Martin Van Buren was an American lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he served as New York's attorney general and U.S. senator, then briefly as the ninth governor of New York before joining Andrew Jackson's administration as the tenth United States secretary of state, minister to Great Britain, and ultimately the eighth vice president when named Jackson's running mate for the 1832 election. Van Buren won the presidency in 1836 against divided Whig opponents, the first president of non-Anglo-Saxon heritage and so far the only speaking English as a second language. Van Buren lost re-election in 1840, and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and an important anti-slavery leader who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.
The 1836 United States presidential election was the 13th quadrennial presidential election, held from Thursday, November 3 to Wednesday, December 7, 1836. In the third consecutive election victory for the Democratic Party, incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren defeated four candidates fielded by the nascent Whig Party.
The 1832 Democratic National Convention was held from May 21 to May 23, 1832, in Baltimore, Maryland. In the first presidential nominating convention ever held by the Democratic Party, incumbent President Andrew Jackson was nominated for a second term, while former Secretary of State Martin Van Buren was nominated for vice president.
The presidency of Martin Van Buren began on March 4, 1837, when Martin Van Buren was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1841. Van Buren, the incumbent vice president and chosen successor of President Andrew Jackson, took office as the eighth United States president after defeating multiple Whig Party candidates in the 1836 presidential election. A member of the Democratic Party, Van Buren's presidency ended following his defeat by Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in the 1840 presidential election.
The second inauguration of Andrew Jackson as president of the United States took place in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, March 4, 1833. The inauguration marked the commencement of the second four-year term of Andrew Jackson as president and the only four-year term of Martin Van Buren as vice president.
The inauguration of Martin Van Buren as the eighth president of the United States took place on Saturday, March 4, 1837, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 13th inauguration and marked the commencement of the only four-year term of both Martin Van Buren as president and Richard Mentor Johnson as vice president. Vice President and President-elect Van Buren rode with his predecessor Andrew Jackson in a small phaeton built from the wood of USS Constitution drawn by four gray horses. This was the first time that the outgoing and incoming president rode together to the Capitol. Van Buren would become the last sitting vice president to be inaugurated as president through an election until George H. W. Bush in 1989.
The 1840 Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland, from May 5 to May 6. The Democratic Party re-nominated President Martin Van Buren by acclamation, but failed to select a nominee for vice president. Van Buren is the only major party presidential nominee since the ratification of the 12th Amendment to seek election without a running mate. Dragged down by the unpopularity of the Panic of 1837, Van Buren was defeated by the Whig Party's ticket in the 1840 presidential election.
The 1810 State of the Union Address was given during the first term of President James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. It was given on Wednesday, December 5, 1810 in Washington, D.C. It was "concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their edicts against our neutral commerce." It was addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives, it was given right before the War of 1812 began. It was given to the 11th United States Congress, which contains both Houses.
The 1929 State of the Union Address was given by Herbert Hoover, the 31st United States President on Tuesday, December 3, 1929, to both houses of the 71st United States Congress. This is the first State of the Union Address that Herbert Hoover would give to the Congress, and the 1929 Stock Market Crash had just begun. He said,
The 1914 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th United States president, on Tuesday, December 8, 1914, to both houses of 63rd United States Congress. He concluded it with, "To develop our life and our resources; to supply our own people, and the people of the world as their need arises, from the abundant plenty of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own States and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and our factories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our character,-this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind."
The 1901 State of the Union Address was given on Tuesday, December 3, 1901, by the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. It was presented to both houses of the 57th United States Congress, but he was not present. He stated, "The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity. On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died in that city on the fourteenth of that month." He concluded it with, "Indeed, from every quarter of the civilized world we received, at the time of the President's death, assurances of such grief and regard as to touch the hearts of our people. In the midst of our affliction we reverently thank the Almighty that we are at peace with the nations of mankind; and we firmly intend that our policy shall be such as to continue unbroken these international relations of mutual respect and good will."
The 1897 State of the Union Address was written on Monday, December 6, 1897, by President William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. It was his first State of the Union Address, and was read to both houses of the 55th United States Congress. He began with, "A matter of genuine satisfaction is the growing feeling of fraternal regard and unification of all sections of our country, the incompleteness of which has too long delayed realization of the highest blessings of the Union. The spirit of patriotism is universal and is ever increasing in fervor." It took time for the Southern states to feel united with the Northern states, and for the Western states to feel united with the eastern states.
The 1891 State of the Union Address was written by Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States. It was to both houses of the 52nd United States Congress on Wednesday, December 9, 1891, by a clerk. He said, "The vista that now opens to us is wider and more glorious than ever before. Gratification and amazement struggle for supremacy as we contemplate the population, wealth, and moral strength of our country."
The 1801 State of the Union Address was written by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, on Tuesday, December 8, 1801. It was his first annual address, and it was presented in Washington, D.C, by a clerk. He did not speak it to the 7th United States Congress, because he thought that would make him seem like a king. He said, "Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts which tend to increase our comforts." During the address Jefferson proclaimed the Washington Doctrine of Unstable Alliances.
The 1912 State of the Union Address was given on Tuesday, December 3, 1912. It was written by William H. Taft, the 27th president of the United States. He stated, "The position of the United States in the moral, intellectual, and material relations of the family of nations should be a matter of vital interest to every patriotic citizen." He said, "Our small Army now consists of 83,809 men, excluding the 5,000 Philippine scouts. Leaving out of consideration the Coast Artillery force, whose position is fixed in our various seacoast defenses, and the present garrisons of our various insular possessions, we have to-day within the continental United States a mobile Army of only about 35,000 men. This little force must be still further drawn upon to supply the new garrisons for the great naval base which is being established at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands, and to protect the locks now rapidly approaching completion at Panama."
The 1875 State of the Union Address was given by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States on Tuesday, December 7, 1875. It was written by him, but not presented to the 44th United States Congress by him. He said, "In submitting my seventh annual message to Congress, in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people, it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies, one hundred years ago. We were then a people numbering only 3,000,000. Now we number more than 40,000,000. Then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil. Now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country." The Industrial Revolution had begun.
The 1796 State of the Union Address was given by George Washington, the first president of the United States, on Wednesday, December 7, 1796. It was given in Congress Hall, Philadelphia. He gave it directly to Congress. He began with, "In recurring to the internal situation of our country since I had last the pleasure to address you, I find ample reason for a renewed expression of that gratitude to the Ruler of the Universe which a continued series of prosperity has so often and so justly called forth." He ended with, "God's providential care may still be extended to the United States, that the virtue and happiness of the people may be preserved, and that the Government which they have instituted for the protection of their liberties may be perpetual."
The 1836 State of the Union Address was given by Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, on December 5, 1836. He did not personally deliver the address to the 24th United States Congress, but a clerk did. He concluded it with, "All that has occurred during my Administration is calculated to inspire me with increased confidence in the stability of our institutions; and should I be spared to enter upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age and infirm health and so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not cease to invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already so signally indebted for the continuance of His blessings on our beloved country."
The 1852 State of the Union Address was given by the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, on Monday, December 6, 1852. It was spoken to the 32nd United States Congress by a clerk, not the president. He said, "Besides affording to our own citizens a degree of prosperity of which on so large a scale I know of no other instance, our country is annually affording a refuge and a home to multitudes, altogether without example, from the Old World. We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children."
This is a select bibliography of Post World War II books and journal articles about Martin Van Buren, an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841.
