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VAN BUREN, Martin. Autograph letter signed ("M. Van Buren"), as former President, to John Fairfield, Lindenwald, 2 May 1845. 3 pages, 4to, some slight foxing at horizontal creases.
VAN BUREN WORRIES THAT THE PARTY OF JACKSON IS BECOMING THE PARTY OF SOUTHERN SLAVEHOLDERS
A remarkable letter that captures the end of one era and the beginning of another. The new administration of James K. Polk showed, to Van Buren's keen political eye, a decisive rejection of the Jacksonian tradition and the onset of a dangerous tilt towards Southern interests in the Democratic Party. The signs were everywhere, Van Buren tells Fairfield. Take the selection of the Cabinet. Van Buren recommended James Buchanan as Secretary of State, and "I did indeed infer from the import of a letter recd from Mr. Polk that it might have exerted an influence in bringing his mind to the selection of Mr. B but subsequent events have entirely satisfied me that in this I was altogether mistaken, as I now believe you to be, in supposing that Genl. Jackson had any thing to do with it. The matter is clearly susceptible of another explanation..." The other explanation was that Buchanan was the darling of pro-slavery Southerners.
"I do most sincerely hope with you that the new administration may give satisfaction to the Democracy of the country," Van Buren continues. "The present & probable state of our foreign relations make it exceedingly important that we should have an administration such as we had a right to anticipate, & around which we can all rally with cheerfulness & confidence. But I participate in your apprehensions. My own experience in the formation of the Cabinet, as also incidents with which I was not immediately connected, followed up by the expulsion of the Globe against the known & very earnest wishes of Genl. Jackson, & the opinion of the people of the northern Democracy, & that followed up also by remarks of evil omen on my end to the presses interested in the purchase of that paper, leave me, I confess to you, not without strong apprehensions & such is also the prevalent feeling on the part of the sound men of this State. We will however hope for the best, & in the meantime keep our powder dry for fear of the Whigs..."
Van Buren's forebodings were dead on. Polk's "foreign policy" involved waging war with Mexico to expand slavery's domain. And the matter of the Globe was painfully, even brutally symbolic of the new Southern supremacy. "I intend to be myself President of the United States," Polk huffed, and he made it clear that the Globe would no longer be considered his party's mouthpiece. It was a calculated slap in the face to his predecessors and taken as such. The paper had long been the Jacksonian party organ, one that was very popular (as Van Buren points out) with Northern Democrats. Polk urged long-time Jacksonian editor Frank Blair to sell out to Richmond Enquirer publisher Thomas Ritchie and Nashville Union editor John P. Heiss. The Globe ceased publication on 30 April, and Ritchie's and Heiss's pro-slavery Union took its place. "How loathsome it is to me," Jackson said, "to see an old friend laid aside" (Remini, 3:509, 516).
VAN BUREN WORRIES THAT THE PARTY OF JACKSON IS BECOMING THE PARTY OF SOUTHERN SLAVEHOLDERS
A remarkable letter that captures the end of one era and the beginning of another. The new administration of James K. Polk showed, to Van Buren's keen political eye, a decisive rejection of the Jacksonian tradition and the onset of a dangerous tilt towards Southern interests in the Democratic Party. The signs were everywhere, Van Buren tells Fairfield. Take the selection of the Cabinet. Van Buren recommended James Buchanan as Secretary of State, and "I did indeed infer from the import of a letter rec
"I do most sincerely hope with you that the new administration may give satisfaction to the Democracy of the country," Van Buren continues. "The present & probable state of our foreign relations make it exceedingly important that we should have an administration such as we had a right to anticipate, & around which we can all rally with cheerfulness & confidence. But I participate in your apprehensions. My own experience in the formation of the Cabinet, as also incidents with which I was not immediately connected, followed up by the expulsion of the Globe against the known & very earnest wishes of Genl. Jackson, & the opinion of the people of the northern Democracy, & that followed up also by remarks of evil omen on my end to the presses interested in the purchase of that paper, leave me, I confess to you, not without strong apprehensions & such is also the prevalent feeling on the part of the sound men of this State. We will however hope for the best, & in the meantime keep our powder dry for fear of the Whigs..."
Van Buren's forebodings were dead on. Polk's "foreign policy" involved waging war with Mexico to expand slavery's domain. And the matter of the Globe was painfully, even brutally symbolic of the new Southern supremacy. "I intend to be myself President of the United States," Polk huffed, and he made it clear that the Globe would no longer be considered his party's mouthpiece. It was a calculated slap in the face to his predecessors and taken as such. The paper had long been the Jacksonian party organ, one that was very popular (as Van Buren points out) with Northern Democrats. Polk urged long-time Jacksonian editor Frank Blair to sell out to Richmond Enquirer publisher Thomas Ritchie and Nashville Union editor John P. Heiss. The Globe ceased publication on 30 April, and Ritchie's and Heiss's pro-slavery Union took its place. "How loathsome it is to me," Jackson said, "to see an old friend laid aside" (Remini, 3:509, 516).