Yal linnT'^'^V L,b 1 f?°2f^3685699 m^^ ;j,i Mr-," •- ¦V'- l!V> i I't I, YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of Mrs. S. H. Elliot THE LIFE MARTIN VAN BUREN, HEIR-APPARENT TO THE "GOVERNMENT,' AND THE APPOINTED SUCCESSOR OF AND FOB BALB BT ALl B O O K SB II. BK S. 1 8 3 7. (Kr IT was well known, at the time COL, CROC KETT was engaged in writing the Life of Martin Vani Buren, that it was his intention, the moment that work] was completed, to commence the Life of GENERAL JACKSON ; it has been generally supposed, that in the' excitement arising out of the political contest which occur red about that time, and in which he was defeated, and] which led to his fatal and ever-to-be-regretted visit to Texas — where he died, bravely fighting for liberty — he had failed to complete the work. We are happy to have it in our power to announce the recovery of the Manuscript, which had been mislaid ; and the public may expect, in- the course of a few months a Life of General Andrew Ja'ckson, which will cast into thfl shade all that have ever appeared, ' Colonel Crockett has drawn his information from such sources, that in after ages COLONEL CROCKETT'S I.IFS OF ANDHEIV JACKSON, will stand alone — the only impartial history of the Hen of New Orleans. THE LIFE MARTIN VAN BUREN, HEIR-APPARENT TO THE "GOVERNMENT," AND THE APPOINTED SUCCESSOR OP GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON, CONTAINING ETBRT ADTHEXTIC PABTICUI.AB BT WHICU HIS EXTRAOBDt- HAHr CHARACTEB BAS BEEi; FORMED. A CONCISE HISTORY op THir EVENTS THAT HAVE OCCASIONED HIS UNPARALLELED ELEVATION ; TOGETHER WITH A REVIEW OF HIS POLICY AS A STATESMAN. " Good Lord ! what is Van ! — for though simple he loolcs, Tis a task to unravel his loolcs and his crooks ; With his depths and his shallows, his good and his evil, All in all, he's a Kiddle must puzzle the devil." BY DAVID CROCKETT. SIXTEENTH EDITION. PHILADELPHIA ; ROBERT WRIGHT. and fob SAIE BT All. B O O K SE 1. 1 EH B. 1837. ^7-?8r Kntbkud according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by Robert Wright^ fii the Clerk's Office ot the District Court of the Eastern District of Penn* sylvania. C^-'- 21.^ Printed Iiy T. K. & p. G. COLLINS, No. 1 Lodge AUey, Philadelphia PREFACE. Statesmen are gamesters, and the people are the cards they play with. And it is curious to see how good the comparison holds as to all the games, the shuffling, and the tricks performed with them sort of books, as they are sometimes called. From " three np" to" whist," frgm a "constable" to a " presidint" the hands are alvsrays dealing out; and in both cases, the way they cut and shuffle is a surprise to- all young beginners. 1 The present "government" has been a great sportsman in his time ; and he has played at both games with equal siiecess : ' and not content with his own good' luck, he is atjtually giving ijfem in favour of another, and has so shiiffled and stocked the cards, that unless we can cut the pacjem the the right place, he will tiirn up a Jack upon the country. I Jiave gone fur enough on this hook to show what Ilmean:, the people are tricked and cheated, and what is worse, they are satisfied to stay so. If any one tells them that they are used by political 3 '4 PREFACE. gamblers as a blacksmith uses his tongs, they fly into a passion, and say it is all a trick to abuse Jackson If you ask them what it is that makes Van Buren fit for a president, and why it is that General Jack son has appointed him for his successor, they an swer, " he has been persecuted for Jackson's sake." Jackson, they say, has done enough, not only to reign himself as long as he wants to, but to say who shall reign after him. But the good of this joke is, these same people call themselves demo cratic republicans ! Republicans ! unable to choose for themselves, and consenting to give that right to a single individual. What think you of that ? We read that when the democratic republicans of France gave Bonaparte the privilege to nomi nate his successor, they became ashamed of their name, for it was too barefaced to keep it up after that ; and they called themselves the dutiful sub jects of that glorification hero. I make one reflec tion right here : if any member of the convention that formed the constitution had proposed that the president should appoint his successor, the motion would have been scouted out of the House; and yet that principle is now about to be acted out, in full blast, in the case of Andrew Jackson and Mar tin Van Buren. It cannot be denied. It is need- PREFACE. 5 less to say it is done by the will of the people ; law is nothing but the wi7/ of the people. The only difference is, the last goes through certain forms, and becomes fixed for a time ; but if it is a good principle as between President Jackson and Van Buren, it is equally so as between all future presidents and their pets, and ought to be carried into a law. Now, as little as people think of this matter, if this principle was grafted on our consti tution, it would change the whole character of the government; and instead of a republic, it would be a riglit-down monarchy, and nothing else ; and things ought to be called by their right name. There would not be left a democratic republican upon the face of the earth in all America. That fine party name that has gulled, now gulls, and will gull thousands of people, would have to give' place to another catch-word. Wonder what Maine and New Hampshire would do for their word " demo cracy." It would scatter 'em for a while; but I rather think they would rally under another af quite a different meaning — one that meant submis sion; showing a first-rate willingness not to think for themselves, biit to be ready to go or do, where or whatever a leader or deputy-leadei* might point or plan. I say, then, it is in vain to deny that if Van A 2 6 PREFACE. Buren is elected, it is wholly and solely upon the strength of General Jackson's popularity, and his having the good fortune to be selected by the old gentleman as his successor. He nor his friends plead no merit in himself ; there is no manner of good thing in him, and that he has no earthly chance of reaching the presidential chair but in and through the « greatest and best" What has he done that entitles him to such distinction ? His friends are so conscious that the people everywhere look upon him with a jealous eye, that they are either afraid or ashamed to come out with his name openly. Look at the Van Burenites in Virginia, where Rives and Ritchie are trying to smuggle him in upon the people. They won't come out flat-footed for him, but are moving on tip-toe, to catch the people a napping, and by-and-by they will hurra for Van Buren as the candidate of the great republican party, nominated by the Balti more packed convention, and that the democratic republicans must support him, to keep from di viding the party. In North Carolina it is the same thing ; although the office-holders and their friends intend to support Van Buren with all their might, yet they pretend they will leave the whole matter to a caucus at Baltimore, and yet they won't send anybody there who will not first pledge him- PREFACE. 7 self for Van Buren. What sort of a convention is this; filled with no other sort of delegates but whole- hog VanBuren men? Why don't the managers who send representatives to the convention, nominate him themselves ? They might as well do it as in struct their representatives to do it. Where is the difference ? No ; they know better ; they know that Van ain't the choice of the people, no how, nor of his whole party ; and they are afraid to try his chance single-handed, in the states ;i|they want the mutual support of several states, backed by the all-powerful influence of Old Hickory. Hence you ,see the Enquirer, the Globe, the Albany Argus, and all the little fry, coming out and say ing that Judge White's ofiering is in opposition to General Jackson's administration. Now, what has General Jackson's administration to do with the next president ? Don't this prove that Van Buren is General Jackson's appointed successor, and that White's daring to offer is in opposition to Jack son's wishes ? Don't it show that the people must not think or even talk about choosing anybody but the man selected by General Jackson's admi nistration ? And who is General Jackson's admi nistration ? Why everybody knows it is none but the office-holders ; they have got the government in their hands, and there they intend to keep it. 8 PREFACE. And the way they intend to keep it is by getting a president they can manage as they have old General Jackson. And the way they intend to get a president is by getting' up a caucus at Baltimore, filled with, and elected by, men of their own stamp. They intend to call this meeting a convention of the democratic republicans, and firoclaim with a loud voice that whoever they nominate must be; supported by the whole republican party, well knowing that Van Buren will be nominated, be cause their tools were sent there for that purpose, and that alone. Who else has ever been spoken of but Van Buren to be presented to that conven tion ? Has not every delegation or member yet chosen, been positively instructed to vote for Van Buren ? And who are these delegates elected by? Does any one dare to say it is by the peo ple at large ? Does more than one man in a thousand know any thing about it ? Is any time and' place specified, and the legal Voters for the president invited to attend and choose a repre sentative to go to Baltimore to nominate a presi dent for them ? I call upon the people in general to ask themselves the following questions: Who authorized these delegates to dictate to us who we should vote for as president ? When did we ap^ point them for this purpose? When and wheri REFACE. 9 did we attend to appoint these delegates ? Now, a satisfactory answer to these simple questions will soon show whether Mr. Martin Van Buren is se lected by the people as a candidate : and if he is not, let us hear no more about his being nominated by a convention of the people. I can tell you who appoints these conventioners — a .postmaster, a by- authority printer, or some such understrapper to the kitchen cabinet, and about one dozen roudies, who can always be pressed into any service when there is liquor; and then this goes forth to the world as an appointment made by the great demo cratic republican party. I know an appointment made by a meeting in one of the states, where there was but nine men besides the president and secre tary ; and this delegate was to represent seventy thousand persona. Call you this republicanism ? Wonder where such republicanism come from ! It ain't Tennessee notions ; and if it didn't come from Maine or New Hampshire — both great states for democracy- — it must have come from New York, where they don't count units, tens, hun dreds, &c., as they do in ciphering; but where they count one man for a thousand. I want to make another reflection at this place. Suppose a member of Congress should propose, at the next session, an amendment to the constitu- 10 PREFACE. tion, providing for the better appointment of the president and vice-presidentj requiring that the office-holders in the federal government, being the leaders and gainers of the party in power, should have the nomination of those officers ; and thfit it should be done by their directing little squads of petty-placemen to assemble the ^ro^-iAoj!?, politi cians at any time and place they, might think pro per, to choose a delegate to meet in Baltimore, to nominate, not a man from any given number of candidates, but a certain indiyiduaj then and there named by these aforesaid little squads^ and which they are ashamed to propose openly to the people in the state where they appoint their delegate, ex pecting to cram him down the people's :throats by force of party drill. Does any man believe for one moment that such a proposition would go down; would be listened to for a single instant ? And yet this is going to be the future mode of appoint ing our president, through all time, unless the good hard sense of the people set their faces against it. Will they not do it? Willthey consent to a prac tice which they would blush to see put into our constitution ? Why; the election of the president was and is a matter of more concern than all the jrthe?- things put together in our government. To iiave that straight and square, cost more pains and PREFACE. Ij solid work than all the other framing in the con stitution put together ; and now, forsooth, this great officer, upon w^hich the very gwmtion of the government depends, is to be chosen by the very scurf of creation, the very men— the office-holders and office-hunters — that was .guarded against by the framers of the constitution, as likely to have too much influence in his election! Now this contrivance is about to be brought in play in favour of the little gentleman whose poli- tieallife I am about to give to the public; and it is thought to be more necessary, as he is to have an opponent from his own party of equal talents^ and ten thousand times more honesty. The office holders see his danger, and they are moving hea ven and earth to beat offjthis opponent, who, by- the-by, is a full team harness of the broad strap, and well reined up. The matter is all arrariged ; the appointment of delegates is going on ; the time and place is appointed ; and Van Buren is to be nominated^no one daring to think of, much less mention, another candidate — by an unanimous vote of the cbnveniion. Nay, the cunning scheme h&s come to that part of the show where the " greatest and' best" anakes his appearance on the stage, to give efieet to the whole play. In a late lettei* which Genel*i] Jackson's kefepers have made him 12 PREFACE.. write to some reverend somebody in Tennessee, the whole matter is come out For a man that has as much resolution and fight in him as Gene ral Jackson, there never was one in any part of creation that was so easy to be duped. A child, much less sufeh artful skunks as he has about him, may impose upon him, and make him do any thing they wish, if it is not openly dishonourable, by just praising his battles, or abusing his enemies. He is all passion ; does nothing from judgment ; moves right on from the first strong feeling, aifd this is kindled in a minute, by just touching the strings above mentioned. His ruling passion is revenge. Some people think he acts from friendship ; but there is no greater mistake. If he serves anybody, it is to injure an enemy. Could his heart be opened and read, all his friendship for Van BUren — and it is greater for him than anybody in the world — arises from his hatred to Calhoun ; and the letter above referred to proves that fact, and shows that he is about to give up an old, long-tried, faith ful friend, Judge White, who stuck to him through all his tribulations ; helped to raise his fortunes from the beginning; adventurers together in a new country; friends in youth and in old age; fought together in the same battles; risked thp same dangers ; starved together in the same PREFACE. jg deserts, merely to gratify this revengeful feeling. And this is plain to every thinking man, because they must see that Van Buren is as opposite to General Jackson as dung is to a diamond. Jack son is open, bold, warm-hearted, confiding, and passionate to a fault Van Buren is secret, sly, selfish, cold, calculating, distrustful, treacherous; and if he could gain an object just as well by openness as intrigue, he would choose the latter. Now, how can such men sort together, if it is not accounted for upon some passion stronger than all the rest that usually regulates the conduct of men ? Yes, and this passion is revenge. It hears nothing, sees nothing, feels nothing, behind or beyond the killing stone dead of its enemy. Now let us go back to the letter. General Jack son is made to say by his managers to this afore said preacher, " You are at liberty to say, on all OCCASIONS, that, regarding the people as the true source of power, I am always ready to bow to their will [Oh, how submissive!] and to their judg ment; that, discarding all personal preferences, I consider it the true policy of the friends of repub lican principles, to send delegates fresh from the people, to a GENERAL CONVENTION, for the purpose of selecting candidates for the presi dency and vice-presidency ; and that to impeach B 14 PREFACE. that election, before it is made, or to resist it when it is fairly made, as an emanation of execu tive power, is to assail the virtue of the people, and, in effect, to oppose their right to govern." Any man whose sense allows of his going at large, will see, when he comes to look right close at this matter, that General Jackson could not have more effectually dictated to the people who they should elect as president, than if he had said " Oh yes" three times to all the good people of the Union, and then have proclaimed that " it is the will and pleasure of Andrew Jackson that Martin Van Buren be chosen his successor to the high office of President of these United States ; hereof, fail not, under the penalty of treason." Now let us examine the case. For six years tack, the Jack son party has had no other person in keeping for the presidency but Martin Van Buren. For the last two years, he has been the exclusive can didate, all the leaders of his party yielding to him an undis^ted right to the field. But the people hot altogether liking so well his character and his principles, knowing nothing good of him, and always hearing his name mentioned in connexion with tricks and juggling, they have determined to start a candidate of their own, independent of the office-holders. All at once the wire-drawers get PREFACE. 15 into a prodigious fidget about a convention; and they must have a candidate nominated by a conven tion. The man they have all along held up as their candidate, and who, they yet intend, shall be the only candidate on their side, must submit his pre tensions to a convention oi democratic republicans, no one daring to, oppose him. Well, a converitiQn is resolved upon; tim^ and place appointed ; delegates chosen, pledged to vote for no one but Van Buren ; the thing just as positively fixed, and the end secured, as if he had been nominated two years ago, when they first fairly started him : and then, behold. General Jackson, at the very nick of time when the project is all ripe, knowing his power and the servility of, his blind follov^ers, is made to come out to a reverend preacher, in all humility to the people, bowing to tlieir w;ill and judgment, discarding aU personal preferences, (by-the-by, if I have ever known General Jackson guilty of right down hypocrisy, here is the very instance, too plain to be.overlooked,) and saying that he wished it men tioned on " all occasions," that HE considers it the true. policy to send delegates fresh from the people to a general convention, for the purpose of selecting candidates for the presidency and vice- presidency; and this, after he knows such conven tion is packed and stocked to nominate Martin Van 16 PREFACE. Buten, the delegates all chosen and instructed to do that very thing. Can any thing be more bare faced ? And yet the people will pretend they do not understand all this. And as if the above was not enough to make the people stand up to their rack, he adds, " to impeach tha.t election before it is made, or to resist it after it is made, is to assail the virtue of the people, and to oppose their right to govern." Now, good reader, are you suffi ciently acquainted with the history of politics for the last eight years, to remember that at the first election of General Jackson, he and all his friends went dead against a convention, that they broke it down, and he was himself actually elected against this very " true policy" oi "fresh delegates" to a " general convention" ? What will honest peo ple think of such unblushing inconsistency? Is there no shame in the world ? Indeed, it would seem so, for nothing is too deceitful, now-a-days, to be used for political purposes. The people would not submit to a caucus — which is only an other name for convention — in the case of Mr. Crawford ; and it was fast going down to infamy until Van Buren and" his friends revived it In the second term of General Jackson, when he was un opposed by any one of his own party, (for cau cuses are only intended to setUe disputes between PREFACE. 17 uivals of the same party,) when, by reason of, serv ing one term, the honour of which he had acquired, without a convention, it was looked for that Ue, would try another — when, in finp, a convention was wholly unnecessary, so far as General Jackson was concerned — what doe? Van Buren and. his friends do, but gets up a convention to nomina;te himself for vice-president, and a candidate for pre sident that was already out, and known to every man, woman, and child in the nation. And, what was all this for ? Why, merely to re-establish the old instrument, so successfully used in New York tactics, of caucuses. This was to serve as a prece dent when he was to be brought upon the fiel|d : and now, a mode of electing candidates, contrary to the spirit of our government, opposed to. the interest of the small states, employed by a handful of interested and designing men, in which, not one in one thousand of the people have any agency^ regulated and conducted by office-holders, which General Jackson himself disapproved and repro bated six years ago, and over which; he triumphed — is the true policy to be pursued by the " friends of republican principles"! Wonderful ! I have been led into these remarks by the facts which will hereafter be presented in the life of the ndividual I am about to write, and which have had 18 PREFACE. nuch a singular influence in producing the present unhappy condition of the country. The following pages will show, that with all our bragging about the principles of our republican government, our government has no principles at all ; and that one little man, without talents, and what is worse, with out honesty, backed by office-holders, using the power and the money of the government ; who is a federalist to-day, a republican to-morrow, and a hypocrite always ; yet such a man can have the huzzas of the multitude splitting the air at every court-house in the nation. He may be against internal improvements out of New York, and yet get the West, that can alone live by it He may be in favour of the tariff, and yet get Maine and New Hampshire, that have always gone, or pre tended to go, their death against it. He may be against the bank, and yet get Pennsylvania, New York, and New. Jersey, that want it more, and are more benefited by it, than any states in the Union. But what is worse than all, he may be for internal improvement in his own great state, for the tariff, for a bank in New York, for abolition, and yet get the whole South, (with the exception of our gallant little state,) Virginia at their head, that has made so much fuss about state rights, strict construction, state sovereignty; and broke down one adminis- PREFACE. 29 tration by her uproar, and now is about to build up another precisely upon the same doctrines. Can a government have principles that has so little solid conduct as this ; that has two ways for every thing it does, and both those ways exactly opposite ? The life of Van Buren, if it receives the consi deration it deserves, if the people will give it the close thinking it needs, will be the most useful lesson they have ever read since they began the A, B, C of our government. They will see what great things come from little ones ; they will see how parties are formed and carried through the m,anual exercise among the treasury-chests ; the wheelings and turnings, in and out of office ; the marchings and counter-marchings, to secure the high j»^«ce.* ; the forming and displaying column, to , surround and protect the baggage wagons. They will see that one set of principles last no longer than to serve a purpose ; and that their dead oppo site will be taken up, in broad daylight, to put down the first : and people will hold up their heads under such barefaced inconsistency, not only with out a wry face, but without as much red on their cheeks as there is blood in a turnip. Many persons will take up this book with an expectation that they will be very much amused at my odd expressions, and hope to find a number 20 PREFACE. of droll stories to laugh at ; but they ought to recollect that the life of a man that is about to. clothe his country in sackcloth ^and ashes is no laughing matter; and though I could wish from my heart it was all a fiction at which we might laugh, yet I fear it may turn out to be such a fact as will put the Jaugh on the other side of our mouth. There are others, again, who will read it with such strong prejudices against the author, and such idolatrous worship — not for his subject, but for the MAN who makes him — that if every letter was Bible light, every word was gospel truth, and every sentiment was inspiration, read out by the. angel Gabriel, with the tongue of thunder, from the top of the reddest streak of lightning that ever split the blackest cloud of heaven, they would not believe one syllable of it. But there is one thing in which I think all will agree, that Martin Van Buren is not the man he is cracked up to be ; and that if he is made president of the United States, he will have reached a place to which he is not entitled, either by sense or sincerity; and that he owes bis good luck to the hangers-on of office, who, to serve themselves, have used the popularity of General Jackson to abuse the country with Martin Van Buren. PREFACE. 21 I have now only to say that I have given dates and places to all my facts ; mentioned persons and things connected with them that would belie them if untrue ; and the plain straight-forward manner in which they are put together, will convince every man of their truth, whose mind is not as stupid as a drunken postmaster, as deceitful as an office- seeking Congress man, as malicious as an adminis tration printer, and as infamous as a kitchen-cabi net scullion. Facts, and not fun, may be expected from these pages ; and I will venture to foretell that he who reads them will rise from the work with several more wrinkles to his knowledge than when he sat down; will rise instructed, if not amused. THE LIFE OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. The greatest thing in creation is curiosity. We are taught that it damned a world. And if the " Gin'ral," and Black Hawk, and me were to tra vel through the United States, we would bring out, no matter what kind of weather, more people to see us than any other three persons out of fif teen millions of souls now living in the United States. And what would it be for ? As I am one of the persons mentioned, I believe I won't push this question any further. What I am driving at is this : when a man rises from a low degree, and gets into a rank that he ain't use to, far above his old neighbours,^whether he rises by his talents or his tricks, his decency or his deceit, — such a man starts the curiosity oi the world to know how he .as got along, more than any other character in 23 24 THE LIFE OF all nature. Now I need not go any further for an example than to me and Mr. Van Buren ; we both come from nothing ; and we both prove that if the people were as cute as they are curious, they wouldn't find so much to admire in us as the fuss they make about us would seem to justify. There is this much, however, can be said in our favour, if there is nothing to boastjof ; it isn't our fault if the people make themselves fools about us; the more they honour us, the more ridiculous they make themselves. The folly and mischief which curiosity produces is not so criminal as that of malice, but it is equally fatal. We have had one president put upon us because he made himself a subject of curiosity, from one fortunate battle ; and this remark will not be thought envious, if any one will take the trouble to ask and answer to himself this question : Would he, from either his talents or former course of life, have ever been thought of for president, but for the victory of New, Or leans ? Would I ever have been spoken of for the same high office, but for my fighting under this same great " Gin'ral," which so raised my popu larity, it threw a bear hunter from the swamps of the forest into a hair-bottom chair, in the halls of Congress. And great as this change might seem to be. General Jackson will tell you it was MARTIN VAN BUREN. 25 no greater than his, or as little expected or de served. I, too, have been nominated for presi dent, and with as much seriousness as Van Bnren was at first ; for everybody recollects what a laugh was set up everywhere, but more especially in Georgia, when Van, by Mr. Crawford's influence, was only nominated for vice-president. The party opposed to Mr. Crawford in that state — I think they called them the Clark party — made all the game they could at it. They used to vote for him for doorkeeper to the General Assembly, and call him on their tickets " Whiskey Van ;" and now this same party goes for him for president ! ! I mention these things to show what curiosity will do, and that if accident or any thing else ever jostles a man out of the path nature put him in, from that moment the crowd rushes round him, like a fight in a court-yard, and they never quit him till they make a great man of him, and a fool of themselves. Such will be found to be the case of Martin Van Buren, whose life and character I am now about to give. Martin Van Buren was born in the year 178% at KiNDEKHOOK, on the banks of the far-famed Hudson, the river of steamboats and high banks, in the state of New York. He is about fifty^three C 26 THE LIFE OF years' old ; and notwithstanding his baldness, which reaches all round and oVer half down his head, like" a white pitch plaster, leaving a few wliite floating locks, he is dnly three years older' than I am. Hi-^j fWce is a good deal shrivelled', and he looks sorry, not for any thing he has gained, but what he may lose. This, perhaps, is owing to the chase in which he is now and long has been engaged. The curs oi the bank, and the office-hunting hounds oi oppo sition, keep constantly on the scent of him, and though he doubles in one place, and tacks back in another, which occasionally throws them off Ihe- track, yet the old hunter^ iuWy understand him, and soon get into full ir'y again. There is a curious likeness in the life and pre- ^lit standing of Mr. Van Buren and me ; and oui (iase must hold out encouraging hopes to all sorts of peo^lfe ; for, ifter our good luck and that of the *• Gin'ral's," nobody need doubt the ignorance of mankind, or the ease with which they can be ctuped. Mr. Van Buren's parents were humble, plain, and not much troubled with book knowledge ; and sS Were mine. His father hung out his sign on a post, with a datih on it, intended for a horse, and With the Words "entertainment for man and hor-te;" so did mine : for both kept little village MARTIN VAN BUREN. 37 i taverns. He has becoime a great man without any good reason for it; and so have I. He has been nominated for president without the least preten sions ; and so have I. But here the similarity ?stops : from his cradle he was of the nqn-cor^rnit- tal trihe ; I never was. He l^a^d .fVw^ys two ways to dp a thing ; I never haid but one. He was gene ^ally half bent ; I tried to be as straight as a gun- l^arrel. He couldn't bear his rise ; I never minded mine. He forgot all his old associates because they we^e poor folks ; I stuck to the people that made flie. I would not have mentioned his origin, be .cai(se I like to see people rise from nothing ; but when they try to hide it, I tliink it ought to be thrown up to them ; for a man that hasn't sou] enough to own the friends that have started him, and to acknowledge the means by which he has C^Umbed into noticcj ought once-in-a-while to be ,remind;e!d of the inire in which he used tp wallow; and I shall talse occ^ion herfeaJfter to speak of the style in whieh he now moves. ^ He has no pedigree that J can trace back farther than his sire. During the war pf the revolution, his father was considered on the ^Azg- side, while his uncle, his father's brother, was a Tory, and it was said, occasionally aided, as a guide to British scooting parties. I state this fact merely to show 28 THE LIFE OF the breed. As my friend Colonel Benton would say, this breed has always two hooks hung out, on one or the other of which they are likely to catch something, in beating up, or in drifting down. I rather think, by way of reflection, that whoever gets hung on one of Mr. Van Buren's hooks will be as sick of it as senator Benton declared he was of the hook on which Mr. Webster hung him up in June last. Neither Mr. Van Buren nor me had much edu cation ; but he is none the worse for that, if he don't pretend to more than he knows. A man should never brag of his knowledge ; and there fore I always let my writings, and speeches, and sayings do that for me, without ever hinting at such a thing. Self-educated men, that make a figure in the world, like what Mr. Van Buren and me have done, ought to have a great share of modesty; and consequently, I have declined two nominations for president But Mr. Van Buren ain't proof against these dazzling shines held out to him ; he lacks diffidence. He stands well with himself, and -thinks if he ain't fit for the office, he can make the people believe he is. The world is generally curious to know, when they read the life of a great man, what kind of a boy he was ; whether he gave early signs of what MARTIN VAN BUREN. 29 Jie has turned out to he. About this there are many rumours ; but as I do not wish to deal ,in the marvellous, my readers must excuse me if 1 de cline giving any of the prodigies ,of my Ji^ro in his youth, especially as anthentic. J 4p not wish to riik the credibility pf my narrative, by relating any pf these wonders as true. For instance, it js said that at a year old he could laugh on one side of his face and cry on the other, at one and the same time ; and so by his eating, after he was weaned, he could chew his bread and .meat sepa rately on the opposite sides r of his mouth; plainly showing, as all the old women said, that he had. a turn for any thing. While at school, he was re markable for his aptness; anditissiiid — but I. do not vouch for the truth of the report — ^thatat six years old he could actually tell when his book was wrong end upwards ; and at twelve, he could read it just as well up-side-down as right-side-tip, and that he practised it both ways, to acquire a shift ing nack for business, and a ready turn for doing things more ways than one. All this, however, I give as mere rumour, not doubting, as in the ca^e of most great men, these wonderful exploits in boyhood are ,i«am;fac^ured to me^t their fame when they -become great : and I now specially c 2 30 THE LIFE OF inform the public that there was nothing remark able in me throughout all my youth. What little education Mr. Van Buren got, he got it honestly, and always behavfed himself with great propriety, never being accused of taking any thing secretly from his school-mates. While others were breaking open trunks, and stealing their com rades' money, nothing of that kind was ever brought to his charge ; so that whatever other faults he may have, no such thing as this can be flung up to him at this day; and it is to be hoped there never will be a candidate for the high office of president, against whom such a slur can be brought, for it is an old saying, that " what is bred in the bone is hard to come out of the flesh." Mr. Van Buren hecame a politician at an early period of his life, and has pushed it as a trade, from the beginning to the present hour ; and no man has done a better business. He has met with as few losses and bad debts in his dealings, as any adventurer that ever commenced bartering; but he never believed in the doctrine " that honesty was the best policy," and now thinks the maxim entirely falsified in his success. To his notion. principle had nothing to do with traffic of any kind ; and he is astonished when any person talks MARTIN VAN BUREN. 31 to him of the impropriety of two prices to things, of two kinds of weights and measures, of altering the quality of, articles, and shifting their places, if necessary, as often as a man's interest may dictate. His rule is, as there is no " friendship in trade," so there is none in politics. Until the year 1812, Mr. Van Buren was not elected to any office, though he was always a seeker, holding some petty place in the county, from which he kept a constant look-out. There is another difference between us here: — ^While he was a hunter of bread through an office, I was a hunter of bears through the woods : while he was nosing his game among the grog-shops in the town, I was scenting (to borrow an idea from a poet) the wild deer on the sunny hills of the woodlands ; and I have now the comfort to believe, if it has turned me out less fame, it has taken nothing from my honesty. A pleasant anecdote is related of him when he was quite young. It is truly like him, and planted the principle upon which he has acted ever since. A warmly-contested election was coming on, and the friends on both sides, being men of influence, used great exertions, and became much excited ; our hero applied to quite a knowing politician for his opinion as to the result The answer express- 32 THE LIFE OF ing much doubt, young Martin, casting his eyejs wishfully towards the ground, said, « I do wish 1 knew which party would succeed, as I want to take a side, but don't like to be in the minority." He studied politics in the school of a Mr. Rial, a tobacconist This man lived in the same town with Van Buren, and generally took him along, when he went to Coyackie, a small village on the opposite side of the river, to electioneer. Rial was a great bottle orator, but not the man for making set, or rather Congress speeches. He has now re moved to the city of New York, and there employs himself in the evening, at some porter-house, re lating the precepts he inculcated upon young Van. The scholar is said to be altogether worthy of the master. There is no doubt Rial did much for Van, but says he was always a slippery i^o^. In April, 1812, Van Buren was elected a mem ber of the senate of the state legislature of New York. During the autumn and winter of 1811 (and as I am now going into facts, I wish the reader's par ticular attention to dates, and defy all contradiction of my statements) the question of war and no war with Great Britain was talked of throughout the whole country. The British party denounced, in terms the most implacable, the friends of war; MARTIN VAN BURES. 33 ^ they were particularly furious and malicious against Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, as the prime movers of the quarrel with Great Britain. In March, 1813, Mr. Madison's time of service as president would expire; and in November, 1812, electors of president and vice-president were to be chosen. In the winter of 1811 and the spring of 1S12 the British party, uniting with certain leaders who claimed to belong to the democratic party, became so strong that serious fears were entertained by Mr. Madison's friends that he would be defeated in New York. It ¦was at this time, April, 1812, that Van Boren ¦was elected a senator. He •was kno^wn to have no fixed principles ; and young as he was in politics, he had already given signs that though he mi^t be strai^t, yet he was none the w^orse for being watched ; and under this not very creditable notion, the democratic or Madisonian party elected him, believing he would act with them and sustain their measures. During the summer of 1812, the federal, or peace party did every thing in their power to destroy the popularity of ^fr. Madison, and to prevent his election, on account of his having recommended the ¦war. In June of that year, as everybody recollects. 34 THE LIFE OP war was declared, and Mr. De Witt Clinton, from a nomination just made befox-e, became the can didate of the federal party, in opposition to Mr,- Madison. He was nominated at a caucus (the famous method of managing things in New 1 ork, and which Mr. Van Buren ^ftd tKe New York Regency are trying, by a Baltimore convention, to fix down uponrthe fgderalrgovernment, to serve the future purposes of the great Empire State) in Albany, on the 29th of Ms^y, 1812. Mr. Madison was the regularly nominated candidate of the demo cratic or war party, as thp federalists called them, by a congressional caucus, which, notwithstanding General Jackson thinks jt is the "true policy,'* has been properly p.ut:,down by the good sense of the people, because there ig but one way to chppse the president, and that is pointed out in the con stitution. Mr. Van Buren opposed this nomina tion, as I will clearly show, though he now thinks one at Baltimore will be right Immediately after the declaration of war in June, the federal party in Van Buren's county, by his special recommendation and personal contri vance, held a meeting. James A. Hamilton, the intimate friend and counsellor of Van Buren at that time — and, as will be shown hereafter^ the same down to the present day, with the additional MARTIN VAN BUREN. 35 character of being a secret and confidential iftstru- ment in some of his itaaster strokes of conjuration — took a full-team part in that meeting, and managed it altogether up to his directions. On the 8th of July (mark the dates) the fede ralists published tlieir address arid resolutions-. They were signed by the aforeisaid Hamilton, and others of his and Van Buren's creed of politics. The following is one of their resolutions : "Resolved, that the war is impolitic, unneces sary, and disastrous; and that to employ the militia in an offensive war (that is, to enter Cana da) is unconstitutional." Such Were the doctrines of the Van Buren party in those days ; and yet, this man and his followers, afterwards, had the hardihood to assail Mr. Clinton and others as fede ralists and opponents of the war. Though this meeting was got up by Van Buren for the secret purpose of promoting Mr. Clinton's, and defeating Mr. Madison's prospects as to the presidency; and the iiiexpediency of the war, as it was hoped, was artfully selected to play upon the prejudices of the peace-loving people, to' serve that infamous pur pose ; yet at a future day it was found entirely con venient to forge all this, and brand Mr. Clinton as an enemy of Mr. Madison and the war. Don't this look a Utile like a magician ? 36 THE LIFE OP During the summer of 1812, the Van Buren papers — and mind, I do not mean the open and acknowledged federal papers, for there was a clear difference between them, and so known and con fessed at the time — continued to attack the war party with great violence. Let the reader bear in mind, the electors were to be chosen in the fall of this year ; and then let him listen to the following extracts from the same Van Buren papers, which, if any one shall dare to deny, they shall be pro duced. August, 1812. "An administration which enters into war without revenue, without preparation, and without plan ; or with preparation worse than none, pursues a miserable course," &c. October, 1812. "Madison has begot wai-; war begets debts ; debts begets taxes ; taxes begets bankruptcy," &c. " Clinton will beget peace ; peace begets riches and property; property begets harmony," &c. ' These extracts fully show the ground upon which Mr. Van Buren opposed the re-election of Mr. Madison, and supported Mr. Clinton ; and I want it to be constantly recollected, that in the beginning, no man was more opposed to the war, notwithstanding my friend Mr. Benton made such a monstrous fuss in his letter to the convention, in MARTIN VAN BUREN. 37 the state of Mississippi, that nominated him for vice-president, about Van Buren's support of the war, saying it was a long time before the good people of Washington city found out which was the greatest exploit. Van Buren's war speech or General Jackson's victory at Orleans. We- shall see by-and-by how this littie gentieman, according to his custom, twisted round to the war point, and how (as Mr. Benton wishes to know) he got the name of "magician." If I understand what a magician is, it is one who does things in a seciet manner, as if done by spirits, and so cunningly that human observation can't detect the conjura tion. Now, no wonder Mr. Benton and Tom Ritchie asks to show what he has done that entities him to the name of the " littie magician ;" they believing that he has done his tricks like a show- master, so well that they cannot be discovered. But I will show, before I am done, how he has performed his "presto — change and begone;" and request the reader to keep a look-out from this time forward, for he doubtless begins to see already all the parade, the shuffle, trick, and turn over of a juggler. As dates are -very important to the right under standing of the crooked meanderings of our littie politician, I must beg leave to repeat one or two D 38 THE LIFE OF facts already mentioned. It was on the 22d of May, 1812, Mr. Madison was nominated by the democratic party, in a congressional caucus — the best kind of convention, if conventions could be tolerated at all; for, being the immediate repre sentatives of the people for other objects as dear to them as that of appointing a president, and answer able, at the risk of their office, for their conduct, they would more truly represent, not only the people, but the party to which they belonged. As soon as this fact reached Albany, Van Buren had a call of the Regency, and a caucus was held, as before stated, on the 29th of May, only seven days after Mr. Madison's nomination ; and Mr. Clinton was then and there nominated — Mr. Van Buren being then a member of the state senate, and elected in the month of April just preceding. On the 3d of November following, an extra ses sion of the legislature was called at Albany, for the purpose of choosing presidential electors. At the same time Governor Tompkins announced in his opening-^message, that war had been declared against Great Britain in the preceding June. This message was calculated, of course, to call forth all the fight, if there was any, in the people, and the strongest feelings of regard for the spot where they and their children lived and prospered, and it MARTIN VAN BUREN. 39 might have been supposed would have called forth loudly from the legislature a warm and united pledge of support to the general government, dur ing the perils and trials that lay along the path of a raging and still thickening war. In those days it was the practice of the re spective branches of the legislature to refer the governor's message to a committee, to report a suitable answer to his conjmunication. On the part of the senate, Messrs. Wilkins, Van Buren, and one other, were appointed to draft the answer. It contains not one sentence approving of the war, nor of the administration; nor any pledge to sus-, tain the government ; nor any language condemn ing the conduct of that nation which had robbed our commerce, impressed our seamen, made cap tives of our people on the high seas, and was then waging a merciless warfare upon our defenceless women and children on the frontiers, through their savage allies. Not the slightest mention or refer ence was made to these topics, in the reply to the governor — a reply well known to have been drafted by Mr. Van Buren himself. It was all non-co7n- mittal on these points. The few remarks that were made on the subject of the war, and the aggra vating causes which produced it, are cold and neartless, and evidently . show, by such studied 40 THE LIFE OF caution and reserve, or rather sulky mode of es pression, that it was not acceptable to them; and they could not better have conveyed that idea, if they had come out in a bold, manly, and right- down confession of the fact The following is the; language, and all that was said on that point by Mr. Van Buren and his colleagues : " The senate fully concur with your excellency in the sentiment, that at a period like the present, when our country is engaged in a war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe, difference of opinion on abstract points should not be suffered to impede or prevent our united and vigorous sup port of the constituted authority of the nation." The careful reader will surely notice that this took place only four months after the declaration of war, and just before the election for president Such, as before stated, was the uproar and noise made by the federalists, or peace party, in the great state of New York, leagued as they were with some of the pretended democrats. Van Buren at their head, against the war and against Mr. Madison, for the purpose of electing Mr. Clinton, that it was confidently expected the war would become un popular, nay, odious to the people, and that Madi son would be beaten all hollow, and lose the state of New York out of sight This accomplished, MARTIN VAN BUREN. 4] Van Buren's fortune would be made right off, under Clinton. In and through Clinton, this little arch politician expected at once to rise into high office. And observe well his sly and cautious man ner in steering his course through the all-exciting events, not only of a presidential election, but of a war. As little as he had said on either subject himself, that little was liable to two faces, and had a double tongue ; notice the extract above given, about the war. But his principal plan of operating was by his friends and his presses ; these gave Mr. Clinton and his friends all the assurance he wanted, that Van was secretly at work for him ; and if Clinton had been elected, it would have been under the full belief that Van Buren was his active sup porter. But mark the issue : in the same month of the address above mentioned, the election for president took place : Mr. Madison was elected a second time, to commence on the 4th of March, 1813; the war, notwithstanding the violent opposition it met with in the north, became popular; the re publican party, then in power, were determined to support Mr. Madison and his war ; the whole face of thftigs were changed; the miserable intrigues of New York — a state famous for them, from that day down — being totally routed, behold, the little D 3 42 THE LIFE OF , magician tacked about, and very shortly thereafter gave indications of his intention to abandon his co-partnership with the federalists, or peace party, and to join the war or democratic party. Accord ingly, in 1814, he was again, by his own procure ment, placed on the committee to draft an answer to the governor's message of that year. Now com pare his tone and language with that which he used in 1812, and which has already been quoted. In answer to Governor Tompkins' message of 1814, he says, in reference to Mr. Madison — ^the very man he had opposed to favour Mr. Clinton, and that, too, on account of the war — "An admi nistration selected for its wisdom and its virtues, will, in our opinion, pi-osecute the war till our multiplied wrongs are avenged, and our rights secured." Does the reader see nothing of the Tnagician here ? Had any thing taken place since his other address in 1812, that showed, more plainly our " multiplied wrongs," or that our "rights" were more entitled to "security?" What made Mr. Madison's administration less wise or virtuous in 1812 than it was in 1814 ? I can tell you : the loss of Mr. Clinton's election, and with it the loss of rising to power through that hook. He saw, to use a figure drawn from' my own calling, that he MARTIN VAN BUREN. 43 had got upon the wrong scent, the game had gone out, and he determined to blow off his dogs and quit the drive, at least in that direction. I repeat, that hereafter it will be proven, beyond all contradiction, that " this administration, selected for its wisdom and its virtues," succeeded in op position to Mr. Van Buren's wishes, votes, and exertions. He did all in his power to defeat it. He leagued and voted- with the federal party in support of De Witt Clinton, against one of Vir ginia's favourite sons, James Madison, and endea voured to destroy his fair fame, and his administra tion, wise and virtuous as it was, by labouring to render the war odious to the people — a war that Virginia urged on and supported with all her might and main. And now Tom Ritchie is trying all the powers of his pen and the purse of the government to make the good people of Virginia vote for this same little man, for the very office of which he so artfully attempted to deprive Mr. Madison — the well-known choice of the republi can party — and impudently asks, what has Mr. VanBuren done to deserve the name of the "littie magician ?" But this is not all. After the peace, in 1816, he was for the third and last time put upon a commit tee to draft a reply to the gOvernor"'s message : and 44 THE LIFE OF now mark again his language. He says, " The war in which the nation has been involved, was not only righteous in its origin, but successful in its pror secution." Will the reader, among the reflections that must naturally come into his mind upon read ing this little politician's joro* and cons, (and I am told by a friend that these words mean for and against,) merely ask himself why Mr. Van Buren's first address, in 1812, just before he abandoned the federal party, could not have said that " the war was righteous in its origin ?" Was not that the trying time to cheer the people on to fight for their rights, and to "avenge" the multiplied wrongs of a desperate foe ? Why wait till the war was over to say it was righteous ? Did he not know what a powerful opposition was made to the war, and Mr. Madison, on account of it ? Why did he not, upon the first fair opportunity of lending his influence and his aid to put down such a reckless opposition, and to encourage the people to go in for their country and its rights, come out boldly in the beginning of the war, unite the distracted and disaffected portions of the Union, by making the great state of New York speak as it ought, and thereby bring about a speedy termination of that war ? No, all that could then be said was a milk- and-water, half-and-half sort of a drench, leaving MARTIN VAN BUREN. 45 it doubtful whether the water was first poured to the milk or the milk to the water, and purposely designing it to be immaterial which. No, no, this open, honest, and patriotic language did not sort with the views of the party to which he then be longed, much less with his own schemes. Their object was to bring their doctrines into play, and to recover the possession of the government, so unfortunately (for them) lost by the elder Adams. His object was to defeat Mr. Madison, and to come directly into power with De Witt Clinton, who did not originally belong to the federal party. These folks were using one another, not for a common purpose, but for totally different objects. If Clinton and Van Buren had succeeded, the federal party would have been none the better for it ; for as soon as these persons had discovered that the war was popular in the South and West, and especially in their own state, they would have gone in for it, as Van Bur^n did afterwards, and consequently would have left the federalists in the lurch. As soon, however, as Van Buren became recreant and false to his federal associates; he began to prate about our " multiplied wrongs," and a war that was even " righteous in its origin." But there is another view of Van Buren's sup port of Clinton that marks, in the most wonderful 46 THE LIFE OF manner, his deep and far-reaching cunning. In most of his plots he has a double purpose, or, as my friend Benton would say, "two hooks;" and in this case there is a remarkable instance. We have already shown one ; if Clinton succeeded, he ex pected, in all human calculation, to go with him into some high office in the federal government ; but if he failed, which many supposed he greatiy preferred, it would destroy his popularity in New York with the democratic party, break him down totally, remove him out of Van Buren's way, and then he. Van, would fling himself at the head of the party, and become master of New York for all future purposes. And it is amazing to see how the plan succeeded ! From that hour the state of New York may he said to have passed into the hands of Van Buren. For although Clinton retained, by an unforeseen event at the time, (the success and his pwsecution on account of his canal policy,) the popularity so eminently endangered, and certainly impaired by his opposition to the war and Mr. Madison, yet he, nor any one else, was ever after able to counteract the start which the well-timed summerset of Van Buren gave him on that unfortu nate occasion. It was the lucky path, from which he never could be diverted, that has conducted him to his present proud but undeserved fortunes. MARTIN VAN BUREN. 47 We will return now to the prcof of our hero's opposition to Mr. Madison, and of course, to the war ; for, as we shall see, he acted with the federal or British party, and they always identified the war with their opposition to the former. On the 3d of November, 1812, as before stated, the legislature of New York met at Albany to ap point electors for president and vice-president. In the evening of the 4th, a caucus of the member* was held in the senate-chamber, to nominate can didates for electors. The great question to be debated was, " Shall the' electors be men who will support the re-election of Mr. Madison, the true democratic candidate ; or shall they be men who will support the candidate of the federal or British party }" Great violence prevailed in the meeting. The war, thus far, had been unfortunate, especially on the New York frontier. The federal party in that state, aided by the New England junto, and the Clinton and Van Buren faction, were powerful. They had used the requisite means with great liberality, and their workings had told well upon the ignorant multitude of New York, who never had any opinion on any subject, except what comes from the Regency at Albany. The political waters being in great commotion, the froth naturally come to the top, and this gave Van Buren a chance to 4§ THE LIFE OF float upon the surface, in the midst of the scum. Nay, he contrived to lift his head even above the thickest of the drift, and became a leader in the federal ranks. Delighted with his accidental ele vation, his efforts against the democracy of the state, and the country at large, was keen and per petual. Red-hot with a fiery zeal in the glorious cause of peace and federalism, he delivered a prepared and studied speech against southern politicians and Southern interests. Of Virginia, the birth-place of Mr. Madison, and now the hot-bed of Van Buren- ism, he spoke in terms of mingled ridicule and con tempt, and scorched her ¦with the most sneering sarcasms; so that he has made the old, dominion, the land of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mon roe, Marshall, and a host of the biggest men that the New World has ever produced, fulfil the old Spanish proverb, that the more you kick a spaniel, the lower he crouches. Oh, Virginia, Virginia! well may the South mourn over your fallen greatness ! He drew a comparison between the war candi date and the peace candidate, and placed Mr. Madi son only among the second-rate statesmen. He de nounced, in strong terms, the policy of the general government, in plunging the nation into war. He MARTIN VAN BUREN. 49. declared the president and his cabinet unwortiiy the confidence of the people. These facts dare not be denied ; and I pledge myself, if they are, to pro duce living witnesses of the most conclusive credi* bility to sustain every word of them, I invite; contradiction ; and if it is not made, I claim for the statement the most impHcit.helief ; and though it may not affect such states as New Hampshire and Maine, yet it shall remain an everlasting re proach to Virginia, unless she renounces Van Bu- renism. Mr. Van Buren was replied to hy Gener