In December of 1837, despite a financial crisis taking hold, President Martin Van Buren, boasted of gradual relief from financial panic of 1837 and peace with all nations. America's opportunities were boundless and Van Buren was poised to build on his predecessor’s work. In Van Buren's opening remarks of his first Annual address, he signaled a continuation of both domestic and foreign policies of Andrew Jackson. It would be as many had expected, the "third term" of Andrew Jackson.
"We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all the elements of national prosperity."
"judicious legislation and the natural and boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to private enterprise"
"The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of by my predecessor"
No doubt thoughts of a third term were on the minds of both friend and foe in Congress as they read Martin Van Buren's glowing praise of his predecessor. Andrew Jackson despites his enemies, remained a very popular president to the end, and if he chose to do so could probably have won a third term. There was no constitutional limit on the number of terms a president could serve at the time, but Andrew Jackson had reached 70 years old and his health was failing. Nevertheless, Andrew Jackson declined to seek a third term and strongly supported the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren in the 1836 election. With Jackson's support, Van Buren won the presidential nomination of the 1835 Democratic National Convention without opposition and went on to become the 8th president of the United States and perhaps to serve in the minds of many Democrats, Andrew Jackson's third term.
According to President Van Buren, the former President had cleared all hurdles and restored America to greatness on the world stage. Jackson had corrected all the injustices done to our people by other nations and did so without "compromising on any occasion either the honor or the peace of the nation". Martin Van Buren would follow in Jackson's footsteps, but without the charisma or flamboyant public character or historic military successes this little man would need to make the impossible happen. "Jackson's third term" was now under fire. The Democrats had lost seats in the house and the newly organized Whigs was gaining strength. The "Little Magician" ability to make the impossible happen would be tested by highly volatile partisanship surrounding events like the panic of 1837 and the annexation of Texas.
“We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all the elements of national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for a time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and arrested in its fatal career. The industry and prudence of our citizens are gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.
The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the last annual message of my predecessor. We remain at peace with all nations, and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so consonant to our institutions. We have faithfully sustained the foreign policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first President, took their stand in the family of nations--that of regulating their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire anything for themselves by its exercise.
A rigid adherence to this policy has left this Government with scarcely a claim upon its justice for injuries arising from acts committed by its authority. The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of by my predecessor. Independently of the benefits conferred upon our citizens by restoring to the mercantile community so many millions of which they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also rendered to his country by the satisfactory adjustment of so many ancient and irritating subjects of contention; and it reflects no ordinary credit on his successful administration of public affairs that this great object was accomplished without compromising on any occasion either the honor or the peace of the nation.”
References
Ajones. “Andrew Jackson’s Presidency.” The Hermitage, 26 June 2019, thehermitage.com/andrew-jacksons-presidency/.
“First Annual Message.” First Annual Message | The American Presidency Project, 5 Dec. 1837, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-4.
“Martin Van Buren.” The White House, The United States Government, 23 Dec. 2022, www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/martin-van-buren/.
projects, Contributors to Wikimedia. Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 1 Feb. 2024, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/The_rejected_Minister.jpg.
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