Martin van Buren was Andrew Jackson's vice president and successor. As president, he faced the Panic of 1837 economic crisis without the ability to control national finances as Jackson had dissolved the Second Bank. Unemployment rose to over 30% in the Northeast. Van Buren denied requests to reduce land prices in the West to help alleviate problems. Meanwhile, American settlers in Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1835 after Mexico banned further settlement and increased taxes on slaveholders. Van Buren denied Texas's request to join the Union in 1837 to avoid upsetting the balance of slave and free states. His failure to help unemployed Americans led to his defeat in the 1840 election.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 11: Martin van Buren

2. VAN BUREN’S
MAJOR ISSUES
The Panic of 1837
The rise of the Whig Party
The Amistad case and trial

3. MARTIN VAN BUREN
• Andrew Jackson’s Vice
President from 1832 onwards.
• Received Jackson’s personal
endorsement to run for election
as President, since Jackson
wanted to protect his legacy.
• Represented generational
change in American politics,
being the first President born
after American independence.
• Represented cultural change,
coming from New York with
Dutch heritage and with Dutch
as his first language.

4. THE PANIC OF 1837
• Early in Van Buren’s Presidential
term, the United States suffered
an economic downturn that
would be its worst until the
Great Depression of the 1920s.
• Banks collapsed, businesses
went bankrupt, unemployment
reached more than thirty per
cent in the northeast…
• Van Buren had no way of
controlling national finances
because Jackson had let the
Second Bank dissolve.
• The downturn lasted five years.

5. THE LAND OF
OPPORTUNITY
• To help alleviate the pain of the
economic downturn, some
people began looking towards
the unsettled lands of the West.
• The political activist and
newspaper editor Horace
Greeley urged the federal
government to reduce the price
of western lands and urged
young, unemployed men to
move west and start new, self-
reliant lives for themselves.
• Greeley: “Go West, young man,
go forth into the country...”

6. THE LAND OF
OPPORTUNITY
• Going West as a way of
escaping hardships in the
‘overpopulated’ east came to
be known as the safety-valve
theory of Western settlement.
• According to this theory, the
‘excess’ population of the east
could be diverted to the West in
the same way that a safety-
valve diverts steam from an
overheating engine.
• Van Buren denied popular
requests to reduce the price of
land in the West.

7. MEANWHILE,
IN MEXICO...
• In the early nineteenth century,
Mexico tried to increase its
population by offering cheap
land to settlers from the United
States. Most of this land was in
the Mexican state of Texas.
• In 1830, when American
settlers made up a majority of
the population of Texas, the
President of Mexico banned
further settlement, increased
taxes on settlers, and ordered
the slaveholding settlers to
comply with a nationwide
prohibition on slavery.

8. MEANWHILE,
IN MEXICO...
• In response, Texas declared
independence from Mexico in
1835. Under the leadership of
Sam Houston, the Texian Army
won a war for independence in
1836. Texas became a republic.
• In 1837, despite the economic
downturn in America, Texas
petitioned Van Buren for
admission into the Union.
• Van Buren denied the request,
sensing the difficulties it would
pose for maintaining a balance
between slave states and free
states, and for maintaining
peaceful relations with Mexico.

9. NO HELP FOR
THE MORMONS
• In 1839, Joseph Smith
personally visited Van Buren to
request federal military
assistance for the Mormons
who were being persecuted by
the state of Missouri.
• After 20,000 Mormons settled in
Independence, Missouri, the
Governor of Missouri ordered
state forces to move against
them and drive them out.
• Van Buren admitted that Smith’s
request was valid, but he turned
him down for fear of losing
Missouri in the election of 1840.

10. THE AMISTAD
UPRISING (1839)
• Aboard the Amistad, a Spanish
slave ship leaving Cuba, the
slaves rose up against the crew
under the leadership of a man
named Joseph Cinqué.
• The slaves were unable to
navigate back to their native
Sierra Leone and the ship was
captured off Long Island.
• The slaves protested that they
had been taken into slavery
illegally by the Spanish.
• They received legal assistance
from American abolitionists.

11. THE AMISTAD CASE
(1840-1841)
• Towards the end of Van Buren’s
Presidential term, the Amistad
case went to the Supreme
Court. The slaves argued that
they should be returned to
Sierra Leone while the Spanish
Government argued that they
were legally obtained property.
• Van Buren sided with the
Spanish Government.
• The defense lawyers persuaded
John Quincy Adams to argue
their case. He delivered a
powerful Supreme Court
oration that helped them to win.

12. MARTIN VAN BUREN
• The poor economy, and the
government’s failure to help
unemployed Americans rebuild
their lives, led to Van Buren’s
electoral defeat in 1840.
• In a time of economic disaster,
the laissez-faire approach of
the Democratic Party did not
provide solutions for the
economic recovery of either
the nation or its people.
• The Democrats were quickly
eclipsed by the Whig Party...

13. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 11: Martin van Buren