Martin
Van Buren

MVB was an American politician who served as the eighth President of the United States (1837–41). He was the first president to be born after the United States Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of other senior roles, including eighth Vice President (1833–37) and tenth Secretary of State (1829–31), both under Andrew Jackson. Van Buren won the presidency by promising to continue Jackson's policies. Shortly after taking office, the Panic of 1837 struck the nation, and his inability to deal effectively with the economic crisis, combined with the growing political strength of the opposition Whig Party, led to his defeat in the 1840 presidential election. During his half-century of public service, he built, perfected, and defended a new system of political parties at first the state and then the federal level. In New York he reorganized the Democratic-Republican Party and established the Albany Regency to keep it in power. He then moved on Washington where he did more than anyone to construct the modern Democratic Party which dominated American politics down to the American Civil War.[4]

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