America at 250 Series
Martin Van Buren was born in 1782 in Kinderhook, New York, the son of a Dutch tavern keeper. He grew up listening to politicians argue over his father’s ale, and he learned early that a careful man could move further than a loud one. He was the first president born a citizen of the United States. English was his second language.
He was small, dapper, and shrewd — they called him the Little Magician. He built the first true political machine in America, helped put Andrew Jackson in the White House, and rode the same machine into it himself in 1837.
Then the economy collapsed. The Panic of 1837 swallowed his presidency, and he lost reelection in a landslide to a man who campaigned in a log cabin.
He ran again, twice, on an antislavery ticket. He lost. He died at Kinderhook in 1862, as the country he had built was tearing itself apart.
