The Original Van Buren Boy

Martin Van Buren won’t make anyone’s list of America’s best presidents. But you have to like a biography that actually makes a contempory reference to my favorite sitcom, Seinfeld. Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer is part of the American President’s series and it is a worthwhile read.

A protege of both Andrew Jackson and Aaron Burr, Van Buren was the consumate politician, building coalitions among the north and south and enjoying a reputation as a teflon man until he was done in by the country’s first depression a few months after succeeding Andrew Jackson as president in 1837.  Are you paying attention Barrack Obama?

Considered one of the fathers of the modern Democratic Party, Van Buren’s biography is chock full of interesting anecdotes and is worth checking out if you are planning on reading American Lion or Nancy Isenberg’s wonderful portrayal of Aaron Burr, “Fallen Founder.”

One of my favorite stories describes a chance meeting in Rochester, Illinois in 1842 between Van Buren and Abraham Lincoln. Van Buren toured the country after the conclusion of his presidency and shared a stage with Lincoln one evening. According to Widmar, the  two swapped an endless supply of stories, each following the other in rapid succession.Van Buren later claimed he had never “spent so agreeable a night in my life.”

Lincoln apparently never forgot this night, as well. After Van Buren died in 1862, Lincoln wrote a gracious statement about the ex-president and honored him with a 13-gun salute at dawn. A single gun was fired every half hour until sunset, when 34 guns were fired.

If you have any interest in learning about the namesake of Seinfeld’s “Van Buren Boys,” this book is a good place to start.