Martin Van Buren: A Great Man

Martin Van Buren was a very interesting person. He came from a poor family, but became a president. How does that happen? He was a good father and just overall a great person.

Martin Van Buren was born December 5, 1782. Both of Van Buren 's parents, Abraham and Maria, were of pure Dutch extraction. He lived in Kinderhook, New York. His family was struggling family with six children in the same house, Martin was the fourth. They owned six slaves and his step-father owned a tavern where a lot of government people came to, which is where Martin saw his first look into political business. People such as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were who inspired Martin.

Martin’s first job was a law clerk, his father called in a political favor and got

After taking presidency, Buren faced a diplomatic crisis with Great Britain. The problems began when a small separatist started movement in Canada sought to gain independence from Britain in late 1837. The movement failed so they moved to America and started recruiting Americans for their cause. Some of them began selling guns and supplies to Canadian separatists. Britian sent loyalists to attack those ships with the supplies, they boarded it, set it on fire, and pushed it over Niagara Falls. This raised tension in the United States to declare war on England. Instead of answering with violence, he he sent General Winfield Scott to the region to impress upon American citizens the need for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, and to make it clear that the U.S. government would not countenance adventuresome Americans attacking the British. Also, in early January 1838, Van Buren proclaimed U.S. neutrality with regard to the Canadian independence issue, a declaration which Congress endorsed by passing a neutrality law designed to discourage the participation of American citizens in foreign conflicts. Each of those actions had the effect of claiming the

Van Buren 's critics focused on his role in party-building and charged that his efforts were the work of a cynical, manipulative, and power-hungry politician. To be sure, there was some truth to these accusations: all politicians want to build their power base, and often do so by engaging in practices that are both deceptive and manipulative. This critique of Van Buren, however, is overly harsh and misleading. Declaring that the panic was due to recklessness in business and overexpansion of credit, Van Buren devoted himself to maintaining the solvency of the national Government. He opposed not only the creation of a new Bank of the United States but also the placing of Government funds in state banks. He fought for the establishment of an independent treasury system to handle Government transactions. As for Federal aid to internal improvements, he cut off expenditures so completely that the Government even sold the tools it had used on public