As Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren became one of President Jackson's most trusted advisers, but factional disputes between Martin Van Buren and Vice President John C. Calhoun led to the resignation of Martin Van Buren. As a reward from his dedicated service and friendship, Jackson appointed Martin Van Buren, the "Little magician" to be ambassador to Great Britain. Jackson confidently predicted that Van Buren's opponents would not dare oppose the appointment due to the support of the people, but his prediction turned out to be false and this is the story about how the rejection as minister to Great Britain guaranteed Van Buren's spot on the 1832 Presidential ticket. As shown in the image below, is an 1832 comic showing President Jackson carrying Van Buren back to the capitol as a rejected minister to get his crown. The comic reads, "The rejected Minister, we never can make him President without first making him Vice President.
As Jackson's most trusted adviser, Martin Van Buren contributed significantly to Jackson's first annual address and this raised alarms with Vice President Calhoun and his allies. The cabinet infighting became so bad, that Jackson canceled the remaining cabinet meetings and instead met frequently with a group of trusted friends and advisers, collectively known as the "Kitchen Cabinet" by the press. The Kitchen Cabinet remained Jackson's primary source of support until 1831 when Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War John Eaton officially resigned, triggering the resignation of all remaining members of the official cabinet.
Despite the lack of cabinet meetings, Van Buren and Andrew Jackson both widowers, remained very close. Van Buren became Jackson's sounding board, providing friendly counsel to the lonely old hero. Calhoun resented this close friendship and when the press began to speculate that Van Buren would succeed Jackson as president, Calhoun thought Van Buren to be a "weasel". Van Buren was disgusted by the thought that others would interpret his actions as some kind of crude electioneering and in March of 1831, he thought it was best to resign. Yet, such talk of resignation was not easy between two friends, and one that Van Buren found hard to bring up. One day, while on a daily horseback ride with Jackson, Van Buren had every intention to approach the subject of resignation, but the gloomy weather and Jackson's gloomy spirit, held him back. Before Van Buren could muster the courage, Jackson's horse slipped on the wet road almost throwing Jackson down. Van Buren was just close enough to seize the bridle until the horse regained his footing, to which Jackson replied, "You have possibly saved my life, SIR!" The moment was lost. Van Buren had to wait until another day. On a later ride, Jackson asked Van Buren if one day we might have peace in Israel. Van Buren replied "No! General, there is but one thing that can give you peace .... My resignation" (Meacham, 2009 ). Jackson tried to resist the resignation, but eventually realized that it would give him the opportunity to purge the other members in the cabinet as well.
As a reward from his dedicated service and friendship, Jackson appointed Martin Van Buren to ambassador to Great Britain, confident that any actions taken against the nomination, would surely hand the vice president election to Van Buren in 1832. Nevertheless, the Senate rejected Van Buren's appointment with Vice President Calhoun casting the deciding vote. Jackson was furious at first, but after letting the news sink in, he saw it as an opportunity to drop Calhoun from the ticket and replace him with Martin Van Buren. Thus, it was the actions of John C. Calhoun and his allies in the Senate who decided the fate of Martin Van Buren when they chose to reject his nomination, it was viewed as a disgraceful action, that handed him the Vice Presidency and put him on the road to becoming our eight president. In his 1832 State of the Union Address, Jackson wasted no time before reminding Congress of their spiteful actions. Jackson pointed out that renewal of negotiations with Great Britain had hopes of success that were "unfortunately broken off by the unexpected recall of our minister". Even greater than these negotiations was the damage to progress that was being made between the two nations that share a "community of language, manners, and social habits". Martin Van Buren was not mentioned by name, but given the message was delivered on December 4, just one day before the end of the 1832 election there is no question that every member of Congress understood the consequences of their action.
"From Great Britain I have the satisfaction to inform you that I continue to receive assurances of the most amicable disposition, which have on my part on all proper occasions been promptly and sincerely reciprocated. The attention of that Government has latterly been so much engrossed by matters of a deeply interesting domestic character that we could not press upon it the renewal of negotiations which had been unfortunately broken off by the unexpected recall of our minister, who had commenced them with some hopes of success. My great object was the settlement of questions which, though now dormant, might here-after be revived under circumstances that would endanger the good understanding which it is the interest of both parties to preserve inviolate, cemented as it is by a community of language, manners, and social habits, and by the high obligations we owe to our British ancestors for many of our most valuable institutions and for that system of representative government which has enabled us to preserve and improve them."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Fourth Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fourth-annual-message-3 [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
Meacham, J. (2009). American lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House . New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, pp.172-173.
Blairhouse.org. (2019). Blair House | The President’s Guest House. [online] Available at: http://www.blairhouse.org/history/historical-events/jackson-and-the-kitchen-cabinet [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
Miller Center. (2019). Martin Van Buren (1829–1831) | Miller Center. [online] Available at: https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/essays/buren-1829-secretary-of-state [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
Senate.gov. (2019). U.S. Senate: Martin Van Buren, 8th Vice President (1833-1837). [online] Available at: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Martin_VanBuren.htm [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
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