Category Archives: Uncategorized

Denial

I am in denial about a lot of things.

First, I will deny that my oldest child is wearing one of those green jerseys. Really, he’s not.   

I’m also going to deny that my precious baby girl recently turned ten…

Ouch!  

Been busy around here……..stay tuned.
SW

The Wife

Because I am still on a presidential history jag and the Legislature has not gone into a special session…yet, I thought I’d give you a little spin on Martin Van Buren’s wife.

Well, his late wife.  
Hannah Van Buren was also of Dutch origin, but was born in New York and the first, “First Lady” to be born an American citizen.  Although she only spoke Dutch with Martin at home, Hannah still considered it to be her first language and English her second. 
Hannah and Martin were childhood sweethearts but waited until Martin had finished school to marry at the ripe old age of twenty-four!  Did I mention they were first cousins, once removed? Well, it’s true.  They were.
Hannah and Martin were busy.  Hannah gave birth to six children in ten years with only four of the boys surviving into adulthood. It would appear that Hannah never quite fully recovered after her sixth child (can you blame her?), and became ill with what was thought to be tuberculosis.  She died ten years prior to Martin being sworn in as President leaving him to raise four young sons alone.  
Not much has ever really been written about Hannah.  Martin did not mention her in his autobiography and there is only an obituary and some letters written by her church (Presbyterian) clergy that mention her kind heart and empathy for the poor.
Nonetheless, historians still consider Hannah Van Buren as the “First Lady” of this administration simply because Martin never re-married.  Personally, I’m thinking Hannah would have been relieved to miss most of Martin’s political career seeing that he was a shrewed political professional, voted out of office and given the nick name, “Martin Van Ruin”.  I’m also sure she would NOT have enjoyed cleaning up the White House after Andrew Jackson, the party animal, who apparently trashed the place. I’m just saying…
SW

#8

That portrait from yesterday would be of our 8th President, Martin Van Buren, (1837-1841). I have never really known much about this guy, other than when I get to his spot in the line-up, I begin to stumble over which president comes next. So, I decided to do a little presidential research thinking that knowledge is power and now maybe I can keep reciting presidents…in order.  

Yeah, we’ll see about that.  
Anyway, Martin here has a rather interesting history. Martin Van Buren was the first president to actually be born an American citizen.  He was also the first president to come from the state of New York and of Dutch ancestry no less.  (All of his predecessors in office had been of British decent.) Dutch was also Van Buren’s first language and English his second, which I find rather interesting considering he was our first president to be BORN an American citizen.

Van Buren worked his way up the ladder in New York and national politics eventually serving as Secretary of  State under Andrew Jackson.  He became one of Jackson’s most trusted advisers and the vice presidential candidate on Jackson’s successful re-election ticket. 
 As president however, he presided over one of the worst economic recessions in our country’s history, the Panic of 1837, and his handling of the crisis earned him the nickname “Martin Van Ruin”.  Consequently,  Van Buren was unable to win re-election.
Van Buren, while not glorified in history books was widely recognized as a key political party operator of his time and a pivotal organizer of the Democratic Party and the two party system in place today.

Just a little back to school presidential history.
SW

I  found some of this information on the White House web site in a section for presidential history, but I think the University of Virginia has a much more interesting and detailed presidential history site. Just my personal opinion, though.