Martin Van Buren

**Martin Van Buren** (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States. 

Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1782. Van Buren studied law by working for the lawyer Francis Sylvester and in 1803 became a lawyer himself. In 1821, he was elected as a member of the US Senate to represent New York.

US President Andrew Jackson selected him as the Secretary of State in 1827. In 1832, Van Buren was elected Jackson's vice president, and in 1836, he was elected president.

Van Buren was the first president to have been born an American citizen since all of those before him had been born British subjects before the American Revolution.

Van Buren lost the 1840 presidential election to the Whig Party's nominee, William Henry Harrison. His father, Abraham Van Buren, was a farmer and a tavern owner. His mother was Maria Hoes Van Buren, the granddaughter of a Dutch immigrant. He is the only U.S. President who's first language was not English, but instead Dutch.

Martin went to school at the village's Kinderhook Academy, where he was excellent in English and Latin. He left the school when he was 14 years old.

In 1796, Van Buren started working in the law office of Francis Sylvester, a lawyer that worked in Kinderhook. Van Buren kept the office clean, copied documents, and did other jobs. While he was working there, he learned about law.

After six years under Sylvester, Van Bure spent a final year of apprenticeship in the New York City office of the lawyer William Peter Van Ness. Van Buren passed the New York State Bar Exam in 1803 and became a lawyer.

After becoming a lawyer, Van Buren moved back to Kinderhook to work as an attorney with his half-brother, James J. Van Alen, in 1803. There was no fixed term of office, and he would be there until the opposition party elected someone else to replace. Van Buren held the office about five years until he was removed on March 19, 1813.

## Political career and presidency
Van Buren represented New York in the Senate from 1821 to 1828. He left the Senate when he was elected as governor of New York in 1828. On March 5, 1829, after Van Buren became governor, President Andrew Jackson made Van Buren the Secretary of State, and so Van Buren was the governor only for two months.

From 1833 to 1837, he served as vice president, under Andrew Jackson, he succeeded John C. Calhoun, as he had resigned during Jackson's first term. Van Buren was also a leading member of the Democratic Party.

Just weeks after Van Buren became president in 1837, there was a financial crisis. Van Buren believed in limited government and did not respond to the Panic of 1837 in the way that many people wanted. Although it was Jackson's policies that were major factors that led to the economic crisis, many people blamed Van Buren for the economy worsening under his administration, in which his popularity declined. He earned the nicknames "Little Magician" and the "Red Fox" for his cunning politics. Despite Van Buren's poor foreign policy, his post-presidency is often regarded as successful, as he had committed to neutrality, avoiding conflicts with Mexico by opposing the annexation of the Republic of Texas, and resolved a border dispute with Great Britain, avoiding potential for war with the British. Due to his low popularity while in office, he would later lose the 1840 election to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison.

## Personal life
Van Buren married his cousin Hannah Hoes on February 21, 1807.

Van Buren developed pneumonia in the fall of 1861 at the age of 78, which made him bedridden. In July, 1862, He had a serious asthma attack and began to weaken. He died on July 24, 1862 at his home in Kinderhook, New York, of heart failure at the age of 79.

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