Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, was born on December 5, 1782 in the village of Kinderhook, New York. His father was Abraham Van Buren, and his mother was Maria Hoes Van Alen Van Buren. He attended a local school in his hometown of Kinderhook. After he graduated, he became a law clerk, entered practice in 1803, and soon became active in state politics as state senator and attorney general.
In 1820, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he was officially announced as a strong candidate for the United States presidency. By 1827 he had emerged as the principal northern leader for Andrew Jackson. President Jackson rewarded Van Buren by naming him Secretary of State. As the Cabinet Members appointed at John C. Calhoun's recommendation began to demonstrate only secondary loyalty to Jackson, Van Buren emerged as the President's most trusted adviser. Jackson referred to him as, "a true man with no guile."
Differences between John C. Calhoun and Martin Van Buren grew since Van Buren suggested a way out of an eventual impasse, he and Secretary of War Eaton resigned, so that Calhoun men would also resign. Jackson appointed a new Cabinet, and again to rewarded Van Buren by appointing him Minister to Great Britain. Vice President Calhoun, as President of the Senate, cast the deciding vote against the appointment and made the life of Van Buren more difficult.
At his final phase as the Minister to Great Britain, The "Little Magician" was elected Vice President on the Jacksonian ticket in 1832, and won the Presidency in 1836. Van Buren devoted his Inaugural Address to a call upon the American experiment as an example to the rest of the world. The country was prosperous, but less than three months later the panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. The panic of 1837 was an economic depression, one of the most severe financial crises in the history of the United States which affected the everyday life of the American citizens. The...