Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer

Author:Ted Widmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

5

Panic

After years of scraping, Martin Van Buren finally stood atop the Matterhorn of American politics. Like a mountain goat, he had leapt upward from one craggy promontory to the next. Now, there was nowhere higher to go—and he may have experienced the mountain goat’s momentary confusion of wondering where to go when he reached the summit. But all in all, it was a happy time, filled with the things he liked best—parties, gossip, and cabinet appointments. He aimed for stability, keeping many of Jackson’s appointees and leaning South with new choices. Balance always.

The year 1837 opened with the future looking very bright indeed. Van Buren was poised to become one of the great presidents. Everything in his career had tended to this moment. Surely he must have reflected that winter on his remarkable journey from an overcrowded tavern in Kinderhook to the White House. What a pleasure it must have been to remember all of the enemies who had tried to impede his progress; the social betters who sought to keep him down; the political rivals who underestimated him; the endless insults hurled his way. Now he would helm both the Democracy and the great republic itself. At last, a New York president! What a pity that Aaron Burr had died in September 1836—he would have enjoyed Van Buren’s triumph. One can imagine that Van Buren envisioned a long and prosperous reign, followed by the chance to handpick a successor. He would be lionized forever and, centuries later, if an elegant series of presidential biographies was ever contemplated, historians would surely clamor to write his extraordinary life story.

All presidents-elect, presumably, have felt similar thoughts during their transition. But like the mortals they preside over, they, too, are controlled by the fates. All expect, on reaching the pinnacle, to succeed—but none finds unambiguous success. All expect to shape events, but find themselves shaped by them. All discover that no individual or government is entirely impervious to the external shocks that rain down on us from the heavens. That is why, for all our secularism, insurance policies still refer to “acts of God” as eventualities that cannot be prevented, no matter how much weather-proofing we build into our homes. Sometimes a disaster can elevate a president to immortality—the Second World War, for example, or the secession of the South. But most of the time, disasters are just depressing. The depression that struck the Van Buren presidency more than qualified. The Panic of 1837 was simply the worst financial catastrophe in American history until the Crash of 1929.

On March 4, there was no sense of what was looming, and so Van Buren’s inaugural came off without a hitch. A “balmy vernal sun” shone on the proceedings, and a huge crowd of twenty thousand arrived for the coronation ritual. A local newspaper wrote, “Perhaps the city was never on any previous occasion so full of strangers.” Jackson and Van Buren arrived at the Capitol in a coach made from the timbers of the USS Constitution, escorted by cavalry, infantry, and a band blaring patriotic music.

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