The rise and fall of President Martin Van Buren

In New York’s Hudson Valley, within the village of Kinderhook, sits a beautiful property known as Lindenwald, as soon as dwelling to Martin Van Buren. And if you do not know who that’s, you are in good firm!

Van Buren was our eighth president, and the primary to be born an American citizen, which is greater than information Zach Anderson knew when he utilized for a job right here: “I needed to type of admit to my boss over the cellphone that I used to be solely 85% sure that he was even a president. So, it was not my proudest shining second!”

Ranger Zach has since grow to be an knowledgeable on the person nicknamed “Previous Kinderhook.” “He’s the one president who spoke Dutch as his first language,” stated Anderson. “Considered one of solely two presidents to by no means serve within the army or attend faculty; the opposite could be Grover Cleveland.”

And he is tied for being the second-shortest American president. “He stands at 5’6″ with Monroe, after which Madison takes the crown for being shortest, at 5’4″,” Anderson stated.

However within the facial hair division, Van Buren is second to nobody, with among the wildest facial hair to ever grace the White Home. At Lindenwald, they name them not “mutton chops” however “Martin chops” – sideburns that really defied gravity.

“They’re outstanding,” stated historian Ted Widmer. “They stretch out. If he could not declare vertical house, he is claiming some horizontal house.”

Widmer wrote a biography of Martin Van Buren: “I used to be interested in the concept of making an attempt to make an obscure president just a little bit much less obscure. I believe I succeeded in that very small purpose. I do not assume I made him well-known. In reality, it is fifteen years since I wrote the e book, and also you have been the primary individuals to have discovered me.”

(That is what “Sunday Morning” is right here for!)

Van Buren did take pleasure in a short second within the popular culture highlight, on “Seinfeld,” when Kramer took on a road gang named the Van Buren Boys, who even had a secret signal [eight fingers for the eighth president].

However, Widmer stated, in workplace, Van Buren was greater than a punchline. “Van Buren deserves credit score for inventing our two-party system, which is nowhere within the founding paperwork,” he stated. “In reality, the founders, most of them, stated it will be a horrible factor if we had events. And Van Buren comes alongside and says, no, these are a constructive good. When one social gathering will get too highly effective, it is good to have the opposite social gathering begin to stand up once more.”

Though he could have appeared to the manor born, Van Buren was really the son of a tavern keeper. A striver, he rose rapidly via the ranks: senator, secretary of state, after which vp to the unique populist president, Andrew Jackson.

However their personalities, and their photographs, couldn’t be extra totally different. Widmer stated, “Van Buren is brief and kind of stout; Jackson is tall and emaciated, type of a Clint Eastwood kind of robust man. Van Buren is rather more of a politician, and he is aware of everyone in Washington in a manner that Andrew Jackson doesn’t. So, Van Buren was higher at going out and speaking over politics and getting the Jacksonian program via Congress, which is part of being a profitable president.”

So, why is Van Buren thought of such a mediocre president? Effectively, you would possibly say it was the financial system, silly. Simply weeks after taking the oath of workplace, the Panic of 1837 set in – a monetary disaster that triggered a six-year despair. “It is unbelievable how briskly he fell, given how excessive he had climbed up,” Widmer stated.

It was throughout his administration that Van Buren bought his lavish (for the time) dwelling, with one of many very first, and positively most engaging, presidential flush bogs. “To have indoor plumbing was virtually type of unprecedented,” stated Anderson.

A hand-painted bathroom bowl, at that. 

“It is just a little excessive,” stated Anderson. “It didn’t sit effectively with the American public. And that most likely was the nail within the coffin for his failed reelection try come 1840.”

After which, Martin Van Buren returned dwelling to entertain and maintain court docket in his capacious eating room, which nonetheless has the unique wallpaper on the partitions.

[FYI, if you want your home to look like Martin Van Buren’s, this wallpaper, “Paysage à Chasses,” is still available from Zuber, the manufacturer.]

Van Buren would run for the White Home two extra instances, each instances unsuccessfully. He’d journey extensively in Europe, write his autobiography, and luxuriate in farming, fishing, and his household. In 1862, at age 79, Van Buren died, by most accounts content material.

Widmer stated, “I assumed he made level, which is which you could have a dismal presidency and a profitable life.”

     
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Story produced by Mary Lou Teel. Editor: Ed Givnish.

    
Extra presidential historical past from Mo Rocca: