Martin Van Buren

When George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in the 1988 election, he was the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836. Van Buren, the 8th president, was actually the third vice president to become president, but at that point it was actually being Secretary of State that was the secondary power position in the Federal government. One of the interesting things about going through these juvenile biographies of the presidents, in alphabetical rather than chronological order, is picking up on the changing tides of American politics in terms of where we look for our presidents. The last half of the 20th century has seen a lot of governors (Roosevelt, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II). What makes Van Buren interesting is that he was governor of New York, appointed secretary of state by Andrew Jackson, and then served as vice president in Jackson's second term.Robin S. Doak presents Van Buren as a career politician, the first U.S. president born as an American citizen, and one of the founders of the Democratic party. Like most of the volumes in the Profiles of the Presidents series, this book provides an excellent introduction for younger readers to Van Buren's life and career. Richly illustrated with historic paintings, etchings and even early photographs, this book traces his early years, his involvement in politics, and the efforts he made to put Andrew Jackson in the White House. When Doak talks about Van Buren as Jackson's right-hand man it is something of an understatement. I do not know if young readers can really appreciate the in-fighting between Van Buren and Jackson's first vice president, John C. Calhoun, but Doak lays it all out, and shows how Van Buren ran what might be considered one of the first modern election campaigns with slogans, fundraisers, and rallies (so he is the one to blame for the way things are today, boys and girls). Since he followed Old Hickory in the White House you would expect Van Buren's presidency to be rather anticlimactic, but Doak does an excellent job of explaining in simple terms how difficult his term in office ended up being. Young readers will appreciate that political parties change radically over time since Van Buren, a Democrat, insisted that it was not the government's role to help individuals. Doak only offers a brief paragraph listing some of the few successes Van Buren had as president. The final chapter covers his defeat and retirement after a campaign in which he became the only U.S. president who campaigned without a running mate (if there was a curse on vice presidents becoming president, then this is as good an explanation as any for why it came about). Van Buren was also the first former president to run for the White House again as an independent, running with on the Free-Soil Party in 1848, when his running mate was Charles Francis Adams, the son of his old political revival John Quincy Adams.Consequently, young readers will