Martin Van Buren by Ted Wider

OK, first let me apologize to you, the readers of this blog, all five of you.  I am sincerely sorry for having put the posting part of this project on hold for so long…I have no excuse, but I also doubt it has negatively affected anything in your lives, so that’s as much of an apology as I can muster…now back to my education:   OK, books 1-7 were easy enough to find and as you will recall from the Madison effort even bailing on the first book chosen caused no major issues since there were others to choose from…well, ol’ Ocho seems to be the point at which fewer options are available.   I expect this to be the case until perhaps Lincoln.  On the positive side, I now have library cards at four separate libraries and using them will reduce the cost to complete my little project, so I’ve got that goin for me…which is nice.   Alright, back to the subject:   The Martin Van Buren book.  Well, considering that it was the only option available, other than a $50 hardback listed on Amazon, I was pleased to discover that it wasn’t bad at all.   Perhaps a bit text bookish and lite on truly memorable stories…but then, that’s a pretty good description of the subject himself.   

The book kept my interest throughout and as the book progressed I became more and more amazed by Van Buren’s (MVB) political savvy.   The book credits him with organizing the democratic party resulting in it acting in the same manner as today’s political parties aspire to – all for one kinda stuff, giving a little to get the whole, party line, etc.   The author made an excellent reference to MVB’s ability to count votes and understanding how valuable that skill alone can be, making me think of how personally cunning our Presidents all had to be prior to recent times when some would argue that all they need to be are puppets for their party; the concept that Van B created, of course.   So, what did I learn from this book other than that?   Well, I knew he was the 8^th President of the U.S.A. and he was from New York, because Seinfeld taught me that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpnOTr8k9I , but what else?   To the bullets:

• First American born U.S. President (previous 7 were all born British subjects)
• Another former Secretary of State, which he was appointed to after having been elected Governor of NY only 2 months before – shortest term as Governor in NY history
• He was a successful lawyer
• Basically the first unapologetic professional politician
• "His principles are all subordinate to his ambition" -- John Quincy Adams  (the book didn't really portray Van Buren as JQA's quote has, but I liked the quote and also find that I like Quincy Adams more and more as the sharp tongued bitter old bat that he became after his single term as President) 
• There were Mormon Wars.   These can be summarized as deadly conflicts resulting from the eternal practice of prejudice against outsiders.   (A bunch of Mormon’s settled in Missouri and the Missourians already there didn’t like them, eventually expelling them from the state)  Could both sides be faulted, probably, but the simple fact that the Mormon Wars are part of our country’s history came as a shock to me since I thought that religious freedom, as we know it today, was one of the cornerstones of our foundation.   Seems it took a while to settle on exactly what definition of freedom would be used.
• Had the greatest sideburns in U.S. Presidential history (see above)
• "As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it."  An excellent quote from Martin Van Buren alluding to his difficult term during which he was often criticized for the fact that the country went into depression almost immediately upon his inauguration.   Also little doubt that it spawned the similar phrase overused by nearly every boat owner since the first person to realize that water displacement makes objects float and profit could result from selling variations capitalizing on that fact.
• Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix, AZ was named for him (This didn’t occur to me, even though, as noted, Seinfeld had educated me to his presidency).
• Earned $25,000 per year as POTUS (President of The United States), which he took in a single lump sum at the conclusion of his four year term.
• The term “OK” was popularized as a result of Van Buren’s supporters, calling themselves the “OK Club,” using it during campaign efforts to accentuate the dual meaning of its use as an acronym* standing for “Old Kinderhook,” referring to MVB’s home town in NY and its literal meaning as an acronym* standing for “ol korrect,” an old English spelling of “all correct.”  
• Acronyms* experienced a tremendous surge in the United States during the late 1830’s and 1840’s, somewhat similar to life in Singapore today.   Wonder if 150 years from now Singaporean movies will have characters like Leo Getz?   http://tinyurl.com/659f4kk
• Martin was an interesting President, but not likely to be one of my favorites at completion of the project.

OK, so that’s enough for number 8, on to William Henry Harrisons half-bimestrial Presidency…

* http://nerdfighters.ning.com/forum/topics/acronym-vs-initialism