Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States Secretary of State, and the eighth Vice President of the United States. He was a member of the Democratic Party. With the support of influential outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party’s organizational strength, he won the 1836 presidential election. Because of the weak economic circumstances following the Panic of 1837, he lost his reelection bid in 1840 to the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison. Van Buren rose to prominence as an elder statesman and anti-slavery activist later in life, heading the Free Soil Party ticket in the 1848 presidential election.