; and by a sincere and confident belief that Mr. Clinton, though supported by many opponents of the war, would yet, if elected, prosecute that contest with more vigour and success than his amiable and enlightened competitor. Besides — Mr. Van Buren had been bred in the political sentiments of George Clinton, and on the death of that illustrious patriot, had naturally transferred much of his respect for the name, principles and character of the uncle, to his distinguished nephew, who, up to that period had been generally regarded as a pillar of the democratic party. In these views a majority of the republicans in each branch of the legislature concurred; and Mr. Clinton accordingly received the vote of New York. JNTr. Van Buren, however, uniformly declared that he would abide by the decision of the majority ; and that he would support to the end, every measure of the government, by whomsoever it might be administered, which was calculated to bring the war — a measure which he had advocated in advance, and constantly defended — to a successful result. In conformity with these principles, he took a leading part in the winter of 1813, in the nomination of Gov. Tompkins, whose patriotism had identified him with the historv of the country.

MAKTIN VAN BUREN. |5

and whose re-election seemed essential to the prosecution of the war if not to the existence of the government. On this occasion he wrote the address to the electors of the state, issued by the republican members of the legislature — an elaborate and eloquent production, in which the duty of sustaining the administration in the prosecution of the war, was enforced by every motive that could reach the hearts, or call out the energies of the people. The extracts from this address which have recently been laid before the public, will have enabled them to test the justice of this remark. It was widely circulated, and produced the desired effect.

In the election of April, 1813, Mr. Clinton, and many of his friends, supported the candidate of the opposition; and from this point a separation ensued between that distinguished statesman and Mr. Van Buren, which, as to all political matters, continued ever after.

The sessions of 1813 and 14, were peculiarly trying. The federalists then had the control in the assembly, and were violent and uniform in their opposition to the war and to its supporters. A majority of the senators, with Mr. Van Buren and his able coadjutors, Nathan Sanford and Erastus Root, at their head, were equally inflexible in their support of the government. They passed many bills of a patriotic character, which were rejected by the other

BIOGRAPHY or branch. This led to several public conferences, in which the points in controversy — involving not only the particular measures in dispute, but the justice and expediency of the w^ar, and the conduct and merits of the national administration — were debated at large, in the presence of the two houses, by committees chosen on the part of each, and with all the energy and ardor which the spirit of the times was calculated to inspire. These conferences, from the nature of their subjects, the solemnity with which they were conducted, and the crowded and excited auditories that attended them, presented opportuni ties for the display of popular eloquence, almost rivalling in dignity and interest, the assemblies of ancient Greece. In all of them Mr. Van Buren was a principal speaker on the part of the senate, and by his readiness and dexterity in debate, his powerful reasoning, and his patriotic defence of the government and its measures, commanded great applause. On one occasion in particular, he delivered a speech ©f such eloquence and power, that immediately after the termination of the debate, a committee was appointed by the republicans of Albany — who, in great numbers, had attended in the galleries — to present him the thanks of their constituents, and to procure a copy of the speech for publication. This request, however, could not be complied with, as the speech had been delivered without even the usual preparative of short notes; and Mr. Van Buren, who was then in feeble health, had neither time nor strength to write it out.

In September, IS14, the legislature was convoked by the Executive, to deliberate on the alarming crisis th^n existing. The republicans had then regained their control in both branches, and various measures were adopted with the express view of aiding the national administration, in the prosecution of the war. Of these, in addition to acts making appro* priations of money, the most prominet were the acts ^'to authorise the raising of troops for the defence of the state," and to "encourage privateering associations." These bills were each supported by Mr. Van Buren; but the first and most important — which was known among its friends as the "classification," and among its enemies as the ^'conscription" bill, and which very much resembled the classification bill subsequently reported to congress by Mr. Monroe — was peculiarly his measure, it having been matured and introduced by him. They were assailed by the opposition, both in and out of the legislature, with unwonted violence. In the coun oil of revision, Chancellor Kent delivered written opinions, denouncing them as inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution, and the public good. — Those opinions, though overruled by the other members of the council, were published in the newspapers and extensively circulated ; and from the high reputation of their learned and estimable author, they were eminently calculated to excite doubts as to the validity of the laws, and to impair public confidence in those who enacted them.

In this state of things, Col. Young, then speaker of the assembly, and the principal champion in that house, of the measures thus impugned, undertook their defence, and especially that of the Classification law, in a series of letters, written with great ability, and addressed to the chancellor, under the signature of Juris Consultus. They were answered by Amicus Curiae, (supposed to be the chancellor himself,) who was replied to by Mr. Van Buren, in four numbers under the signature of Amicus Juris Consultus. In the first of these papers, he took a general view of the several topics connected with the controversy; the others were devoted to a minute examination of the various objections made by the Chancellor, and by Amicus Curiae, for the act encouraging privateering associations. This controvesy, as conducted by all the parties, was one of the ablest which grew out of the last war. Mr. Van Buren's share of it, which was distinguished by great ability and research, soon became known among his political friends, and contributed in no small degree, to his appointment as Attorney General, which took place in the February following. He was soon after