was shown when he promoted the elevation of Rufus King in 1820, or when he strove in 1838 to bring Washington Irving into his cabinet with small promise of gain to his doubtful political fortunes by such an "unpractical" appointment. As a statesman he had his compact fagot of opinions, to which he adhered in evil or good report. It might seem that the logic of his principles in 1848, combined with the subsequent drift of events, should have landed him in the Free-soil party that Abraham Lincoln led to victory in 1860; but it is to be remembered that, while Van Buren's political opinions were in a fluid state, they had been cast in the doctrinal moulds of Jefferson, and had there taken rigid form and pressure. In the natural history of American party-formations he supposed that an enduring antithesis had always been discernible between the "money power" and the "farming interest" of the land. In his annual message of December, 1838, holding language very modern in its emphasis, he counted "the anti-republican tendencies of associated wealth" as among the strains that had been put upon our government. This is indeed the main thesis of his "Inquiry," a book which is more an apologia than a history. In that chronicle of his life-long antipathy to a splendid consolidated government, with its imperial judiciary, funding systems, high tariffs, and internal improvements-the whole surmounted by a powerful national bank as the “regulator " of finance and politics-he has left an outlined sketch of the only dramatic unity that can be found for his eventful career. Confessing in 1848 that he had gone further in concession to slavery than many of his friends at the north had approved, he satisfied himself with a formal protest against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, carried through congress while he was travelling in Europe, and against the policy of making the Dred Scott decision a rule of Democratic politics, though he thought the decision sound in point of technical law. With these reservations, avowedly made in the interest of "strict construction" and of "old-time Republicanism" rather than of Free-soil or National reformation, he maintained his allegiance to the party with which his fame was identified, and which he was perhaps the more unwilling to leave because of the many sacrifices he had made in its service. The biography of Van Buren has been written by William H. Holland (Hartford, 1835); Francis J. Grund (in German, 1835); William Emmons (Washington, 1835); David Crockett (Philadelphia, 1836); William L. Mackenzie (Boston, 1846); William Allen Butler (New York, 1862); and Edward M. Shepard (Boston, 1888). Mackenzie's book is compiled in part from surreptitious letters, shedding a lurid light on the "practical politics" of the times. Butler's sketch was published immediately after the ex-president's death. Shepard's biography is written with adequate learning and in a philosophical spirit, which may also be said of a brief and appreciative biography that appeared from the practiced pen of the venerable historian of the United States, in his ninetieth year, entitled "Martin Van Buren to the End of his Public Career, by George Bancroft" (New York, 1889). His wife, HANNAH, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., in 1782; died in Albany, N. Y., 5 Feb., 1819, was of Dutch descent, and her maiden name was Hoes. She was educated in the schools of her native village, and was the classmate of Mr. Van Buren, whom she married in 1807. She was devoted to her domestic cares and duties, and took little interest in social affairs, but was greatly beloved by the poor. When Mrs. Van Buren learned that she could live but a few days, she expressed a desire that her funeral be conducted with the utmost simplicity, and the money that would otherwise have been devoted to mourning emblems be given to the poor and needy. Their son, ABRAHAM, soldier, born in Kinderhook, N. Y., 27 Nov., 1807; died in New York city, 15 March, 1873, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1827, and attached to the 2d infantry as 2d lieutenant. He served for two years on the western frontier, and for the next seven years as aidede-camp to the general-in-chief, Alexander Macomb, except during several months in 1836, when he accompanied Gen. Winfield Scott as a volunteer aide in the expedition against the Seminole Indians. He was commissioned as a captain in the Ist dragoons on 4 July, 1836, resigning on 3 March, 1837, to become his father's private secretary. He brought daily reports of the proceedings of congress to President Van Buren, who was often influenced by his suggestions. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he re-entered the army as major and paymaster, his commission dating from 26 June, 1846. He served on the staff of Gen. Zachary Taylor at Monterey, and subsequently joined the staff of Gen. Scott as a volunteer, and participated in every engagement from Vera Cruz to the capture of the city of Mexico, being brevetted lieutenantcolonel for bravery at Contreras and Churubusco on 20 Aug., 1847. He served in the paymaster's department after the war till June, 1854, when he again resigned, after which he resided for a part of the time in Columbia, S. C. (where his wife inherited a plantation), till 1859, and afterward for fourteen years leading a life of leisure in New York city. Another son, JOHN, lawyer, born in Hudson, N. Y., 18 Feb., 1810; died at sea, 13 Oct., 1866, was graduated at Yale in 1828, studied law with Benjamin F. Butler, and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1830. In the following year he accompanied his father to London. as an attaché of the legation. In February, 1845, he was elected attorneygeneral of the state of New York, serving till 31 Dec., 1846. He took an active part in the political canvass of 1848 as an advocate of the exclusion of slavery from the territories, but did not remain with the Free-soil party in its later developments. He held high rank as a lawyer, appearing in the Edwin Forrest and many other important cases, was an eloquent pleader, and an effective political speaker. He died on the voyage from Liverpool to New York. He was popularly known as "Prince John "* after his travels abroad during his father's presidency, War Bien * Walking in Broadway with Fitz-Greene Halleck the year before the war, he exclaimed, "Ah! there's Little Van and Prince John!" when I saw approaching arm-in-arm the silvery-haired ex-president and his handsome son. The former was perhaps the smallest, physically, of our chief magistrates, and it was a constant delight to his political opponents to designate him as "Little Van." In this respect, however, he in no way differed from the other twentytwo presidents, who without exception were labelled with more or less inimical or popular nicknames. Washington was called the "Father of his Country" and the "American Fabius"; John Adams, the "Colossus of Independence"; Jefferson, the "Sage of Monticello," and "Long Tom" by his political opponents; Madison, "Father of the Constitution"; Monroe, "Last Cocked was tall and handsome, of elegant manners and appearance, a charming conversationalist, and an admirable raconteur. accompanying excellent vignette is copied from a photograph by Brady, presented, in 1865, to the editor by Mr. Van Buren. Hat," from the circumstance of his being the last of the revolutionary presidents to wear the cocked hat of that period; John Quincy Adams, the "Old Man Eloquent"; Jackson, the "Hero of New Orleans" and "Old Hickory"; Van Buren, the "Little Magician," in allusion to his political sagacity and astuteness," King Martin the First," and "Little Van"; Harrison, the "Washington of the West" and "Old Tippecanoe"; Tyler, "Accidental President"; Polk, "Young Hickory," so christened by his admiring adherents of the presidential campaign; Taylor, "Rough and Ready" and "Old Zach"; Fillmore, the "American Louis Philippe,” owing to his dignified, courteous manners and supposed resemblance to the French king; Pierce, " Poor Pierce," pronounced Purse; Buchanan, "Old Public Functionary" and "Old Buck"; Lincoln, "Honest Old Abe" and "Father Abraham," used in the famous war-song. "We're coming, Father Abra'am, three hundred thousand strong"; Johnson, "Sir Veto" and the "Tailor President"; Grant, "Unconditional Surrender," and by his political adversaries the "American Cæsar," in allusion to his thirdterm candidacy and their claim that Grantism was a synonym of Cæsarism; Hayes, "President de facto"; Garfield, the "Teacher President" and "Martyr President"; Arthur, "The First Gentleman in the Land," and by his New York admirers "Our Chet," a contraction of Chester; Cleveland, the "Man of Destiny" and "Old Grover"; and Benjamin Harrison, "Backbone Ben" and the "Son of his Grandfather," the latter's hat being a conspicuous object in the campaign cartoons of 1888 and afterward. At the Broadway meeting referred to, the poet mentioned a pleasant visit to Van Buren at Lindenwald, where he had met Washington Irving, and that the latter had written the concluding chapters of his "History of New York" when in retirement there for two months after the death of his betrothed, Miss Matilda Hoffman. At that time (1809) it was the estate of Irving's intimate friend, William P. Van Ness, an eminent lawyer and jurist, who acted as Burr's second in his duel with Hamilton. The ex-president purchased the property, Halleck informed me, from the heirs of Judge Van Ness, and incidentally remarked that he had seen all the presidents except Washington, and had known most of them. The poet also alluded to the circumstance of Irving having been offered by President Van Buren the portfolio of the secretary of the navy, which, on his declining its acceptance, was conferred on the amiable author's friend and literary partner, James K. Paulding. Halleck on several occasions introduced the name of Van Buren in his poems, and in "Fanny," which first appeared in 1819, he remarks: "What, Egypt, was thy magic, to the tricks Of Mr. Charles, Judge Spencer, or Van Buren? A conjurer's fame for years has been securing." -EDITOR. Abraham's wife, ANGELICA, born in Sumter district, S. C., about 1820; died in New York city, 29 Dec., 1878, was a daughter of Richard Singleton, a planter, and a cousin of Will iam C. Preston and of Mrs. James Madison, who, while her kinswoman was completing her education in Philadelphia, presented her to President Van Buren. A year later she married Maj. Van Buren, in November, 1838, and on the following New-Year's-day she made her first appearance as mistress of the White House. With her husband she visited England (where her uncle, Andrew Stevenson, was U. S. minister) and other countries of Europe, Angeline Van Buren in the spring of 1839, returning in the autumn to resume her place as hostess of the presidential mansion. The accompanying vignette is from a portrait painted by Henry Inman. |