[ti:Martin Van Buren: OK]
[al:America's Presidents]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-04-16]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:04.81]VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.
[00:11.96]Today we are talking about Martin Van Buren. 
[00:15.77]He was sworn in as the eighth president of the United States in 1837.
[00:22.59]Van Buren had already been working for the White House for several years.
[00:28.70]He had been the secretary of state for President Andrew Jackson, and later his vice president.
[00:36.33]Jackson asked his party, the Democrats, to nominate Van Buren as their presidential candidate in the 1836 election.
[00:46.83]They agreed, and Van Buren won that election easily.
[00:51.12]But he did not win the next election. Or the next. Or the next.
[01:11.23]In his inaugural speech in 1837, Van Buren noted that he was the first U.S. president to be born after the American Revolution.
[01:22.18]He was also the first president who was not from a British family. 
[01:27.27]His ancestors were Dutch.
[01:29.90]He remains the only president - so far - who did not speak English as his first language.
[01:38.53]In his inaugural speech, Van Buren predicted better times for Americans.
[01:44.35]But several days later, an economic crisis struck.
[01:49.90]The situation put the country in a depression that lasted for the rest of Van Buren's term. 
[01:55.97]It was one reason the president's opponents called him "Martin Van Ruin."
[02:02.85]The depression was not Van Buren's only problem.
[02:06.76]He also faced a dispute with Britain related to the border between the U.S. and Canada. 
[02:12.74]The conflict nearly turned into war.
[02:15.82]Historian Joel Silbey says most experts do not think Van Buren was a strong president.
[02:23.81]However, Silbey notes, Van Buren left an important legacy that still operates today: 
[02:31.89]He created the modern U.S. political system.
[02:43.18]Van Buren's political education began early.
[02:47.18]His father was a farmer and operated a hotel at a small town in New York State.
[02:54.36]Lawmakers sometimes visited the hotel.
[02:57.83]By listening to them, the future president learned about politics.
[03:03.91]Eventually, Van Buren studied in a law office and became a lawyer.
[03:09.63]In the first years of his career, he defended farmers who were fighting large plantation owners for their land.
[03:17.71]As a result, he developed a reputation for helping the common man.
[03:23.22]Van Buren became a local official, and then a senator and governor of New York.
[03:30.38]When he was 24, he married a young woman he had grown up with. 
[03:34.73]But she died of tuberculosis after 12 years, leaving him with four sons.
[03:41.21]Historian Joel Silbey says although Van Buren did not remarry, "he was known as quite charming among the ladies."
[04:00.37]Van Buren had a gift for politics - that is, developing relationships and forming alliances.
[04:10.39]Historian Joel Silbey says most people who knew Van Buren liked him. 
[04:16.56]He seemed warm and friendly.
[04:19.30]He tried to keep his work-related life and social activities separate. 
[04:23.58]It was not unusual to see him exchange handshakes, smiles and jokes with men who were his political enemies.
[04:32.37]His ability to make friends became a powerful tool.
[04:37.22]Before Van Buren, even lawmakers from the same political party operated independently. 
[04:44.50]They had their own beliefs, their own supporters, and their own allies. Van Buren brought them together.
[04:53.99]First he identified people who followed the ideas of Thomas Jefferson: support for independent farmers and states' rights.
[05:03.18]The group had become known as the Democratic Party (although it was in many ways different from the Democratic Party of today).
[05:12.02]Van Buren organized meetings for Democrats to talk about their political beliefs.
[05:18.32]He persuaded them to support the same policies - at that time, the policies of Andrew Jackson.
[05:26.29]Sometimes, Van Buren helped people who supported Jackson's policies. 
[05:30.72]He gave them government jobs.
[05:33.47]Van Buren also used a series of meetings to choose one presidential candidate for the party. 
[05:40.64]If this process seems clear-cut, it was not at the time.
[05:45.84]During the election of 1824, for example, a single party had four separate candidates for president, one for each part of the country.
[05:55.60]Van Buren's system eventually gave rise to the national conventions that major U.S. parties use today to nominate their candidates.
[06:22.12]Van Buren also helped create the modern political campaign.
[06:29.00]In the 1820s, he saw that many state constitutions were lifting some of their voting restrictions.
[06:36.91]As a result, states were giving more white males the right to vote.
[06:42.05](Women and most African-American men were still largely prohibited from voting.)
[06:48.69]Historian Joel Silbey says Van Buren wanted to bring these new voters into the Democratic Party.
[06:55.91]He decided to improve on the methods that other, smaller groups had used: campaign events, speeches, and organized efforts to bring people to vote on Election Day.
[07:08.78]Silbey explains that these efforts to persuade and energize voters were new to national politics.
[07:17.81]Now they are some of the major features of political campaigns.
[07:32.57]In the election of 1840, Van Buren sought a second term as president. 
[07:37.34]This time his opponents used Van Buren's political techniques against him.
[07:43.66]Silbey says the new opposition party, called the Whigs, used popular speeches and events to portray Van Buren as a failed president.
[07:56.05]Crowds shouted, "Mattie Van is a used-up man!" 
[08:00.40]In other words, he no longer had any power or effect in government.
[08:06.00]Critics also made fun of Van Buren's fine-looking, even fussy clothes.
[08:12.05]They portrayed him as a rich, elite candidate. 
[08:15.60]They compared him unfavorably to their candidate, a military hero named William Henry Harrison.
[08:22.83]Yet it was Van Buren who had come from a poor family, and Harrison from a wealthy one.
[08:29.14]Even so, Van Buren lost the election of 1840.
[08:34.41]Four years later, Van Buren again sought the presidency. 
[08:39.35]This time, even Andrew Jackson did not support him.
[08:43.72]Instead, Jackson backed a man who supported the seizure of Texas and expanding slavery: James Polk.
[08:51.03]But Van Buren did not permit those defeats to stop his political career.
[08:56.03]He ran again in the presidential election of 1848.
[08:59.71]This time, Van Buren withdrew from the Democratic Party he had helped build.
[09:05.53]He ran instead as the candidate of a new, anti-slavery party, called the Free Soilers.
[09:13.96]But even Van Buren's political skills could not persuade voters.
[09:20.13]He did not win a single state.
[09:23.29]​After losing this final presidential election, Van Buren finally retired.
[09:29.76]He spent time with his children and grandchildren, traveled, and wrote about his life.
[09:36.31]At 79 he died of heart failure.
[09:42.50]I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.