Line #39 UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pic_1178059735.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Dig those [[{{Pun}} righteous chops]]!]]
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4	->''"Van Buren served one term, but he wasn't bad."''
5	-->-- "The Presidents", by '''Music/JonathanCoulton'''.
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7	Martin/Maarten Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates (serving from [[UsefulNotes/AntebellumAmerica 1837 to 1841]]), and the second from the Democratic Party, after UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson and before Whig president UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison. He was the first president born after [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution America declared its independence]] (which UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} recognized when he was an infant), and unlike his British-descended predecessors, he was from the Dutch-speaking people who originally colonized the Hudson River Valley on both sides of his family, nicknamed the Knickerbockers (the New York Knicks basketball team derives its name from these settlers). His primary language, naturally, was Dutch, making him the only president whose first language wasn't English. Van Buren, having had no ancestry from the British Isles, also has the distinction of being the only president not descended from UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland,[[note]]Yes, even UsefulNotes/BarackObama is descended from King John -- remember, his ''mother'' was a white girl from Kansas.[[/note]] although like all his predecessors and successors, he ''was'' descended from [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William the Conqueror]]. He was also famous for possessing HotbloodedSideburns.[[note]]Though they wouldn't have been called sideburns at the time ... that would have to wait for a certain self-admittedly only half-competent [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Union general]] ...[[/note]]
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9	He started as a lawyer and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState state]] politician. Following UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams' victory in the 1824 election, Van Buren and his allies got together and created the Democratic Party to support UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson.[[note]]This was a GenreTurningPoint in American politics: the Democratic-Republican Party had become basically the only national party in the republic by now, culminating in UsefulNotes/JamesMonroe's unchallenged re-election in 1820. Adams, Jackson, UsefulNotes/HenryClay, and William Crawford were all Democrat-Republicans when they ran in 1824. Van Buren advocated competitive political contests between ideas and ideals more than personalities or regionalism.[[/note]] Van Buren effectively ran the new party from behind the scenes and made it the new leading political party in the nation. Before becoming president, he served as a senator, the governor of New York, Secretary of State, ambassador to the United Kingdom, and finally Jackson's vice president. Along with UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, he is the only American who has served as Secretary of State, vice president, and president.
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11	His nickname while running for president was "Old Kinderhook" (he was born, and died, in Kinderhook, New York), and his election campaign was known as "the Democratic O.K. Club". While the term "O.K." had been known for a few years, it seems to have been popularized by the election campaign. Van Buren won a relatively comfortable electoral victory, mostly because opposition to the Democratic Party was still in flux, resulting in the nascent Whig Party running ''four'' different candidates against him; in retrospect, however, the result[[note]](As fragmented as the Whigs were, they still came within just a few thousand votes of denying Van Buren a majority in the electoral college. Van Buren would still have won the resulting contingent election in the House of Representatives, but the Whigs quickly realized that had their campaign been better-organized and united behind one candidate, they would have probably defeated Van Buren -- which they would succeed in doing four years later)[[/note]] served to paper over cracks which had been building up in the latter years of Jackson's tenure, and would ultimately sink Van Buren's presidency after just one term. In office, Van Buren could scarcely have been more different from [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership his hard-assed predecessor.]] His public image was of an effete intellectual, and opponents criticized him for serving "unmanly" food like strawberries and celery in TheWhiteHouse.
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13	While a [[TheChessmaster shrewd, brilliant political operator]] and a very decent man, he had the misfortune to oversee a period of economic hardship. Unable to stop the stinging downturn (caused at least partially by Jackson's disbandment of the Bank of the United States), his political enemies gave him the EmbarrassingNickname "Martin Van Ruin". This was just one of many domestic issues whereon he ended up on the losing end. Disputes between America and British UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} nearly led to war, with many criticizing his supposedly weak stance on the issue. He also denied the newly-created Republic of UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}' first request for American annexation on the understandable but unpopular grounds that it would strain relations between the North and South. The ''Film/{{Amistad}}'' trial occurred during his presidency; he supported giving the kidnapped slaves back to UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}. Also, [[MisBlamed contrary to how most people remember it]], the forced and bloody relocation of the Cherokee to reservations west of the Mississippi River (an event known as the "Trail of Tears") happened under Van Buren's presidency, not Jackson's, though Jackson was the one who put the whole thing in motion.
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15	Widely unpopular, Van Buren lost reelection in 1840. When he left office, he said "As to the presidency, [[OldShame the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it]]." On a side note, in 1839, he became the first sitting president to grant an exclusive interview to a reporter (James Gordon Bennett, Sr., of the ''New York Herald'').
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17	He tried to regain the Democratic nomination for the following election in 1844, though ultimately dropped out to help UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk secure the nomination over Van Buren's ArchEnemy, Lewis Cass. Cass was nominated when Polk declined to seek re-election in 1848, so Van Buren decided to [[StartMyOwn form his own party]], the antislavery Free Soil Party, to split the vote and prevent Cass from getting elected. In this goal, he succeeded, splitting the vote in his native New York (which, at the time, was usually the decisive state in presidential elections) and throwing the election to Whig candidate UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor. Not only did Van Buren get the satisfaction of putting in a relatively good performance for a third-party candidate with a poorly-received presidential tenure already on his résumé, but his performance helped demonstrate the strength of the anti-slavery movement.
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19	He personally opposed slavery, but as president he was willing to let it continue since the Constitution justified it. He had personally owned a slave who escaped in 1814 and whom he didn't pursue too actively. While initially skeptical of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, Van Buren would praise his handling of [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar the war effort]] not long before he died.
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21	Martin Van Buren was the last sitting vice president to be elected president for 152 years -- the next would be UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush. Coincidentally, he also followed [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan a popular two-term president]] and lost reelection largely due to a weak economy. And not only did he outlive his four immediate successors[[note]]Ninth president UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison died a month into his presidency in 1841, Eleventh president UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk died mere months after leaving office in 1849, Twelfth president UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor died in office in 1850, and tenth president UsefulNotes/JohnTyler died half a year before Buren, in January 1862.[[/note]], he also saw more successors ascend to the presidency than any other president to date, dying after Lincoln had been sworn in as the 16th president (39th President UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter has since come the closest, living to see UsefulNotes/JoeBiden elected as the 46th President).
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24	%%!!Tropes as portrayed in fiction:
25
26	!!Van Buren in fiction:
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28	* In an episode of ''Series/TheMonkees'' entitled "Dance, Monkee, Dance", Martin Van Buren is the answer to a trivia question entitling callers to a free dance lesson. Later in the episode, Van Buren himself shows up for the lesson.
29	* In Creator/GoreVidal's novel ''Burr'', Van Buren is secretly the illegitimate son of Aaron Burr.
30	* In the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Van Buren Boys," Kramer and George are threatened by a street gang called the Van Buren Boys with [[NumerologicalMotif the secret sign of the number 8]] because Van Buren was the eighth president. They apparently picked that name because Van Buren was the man they most admired. The gang is apparently "every bit as mean as he was".
31	* In the 2000 PBS documentary series ''The American President'', Van Buren's voice was provided by Mario Cuomo. In the 1997 film ''Film/{{Amistad}}'', he was played, more conventionally, by Nigel Hawthorne.
32	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington", Krusty is assigned petty janitorial jobs in his first term in the House. One of them is to clean off "Capitol Hill graffiti", reading "Martin Van Buren is a wiener", followed by:
33	-->'''Krusty''': UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland sucks ''what?!''\
34	'''Walter Mondale''': Leave that. Lest we forget.
35	* In an episode of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'', Little Pete gets a piece of cereal that resembles Martin Van Buren stuck in his nostril.
36	* In ''Film/{{The Alamo\|2004}}'', Martin Van Buren appears uncredited with another character portraying UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson during the scene at UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Van Buren is talking to Sam Houston (Creator/DennisQuaid) while Jackson stands beside him.
37	* On the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/SoulTaker'', we see towards the start of the episode a fuzzy TV screen with a picture of him and Crow T. Robot says it's Martin Van Buren.
38	* He appeared as a character in the podcast ''RPPR'' in the episode "Dodgeball to Save the World" with electricity, liquid and portal powers.
39	* [[VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren "Project Van Buren"]] was the code name of an early version of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', when it was still in production by Black Isle (which gave all its games {{Working Title}}s of US presidents).
40	* As noted, according to [[Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire John Hodgman]] Van Buren is a [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lord]].
41	* In the second book of Creator/EricFlint's ''Literature/TrailOfGlory'' AlternateHistory series, he's referred to as "The Little Magician" for his political acumen, which was one of his RealLife nicknames.
42	* ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' had the titular character was forced to compete in "roller derby TO THE DEATH" against the "Lesser Known American Presidents," among which were William "Tippiecanoe" Harrison, Grover "Uncle Jumbo" Cleveland, [[UsefulNotes/JohnTyler John "Tyler Too" Tyler]], and, of course, Martin "Red Fox of Kinderhook" Van Buren.
43	* A bust of him is occasionally seen on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner''.
44	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'' makes a reference to him when Tino has a bad dream, fuelled by his mother's cooking. "Down with the cotton gin! Down with the cotton gin!"
45	* In an episode of ''Series/{{Veep}}'' protagonist Selina yells “Fat ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}!” at his portrait.
46	* He's one of the Presidents of the independent Republic of New England in the AlternateHistory story ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness''.
47	* In an August 2014 episode of ''Series/TheDailyShow'', when there was controversy about political dynasties between UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton and Jeb Bush being considered as the 2016 presidential nominees for the Democratic and Republican Parties respectively, Michael Che met with Martin Van Buren's great-great-great-granddaughter Lily Van Buren.
48	* An issue of ''ComicBook/TheTick: Big Blue Destiny'' had the Tick and Arthur travel to Van Buria, an island nation completely devoted to the idea that Van Buren was the greatest president ever. The heroes get caught up in a civil war when a rebel faction who favor William Henry Harrison attack.

Context UsefulNotes / MartinVanBuren