Van Buren and Polk faced pressure to rescind the Specie Circular, an act that had been signed by Jackson to boost the economy.

Van Buren opposed the annexation but in doing so lost the support of many Democrats, including former President Andrew Jackson, who still had much influence.

By 1837, after Van Buren had become president, banks were clearly in trouble.

His great-great-great-grandfather Cornelis Maessen van Buren had come to the New World in 1631 from the small city of Buren, Dutch Republic, in present day Netherlands.

Van Buren had been active in politics from at least the age of 17 when he attended a party convention in Troy, New York where he worked to secure the Congressional nomination for John Van Ness.

Van Buren had originally hoped to block Adams ' victory by denying him the state of New York ( the state was divided between Van Buren supporters who would vote for William H. Crawford and Adams men ).

Van Buren even had a New York journalist write a campaign piece portraying Jackson as a humble, pious man.

On March 5, 1829, President Jackson appointed Van Buren Secretary of State, an office which probably had been assured to him before the election, and he resigned the governorship on March 12.

In December 1829, Jackson had already made known his wish that Van Buren receive the nomination.

The phrase, which had previously been limited to regional usage with various possible references, was co-opted and popularized to mean " Old Kinderhook ", a reference to Van Buren based on the name of his home village in New York.

Van Buren had few economic tools to deal with the Panic of 1837.

To help secure Florida, Van Buren also pursued the Second Seminole War, which had begun while Jackson was in office.

Fighting was not resolved until 1842, after Van Buren had left office.

The 26 founding members came from the group of 32 members who had paid dues by March 13, including strip cartoonists Wally Bishop ( Muggs and Skeeter ), Martin Branner ( Winnie Winkle ), Ernie Bushmiller ( Nancy ), Milton Caniff, Gus Edson ( The Gumps ), Ham Fisher ( Joe Palooka ), Harry Haenigsen ( Penny ), Fred Harman ( Red Ryder ), Bill Holman ( Smokey Stover ), Jay Irving ( Willie Doodle ), Stan MacGovern ( Silly Milly ), Al Posen ( Sweeney and Son ), Clarence Russell ( Pete the Tramp ), Otto Soglow ( The Little King ), Jack Sparling ( Claire Voyant ), Raeburn Van Buren ( Abbie an ' Slats ), Dow Walling ( Skeets ) and Frank Willard ( Moon Mullins ).

Taylor defeated Democratic candidate Lewis Cass and the anti-slavery Free Soil Party, who had nominated former President Martin Van Buren.

Calhoun resigned because he had been dropped from the ticket by President Andrew Jackson in favor of Martin Van Buren.

Martin Van Buren had 170 electoral votes. William Henry Harrison and other whigs had 122 electoral votes.

Martin Van Buren had 764, 000 votes.

This election was unique in that electors cast votes for four men who had been or would become President of the United States: current President Martin Van Buren ; President-elect William Henry Harrison ; Vice-President-elect John Tyler, who would succeed Harrison upon his death ; and James K. Polk, who received one electoral vote for Vice President, and who would succeed Tyler come 1845.

This was the first time an incumbent Democratic president had been renominated since Martin Van Buren in 1840.

Many felt that Van Buren had been unfairly denied the party ’ s nomination in 1844 when southern delegates resurrected a convention rule, last used in 1832, requiring that the nominee had to receive two-thirds of the delegate votes.

Van Buren won a simple majority on the convention's first ballot but did not attain the two-thirds supermajority required for nomination.

Van Buren was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president not of British or Irish descent — his family was Dutch.

Van Buren was the first president born a citizen of the United States, as all previous presidents were born before the American Revolution.

Van Buren married Hannah Hoes, his childhood sweetheart and first cousin once removed, on February 21, 1807, in Catskill, New York.

Van Buren at first favored internal improvements, such as road repairs and canal creation, therefore proposing a constitutional amendment in 1824 to authorize such undertakings.

Martin Van Buren was the first real American politician and was also the first to use grassroots campaigning in his presidential campaign.

The first guy I met, sitting right across from me at my first dinner, was Raeburn Van Buren.

This was the first national election for Martin Van Buren of New York, who was put on the ticket to succeed John C. Calhoun as vice-president and four years later would succeed Jackson as president.

" Martin Van Buren was nominated for vice-president on the first ballot, receiving 208 votes to 49 for Philip Pendleton Barbour and 26 for Richard Mentor Johnson.

The United States presidential election of 1840 saw President Martin Van Buren fight for re-election against an economic depression and a Whig Party unified for the first time behind war hero William Henry Harrison and his " log cabin campaign ".

In the same year, the first court met for the county, known as Van Buren County.

Van Buren was first incorporated December 24, 1842.

The Brazil, Staunton, and Van Buren high schools were consolidated into Northview High School, which graduated its first class in 1985.

Mount Sterling was first settled in the late 1830s when George and Horace Wood established a sawmill and corn-cracker to serve the small farms of southern Van Buren County and the northern portion of nearby Scotland County, Missouri.

The castle built by the Lords of Buren is first mentioned in 1298.

Listed in the National Register for Historic places is the Van Buren County Courthouse, wherein the first election was held in 1837.

In 1893-94 the first bridge to cross the Current River was built at Van Buren at a total cost of $ 4, 500. 00.

In 1927 electricity first came to Van Buren.

On June 24, 1833, the staff and dignitaries including Vice President Martin Van Buren, Secretary of War Lewis Cass, Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, and many Massachusetts officials, witnessed " one of the great events of American naval history ": the United States frigate Constitution was inaugurating the first naval drydock in New England designed by prominent civil engineer Loammi Baldwin, Jr .. On March 14, 1975, the historic ship floated out of the dock — the last commissioned vessel to use the facility.

He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico ( the United States did not appoint ambassadors until 1896 ), a U. S. Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, and a cofounder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts ( a predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution ), as well as the eponym of Poinsett County, Arkansas ; Poinsett Highway, Poinsett Bridge, and Poinsett State Park in South Carolina ; Lake Poinsett in South Dakota ; and the poinsettia, a popular Christmas flower.

" Among the new ethnic immigrant populations to the United States, the Jews were the first to attempt to sway the government to act on behalf of their kin and co-religionists abroad ; with this incident, they became involved in the politics of foreign policy, persuading but not pressuring President Van Buren to protest officially.

The first section to be built by this company extended west in the vicinity of Van Buren Street from an independent terminal at Canal and Jackson Streets to Marshfield Avenue, and thence northward in the vicinity of Paulina Street to Damen and Milwaukee Avenues.