Эту статью мне посоветовал мой приятель, который использует http://securityrussia.com/catalogue/cardsem в своем офисе, и они действительно выручают его своей работоспособностью, своими отличными характеристиками и надежностью. The Flying Dutchman,” "The Red Fox,” "The Little Magician”— Martin Van Buren went by several nicknames attesting to his character, astute and perceptive to some, sly and deceptive to others. Before becoming president, Van Buren reshaped American politics by promoting political parties Martin Van Buren 69 and making the Democrats into a modern campaign organization. His appeal to the masses through populist tactics and his building of loyalty through a spoils system resulted, under Andrew Jackson, in a more powerful presidency than ever before. Van Buren’s opportunism, however, made his own presidential administration weak and provided the blueprint used by his opponents to prevent his reelection. k Martin Van Buren’s birth on December 5, 1782, to Abraham Van Buren and Maria Hoes Van Alen Van Buren in the Dutch town of Kinderhook, New York, made him the first president to be born after America’s declaration of independence from Britain. His ancestors were indentured servants from the Netherlands, and his father a farmer and tavern keeper. Martin attended local schools until age 14 and then studied law, first in Kinderhook, where he clerked in the firm of Francis Silvester, and then in New York City. As he developed an interest in politics, he supported the Republican Party and in 1800 campaigned for its presidential candidate, Thomas Jefferson, who attacked the opposition Federalists for being more concerned with serving the wealthy than the nation as a whole. Although far from a modern mass party, the Republicans hinted at the future with their appeal to a broad following, and Van Buren learned from their tactics. Martin Van Buren was admitted to the bar in 1803 and began his law practice in Kinderhook as the partner of James Van Allen. He described himself as a lightweight intellectually, more inclined to political action. In 1807 he married a distant cousin, Hannah Hoes. They had four sons, but their marriage was cut short by Hannah’s death in 1819. Van Buren held a local office and won election in 1812 to the state senate on a platform criticizing the national bank, a recurring theme in his political career. He supported the War of 1812 and New York’s building of the Erie Canal and sponsored a bill to abolish imprisonment for debt, a progressive measure opposed by many creditors. While continuing in the state senate, he served as attorney general from 1816 to 1819, at which time he prosecuted General William Hull for neglect of duty in surrendering Detroit to the British during the war. Although Van Buren won his case, President James Madison overturned Hull’s sentence. Van Buren aligned himself with the Bucktail faction among the Republicans and supported Jeffersonian principles based on limited government while opposing those in the party who compromised with the Federalists. At the same time he built a powerful political machine, known as the Albany Regency, which set party policy, managed campaigns, and maintained discipline through patronage. This meant government workers had to adhere to the party line or lose their jobs. Van Buren later applied these tactics to national politics. No more powerful a politician could be found in populous New York than the Dutchman from Kinderhook. In 1821 Van Buren served as a delegate to the New York State constitutional convention, and the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. Three years later he managed Georgian William H. Crawford’s unsuccessful campaign for the presidency. The race stimulated Van Buren and convinced him he could be a "president maker.” He believed the answer to winning four years later and unseating John Quincy Adams lay in the organizational structure he had learned in New York and therefore in forming a cohesive political party. Although political parties existed before Van Buren began his career, by the 1820s the Federalists had dissolved. This left only the National Republicans, who had fallen prey to factional squabbles so severe that John Quincy Adams, only a nominal Republican to begin with, presided over a weak, ineffectual party. Van Buren saw an opportunity. Unlike many Americans, including past presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, 70 Martin Van Buren who thought political parties evil or at best a necessary evil, Van Buren saw them as quite the opposite. "With fairness and moderation,” he said, "the very discord which is . . . produced may . . . be conducive to the public good.” Particularly after the 1820 Missouri crisis, when Northerners and Southerners differed over whether that territory should be allowed to enter the Union as a slave state, Van Buren believed parties could maintain national unity by bringing sections of the country together while keeping slavery out of politics. He pointed out that "formerly attacks upon Southern Republicans were regarded by those of the north as assaults upon their political brethren & resented accordingly. This all powerful sympathy has been much weakened, if not, destroyed by the amalgamating policy of Mr. Monroe” and the demise of a two-party system. In other words, Northerners and Southerners together in the same party would refrain from attacking each other over slavery, or any other issue, for fear of tearing the party apart. Reelected to the Senate in 1827, Van Buren pledged himself to "protect the remaining rights reserved to the states by the federal constitution [and] to restore those of which they have been divested by construction.” He then applied his political insight and helped put together an effective coalition for the upcoming 1828 presidential contest, the Democratic Party. He wanted the Democrats to unite southern planters with "plain Republicans” in the North. Historian Robert V. Remini observes that "The making of the Democratic Party . . . was largely the work of Martin Van Buren. . . . It was Van Buren who joined together the different sections of the country and united the followers of [John C.] Calhoun and [William] Crawford with the Jacksonians. It was he who tried to draw the East and West closer together. It was he who renewed the alliance between the North and South that lasted until 1860.” Van Buren toured the South in 1827, where his meeting with prominent politicians solidified the alliance he sought. The Democrats attached themselves to Jeffersonian principles and embraced a limited national government. This was in stark contrast to the highly nationalistic program advocated by John Quincy Adams, who wanted the federal government to fund projects as wide-ranging as canals and astronomical observatories. To a certain extent, Van Buren’s party chose opportunism over principles. Van Buren wanted Andrew Jackson to be its standard bearer more because of his popular appeal as a military hero from the War of 1812 than his stand on any issues. Yet too much can be made of this. Van Buren would never have supported or promoted Jackson if the general had shown himself opposed to Jeffersonian ideas. According to Remini, Van Buren turned to Jackson "because he could use the General to . . . eliminate Federalist principles from the national government”— principles that advanced federal power over that of the states. The Democrats worked to build mass support at a time when the removal of property qualifications meant that most adult white males could vote. Rallies, parades, and slogans became their tools, as did mud-slinging when they portrayed John Quincy Adams as a president intent on raiding the public treasury. The Adams campaign retaliated by presenting Jackson as an illiterate adulterer. To help Andrew Jackson win New York, Van Buren relinquished his Senate seat in 1828 and ran for governor, placing his name, with its strong appeal in his home state, on the Democratic ticket alongside Jackson’s. Van Buren’s tactics carried the day, and Jackson was elected president. A new era began in politics as the appeal to the common folk unlocked the door to the White House. Others would soon copy the Democrats. Van Buren served as governor for only two months in 1829 before Jackson named him secretary of state. He received widespread acclaim when he negotiated a settlement with Britain over trade in the West Indies and obtained an agreement with Turkey granting America access to the Black Sea. Martin Van Buren 71 Van Buren’s prominence within Jackson’s administration came from his close relationship with the president. He worked indefatigably behind the scenes for Jackson and outdistanced all others in the cabinet and among the president’s advisers in influence. One observer commented about Van Buren: "He glides along as smoothly as oil and silently as a cat, managing so adroitly that nobody perceives it.” With his cautious and often compromising ways, Van Buren counterbalanced Jackson’s impetuous and stubborn character. The New Yorker strengthened the Democratic Party and Jackson’s administration by developing the spoils system, under which appointment to office depended in large measure on party loyalty. Critics called it corrupt, but Van Buren defended it, saying that it ensured Jackson’s administration would be responsive to the people. Martin Van Buren displayed his political cunning in a crisis called the Eaton Affair, which threatened to destroy Jackson’s presidency and Van Buren’s own hopes of succeeding to the White House. After Jackson appointed John Eaton secretary of war, all other cabinet members, except Van Buren, decided to snub Eaton’s wife, Peggy, for a supposedly checkered sexual past. Those who ostracized Peggy were linked with Vice President John C. Calhoun, who, like Van Buren, wanted to become president. To end the dispute and weaken Calhoun, Van Buren resigned in 1831. This allowed Jackson to ask for resignations from all his department heads, purge the Calhoun faction, and appoint a new cabinet. President Jackson then made Van Buren minister to Britain. Calhoun struck back, however, when he broke a tie in the Senate over whether to confirm the New Yorker’s appointment by voting nay. Calhoun thought he had ruined Van Buren’s political career, but he reappeared when Jackson, angered by Calhoun’s action, chose Van Buren to be his running mate in 1832. As vice president, Van Buren resumed his advisory role to Jackson and presided over the same body, the Senate, that had denied him his ministerial appointment. When the smoke of the political battle with Calhoun had cleared, Van Buren was in an even stronger position to become the next president. With Andrew Jackson’s full support, Martin Van Buren obtained the Democratic nomination for president in 1836. Opponents of Jacksonian democracy tried to prevent his ascension by forming the Whig Party and running three candidates for president: westerner William Henry Harrison, New Englander Daniel Webster, and Southerner Hugh L. White, each with a strong following in his own geographic section. They called Jackson "King Andrew I” and claimed Van Buren would simply be the outgoing president’s puppet. During the campaign, Van Buren criticized the national banks and opposed federal funding for internal improvements, which he thought best left to the states. He stood against the abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C., unless the South agreed to it and against ending slavery where it already existed. Together the Whig candidates polled 739,795 popular votes, but Van Buren obtained 765,483, along with a majority of the electoral vote. The result revealed two political parties closely matched rather than a resounding triumph for Jackson’s policies. Opinions about the new president corresponded to the prevailing sharp differences in politics. John Quincy Adams, long a critic of Jackson and Van Buren, once stated: "There are many features in the character of Mr. Van Buren strongly resembling that of Mr. [James] Madison—his calmness, his gentleness of manner, his discretion, his easy and conciliatory temper. But Madison had none of his obsequiousness, his sycophancy, his profound dissimulation and duplicity.” Andrew Jackson observed quite differently: "Instead of his being selfish and intriguing, as has been represented by some of his opponents, I have found him frank, open, candid, and manly. As a Counsellor he is able and prudent . . . and one of the most pleasant men to do business with I ever saw.” Critics claimed Van Buren was ineffective in controlling subordinates; 72 Martin Van Buren supporters called him skillful in managing others. All agreed that the short, plump, balding man, known as an exquisite dresser and connoisseur of fine wine, presented a cheerful countenance and a firm attachment to Jacksonian politics. At his inauguration Van Buren reiterated his campaign position on slavery, stressed the importance of national unity, and described the United States as enjoying a prosperity "surely not elsewhere to be found.” As it turned out, economic issues vexed his presidency after a severe depression hit in 1837. The causes of the downturn were several. First, an economic collapse in England lowered the overseas demand for American cotton and dropped prices from 17.5 cents per pound to 13.5 cents, devastating not only the South but also the North and West, whose economies were linked to southern commerce. Second, excessive speculation in land and in stocks on Wall Street encouraged unsound economic practices. Finally, Jacksonian policy contributed to the collapse. Andrew Jackson had destroyed the national bank, and with this controlling influence gone, state banks made risky loans at high interest rates that caused inflation. As prices climbed 50 percent in the 1830s, President Jackson tried to dampen inflation and speculation by having Congress pass the Specie Circular, which said the federal government would only accept gold and silver in payment for public land. Although the circular reduced speculation as intended, it made land more difficult for common people to buy and became the most unpopular Jackson program. Now Van Buren reaped the impact of his predecessor’s policies and inherited an economic mess. Yet he had supported Jackson and in particular had endorsed the president’s decision to kill the national bank. As the depression worsened, President Van Buren called a special session of Congress, which met in September 1837. In his message to those assembled he called for action but then laid out his belief in limited government. He said, "All communities are apt to look to government for too much. Even in our own country, where its powers and duties are so strictly limited, we are prone to do so, especially at periods of sudden embarrassment and distress.” He went on to say that government should not be considered a source of relief from the depression and added the founding fathers had "wisely judged that the less government interferes with private pursuits the better for the general prosperity.” The Whigs were perplexed and thought his argument contorted and limited. Senator Daniel Webster said, "I feel as if I were in some other sphere, as if I were not at home, as if this could not be America when I see schemes of public policy proposed, having for their object the convenience of Government only, and leaving the people to shift for themselves.” The president did propose to change the banking system when he asked Congress to establish an Independent Treasury so the federal government could deposit its money in its own vaults rather than in selected state banks. Van Buren believed this would protect federal funds from those state banks that were using the money for speculative purposes. The Whigs opposed him; they claimed the plan would make recovery more difficult by taking specie out of circulation and making loans and credit tighter. To them Van Buren seemed to be straddling the fence, trying to correct the bad policy that had destroyed the national bank but failing to develop a proposal that honestly admitted the mistake and completely corrected it. They wanted the national bank restored. Many conservative Democrats broke with Van Buren on the issue for another reason: They wanted the federal government to continue using the state banks. This faction combined with the Whigs to defeat the Independent Treasury in the House by a vote of 120-106. Whig leader Henry Clay then tried to reestablish the national bank but failed. The depression encouraged factional fighting among Democrats—a constant hindrance for Van Buren—and provided the Whigs with political ammunition. They made large gains in the 1837 elections, and in Van Buren’s home state of New York they won control of the assembly. Martin Van Buren 73 In foreign affairs President Van Buren skillfully handled two disputes with Britain. In 1837 dissidents in Canada revolted against British rule. Those Americans who wanted Canada to become a part of the United States sympathized with the rebels; some even formed clubs to support them with arms and men. In December 1837 Canadian militia attacked a private American ship, the Caroline, used in smuggling military supplies. This resulted in the death of an American. During the following year Canadian rebels launched several raids against the British from American soil. Van Buren cooled Britain’s anger by making it clear that Americans had no right to invade Canada, and that those who did would receive no help from their government if they were captured. At the same time a dispute involving the border between Maine and Canada nearly erupted into fighting. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, by which Britain recognized America’s independence, had left the border unclear. At stake was about 12,000 square miles of valuable timber land in the Aroostook region. After the United States refused to accept a decision arbitrated by the Netherlands, residents of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick began arming themselves, and Congress allocated $10 million for defense while authorizing the president to call up 50,000 volunteers. Working with General Winfield Scott, who was appointed as an emissary, Van Buren convinced the governor of Maine to withdraw his militia from the Aroostook, and when New Brunswick agreed to restrain itself, the tension lessened. In 1842, after Van Buren left the presidency, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty established a compromise line by which Maine received 7,000 of the 12,000 square miles in dispute. Although the economy improved in 1838 after repeal of the Specie Circular, in 1839 it took another plunge and would remain depressed for five years. Cotton prices hit new lows, textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, stood idle, and an estimated 50,000 unemployed in New York City sank into poverty. Civic leader Philip Hone observed: "Business of all kinds is completely at a stand, and the whole body politic sick and infirm, and calling aloud for remedy.” The Whigs demanded a protective tariff, federal funding for internal improvements, and expansion of the banking system. In those states where they governed, they increased the number of banks and enlarged the supply of paper money. In Washington, Van Buren finally convinced Congress in 1840 to establish his Independent Treasury. The measure produced neither relief nor disaster. According to historian Glyndon G. Van Deusen, it "made no fundamental contribution either to financial stability or to the search for a uniform currency.” As much as Van Buren thought a political party system would foster national unity by making it unwise to touch the sensitive slave issue and risk alienating voters, events worked to heighten sectional tension. After the House of Representatives passed five gag rules in the late 1830s and 1840s (the last one being repealed in 1844) that prohibited Congress from considering any petitions dealing with slavery, abolitionist protests grew louder and stronger. Southerners reacted with an uncompromising defense of slavery made more strident when the Underground Railroad continued to transport runaway slaves from the South and when the state of New York refused to extradite three African Americans accused of stealing slaves. Because of the heated atmosphere, Van Buren tried to avoid antagonizing Southerners. He condemned the continued illegal importation of slaves from Africa but did little to stop it. When the Cuban ship Amistad arrived near Long Island, New York, bearing mutinous slaves under transport from Africa to the Caribbean, he instructed the government to argue in district court that the slaves should be returned to their owners. The court, however, ordered the slaves released. Van Buren appealed the decision to the Supreme Court but lost again, and the Africans were set free. 74 Martin Van Buren Much as Van Buren had plotted in the 1820s to deny John Quincy Adams reelection, the Whigs plotted in the 1830s to deny the same to him. They copied Van Buren’s tactics with precision. They accused him of living in luxurious splendor at the taxpayers’ expense. One Whig congressman said the president used finger bowls to dip his "pretty tapering soft, white lily fingers, after dining on fricandaus de veau and omelet souffle.” Where the Democrats had charged Adams in 1828 with buying a billiard table for the White House, the Whigs charged Van Buren with spending $1,000 on a gardener’s salary. That a heating system was installed in the drafty White House during Van Buren’s presidency, along with copper bathtubs, lent credence to the Whig attack. Much as the Democrats had turned to a frontier military hero, Andrew Jackson, as their presidential candidate in 1828, the Whigs selected William Henry Harrison, famous for his victory over the Indians at Tippecanoe. They selected Virginian John Tyler as his running mate, leading to the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!” Although the Whigs refused to write a campaign platform, they stood for federal funding of internal improvements, protective tariffs, and a national bank, while Van Buren opposed them on these issues and defended the Independent Treasury. The election relied mainly on creating simple images. Harrison was portrayed as close to the people and as a common frontiersman. (He actually lived on a large plantation.) The Whigs said Martin Van Buren should more accurately be called Martin Van Ruin, in light of the economic depression. They also accused the president of being a fence sitter, demonstrated by his refusal to take controversial stands so he could maintain political coalitions. Harrison won easily, carrying 19 of the 26 states. Van Buren tried again for the Democratic nomination in 1844 but blundered and lost to James K. Polk when he angered Andrew Jackson by opposing the annexation of Texas. Four years later Van Buren voiced his opposition to slavery and ran for president as the candidate of the Free Soil Party. He won no electoral votes, but by splitting the Democratic Party in New York, he helped elect Zachary Taylor, the Whig nominee. In his later years, Van Buren oversaw his Lindenwald estate in New York and traveled to Europe, where he bought fine clothes and presumably ate omelet souffles without recrimination. After the Civil War began, he expressed support for Abraham Lincoln, but he died before the war ended, on July 24, 1862. Although as president he proved weaker and less popular than Andrew Jackson and lived in his predecessor’s shadow, he left an enduring legacy in building the Democratic Party, stimulating a competitive two-party system, and developing
the techniques of modern campaigning.