Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren was a man of many jobs before becoming the president of the United Sates. He was a lawyer before he began his route into politics (IPL). Once he became involved in politics, Martin was the New York State Senator, New York Attorney-General, United States Senator, Governor of New York, Secretary of State under Jackson, Minister to England and Vice-President under Jackson (IPL). Martin Van Buren had many political jobs before presidency. Most of his jobs would make him known about in the political world. During Martin’s president election was in 1836 and his main opponent was William Henry Harrison (Archives). Martin Van Buren won the election with a total popular vote count of 764,176 and William Henry Harrison …show more content…
Martin followed Jackson’s political views and maintained his policies. After following these policies there was an economic downturn, leading to the Panic of 1837 (PBS). Martin Van Buren seemed to think that Jackson had great political views and didn’t see the need to change any of them. Great Britain was very fond of Martin Van Buren and Martin wanted to keep it that way. Martin settled many arguments with Great Britain. One of them was when Maine farmers attacked Canada (History). He settled another problem with Great Britain when Canadians burned the U.S. vessel Caroline in the Niagara River. Martin had a terrible relationship with Mexico. Martin Van Buren declined to support the U.S. annexation of Texas. If he would have accepted the support it would have added a slave state to the union (History). While in office Van Buren had many people to help him with all of the decisions that needed to be made. Van Buren’s Secretary of State was John Forsyth and his Secretary of the Treasury was Levi Woodbury (Info). Also in his cabinet was Joel R. Poinsett as Secretary of War. Felix Grundy was Van Buren’s Attorney General in 1838 and Henry D. Gilpin in