Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) rose through New York politics as the leader of the Albany Regency, a disciplined party organization, and became a principal architect of the Democratic coalition that elected Andrew Jackson. He served as Jackson's secretary of state and vice president before winning the presidency in 1836. Weeks after his inauguration the Panic of 1837 began a long depression, and he spent much of his term pressing for an Independent Treasury that would hold federal funds apart from private banks. He lost to William Henry Harrison in 1840, and in 1848 he ran as the Free Soil candidate against the expansion of slavery into the western territories.

Political scientists credit Van Buren with building the first national mass party and with a lasting argument that organized party competition strengthens democracy. Supporters of limited government point to his refusal to bail out banks or speculators and to the Independent Treasury, which, after repeal and restoration, lasted into the 20th century. Critics argue that his rigid response deepened suffering during the depression that followed 1837. His administration carried out the forced Cherokee removal of 1838-1839, the Trail of Tears, in which an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Cherokees died, and continued a costly war against the Seminoles. He also supported the rights of slaveholders for most of his career to keep Southern Democrats in his coalition, before his 1848 Free Soil campaign against slavery's expansion.