respect to his lineage and his section, Van Buren was distinguished from his predecessors: he was the first president not born a British subject and he was also the first president to be elected from the Middle States. A native of New York, of Dutch ancestry, he may be regarded as distinctively an American product. The line of demarcation between Van Buren and his predecessors with regard to matters of personality is as clearly seen in the sphere of political practice, for Van Buren was the first president evolved through the methods of practical politics. Political compliance as a substitute for political opinion was the distinguishing mark of Van Buren's mentality. In such a man, the capacity for origination would have been lacking in any event, so that, while due account must be taken of the strength of his predecessor in an estimate of Van Buren's administration, the circumstances of his succession to the presidency go further to explain his failure to enunciate clearly a progressive programme.

man.

Van Buren was what has come to be phrased a self-made The one thing that differentiated him from the line of his ancestry, which was that of plodding and unambitious farmers, was his aspiration for better things. His training had been theirs in essential respects and his mental habit had set in their mould. The portraits of President Van Buren show a pleasing countenance, with a full round face terminating in a double chin. He was of medium height, and faultless in his attire. His face habitually wore a smile graven not only by cordiality, but by its possessor's studied efforts to please. This was not a false index to his character, for it indicated quiet good nature. The face was saved from being commonplace by the shrewdness revealed in the quick searching glances of blue eyes. There was nothing in his appearance to indicate a reserve depth of character: nothing decisive nor discriminating. He was a man to be set to the mould of another rather than himself to influence and control. Yet, when once fixed in a purpose, it was easy to discern from his outward aspect that

he would be unswerving in its pursuit, if for no other reason than that he had a large degree of self-complacency, which made him feel that the thing he determined upon ought to result. His temperament was calm and discreet, his manners were gentle, and by these happy endowments he was saved the possibility of friction to the point of personal quarrels. A word with regard to the early characteristics of Van Buren as given by his biographer, Mackensie, may serve to reveal the direct derivation of certain of the qualities of his matured character: "Martin Van Buren, the elder, was a shrewd, cunning, clever boy-very fond of betting, gambling and card playing—a first-rate pleader for a small fee, in cases tried before a justice of the peace-very persevering in such branches of study as he found particularly useful-good at trading horses and making bargainsand endeavored to give some consideration to that branch of the science of morals called politics, at a very early age."

In order better to appreciate the acts of Van Buren's administration it will be necessary to consider his political training, which made possible the following characterization of him by the New York Evening Post, in 1841: "Mr. Van Buren believes firmly in force of management, or the cool, considerate, artful application of general propositions to the existing temper and opinions of the masses, as far as these can be ascertained. He simply deals with the collective opinions of men, as manifested by the representatives, or otherwise conspicuous individuals from or among the people, by means of certain easy rules analogous to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in arithmetic. He belongs wholly to the present time, and may be said to represent trading or business politics. He is the very impersonation of party in its strictest features of formal discipline and exclusive combination."

The basis of Van Buren's aptitude for politics was a legal training. In 1796, in his fourteenth year, he entered the office of a local attorney at Kinderhook. He served an apprenticeship of seven years, the time required by the State statute for

the study of law by persons without preliminary collegiate training. Several years more were spent in mastering his profession before he became counsellor at law. Van Buren in the meanwhile had been received into the office of William P. Van Ness, of New York, a politician with considerable influence in the State, chiefly remembered for having served as Aaron Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton. Van Buren, through Van Ness, made the acquaintance of Vice-President Burr and exerted himself to secure his favorable regard. In 1803, at the age of twenty-one, Van Buren began a law practice at Kinderhook, having as a partner Stephen Miller. He practised law for five years, and at the same time cultivated acquaintance with politicians and political methods, so that his assistance in the local contest was regarded as giving him a claim to political consideration, and in 1808 he received appointment to a county office. Four years later he was elected to the State Senate. His political activity at this time may be well expressed in the following citation from the New York Evening Star of October, 1834: "When we look at the career of Mr. Van Buren, we are astonished at his perseverance, his industry, his close calculations, and his active, untiring spirit. Ever restless and perturbed, there is no chance that he leaves untouched-no efforts untried. He travels from county to county, from town to town, sees everybody, talks to everybody, comforts the disappointed, and flatters the expectant with hope of success."

In 1815, the sober, calculating politician was elected to the office of attorney-general of New York and continued to hold that position after taking his seat in the Senate until he was deprived of it by the De Witt Clinton party in 1819. Van Buren was now a practical politician of a pronounced type; his position and influence were such as to lead others to court his favor. His party organ, the Argus, exerted absolute influence over the organization which had been built up in opposition to the Clinton faction. The faction thus constituted by Van Buren received the name

of the Albany Regency. By perfecting this political machinery, Van Buren obtained control of the State, and with it that degree of national consideration which has ever since been accorded to New York State leaders. The Democratic Review of July, 1848, referring to his controlling influence in New York State politics, as evidenced by his influence in the Constitutional Convention of 1821, in which he took a firm stand against the sanctioning of universal suffrage, says: "The scheme of State politics devised by him in 1821, through which he controlled New York, and, holding in his hands the electoral vote of this State, dictated to the Union, is still a subject of admiration and theme of praise to those followers who look upon party trickery as statesmanship and who regard skill in legerdemain as praiseworthy as great learning in the sciences. Party centralization at Albany, controlling offices as well as safety-bank charters, presidents, cashiers, and directors in all the counties, formed machinery which set every man's face toward Albany like a political Mecca, and working this machinery gave Mr. Van Buren his title to national honors." Van Buren's political adaptability received no better illustration in the course of his career than that furnished by his varying attitude upon the question of prohibiting slavery in Missouri. In 1810, no one was more valiant and virulent in denunciation of slavery extension than he. Such an attitude was then a stepping-stone to popularity. At the time of which we are speaking, just a year before the Constitutional Convention of 1821, Van Buren went with the State Senate and Assembly in their unanimous passage of the resolution of the 20th of January, 1820, which was as follows:

"Whereas, the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in these United States is a subject of deep concern to the people of this State; and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent further extension; and that the Constitution of the United States clearly gives Congress the right to require from new States not comprised

within the original boundaries of these United States the prohibition of slavery as a condition of their admission into the Union,

"Therefore resolved, that our Senators be instructed, and our Representatives in Congress be requested, to oppose the admission, as a State, into the Union, of any Territory not comprised as aforesaid, without making the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensable condition of admission."

Van Buren did not limit his adherence to anti-slavery views to the fact of his vote upon this resolution, but, in company with William L. Marcy, travelled the State in an active canvass for Rufus King as a candidate for the United States Senate upon a prohibitive slavery platform. King's campaign for reëlection was successful, and Van Buren also in February of the year following was chosen by the legislature as King's colleague and entered upon his duties at the convening of the Seventeenth Congress, on December 3, 1821. At the time of his appearing in the arena of the national politics the Missouri question apparently had been settled by the famous Compromise.

In the campaign of 1824, the aspirants for presidential honors were John Quincy Adams, who, according to the practice of succession as Monroe's secretary of state, had a traditional claim to be elected, and who was the candidate of the Federalists, and William H. Crawford, of Georgia, who was the Democratic caucus nominee. Other candidates, each having personal adherents, were Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. This number, however, was increased unexpectedly by the nomination of Andrew Jackson by the legislature of Tennessee. Through the acceptance by Calhoun of the vice-presidential nomination, the number of candidates was reduced to four. The failure of any one of the candidates to receive the constitutional majority threw the election into the House of Representatives, which gave its endorsement to John Quincy Adams. In this contest, Van Buren had given his support to Crawford, but failed to secure him the electoral vote of New York.