American MARTIN YAN BTJREN BT EDWARD M. SHEPARD BOSTON ANI NEW TOKK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Cambridge COPYRIGHT, l888, BY EDWARD M.
SHEPARD COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY EDWARD M. SHEPARD AND HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN
CO. COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY CHARLES S. SHEPARD, AGNES S. HEWITT, EDWARD
. HEWITT, AND RUSSELL C. LEFFINGWBLL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE TO
THE REVISED EDITION SINCE 1888, when this Life was originally
published, the history of American Politics has been greatly
enriched. The painstaking and can did labors of Mr. Fiske, Mr.
Adams, Mr. Rhodes, and others have gone far to render unnecessary
the caveat I then entered against the unfairness, or at least the
narrowness, of the temper with which Van Buren, or the school to
which he belonged, had thus far been treated in American
literature, and which had prejudicially misled me before I began my
work. Such a caveat is no longer necessary. Even now, when the
political creed of which Jef ferson, Van Buren, and Tilden have
been chief apostles in our land, seems to suffer some degree of
eclipse, only temporary, it may well be be lieved, but nevertheless
real, those who, like myself, have undertaken to present the
careers of great Americans who held this faith need not fear
injustice or prejudice in the field of American lit erature. In
this revised edition I have made a few cor rections and added a few
notes but the generous vi PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION treatment
which has been given to the book has confirmed my belief that
historic truth requires no material change. A passage from the
diary of Charles Jared Ingersoll Life by William M. Meigs, 1897
tempts me, in this most conspicuous place of the book, to emphasize
my observation upon one injustice often done to Van Buren.
Referring, on May 6, 1844, to his letter, then just published,
against the annexation of Texas, Mr. Ingersoll declared that, in
view of the fact that nearly all of Van Burens admirers and most of
the Democratic press were committed to the annexation, Van Buren
had committed a great blunder and become fdo de se. The assumption
here is that Van Buren was a poli tician of the type so painfully
familiar to us, whose sole and conscienceless effort is to find out
what is to be popular for the time, in order, for their own profit,
to take that side. That Van Buren was politic there can be no
doubt. But he was politic after the fashion of a statesman and not
of a dema gogue. He disliked to commit himself upon issues which
had not been fully discussed, which were not ripe for practical
solution by popular vote, and which did not yet need to be decided.
Mr. Inger soll should have known that the direct and simple
explanation was the true one, that Van Baren knew the risk and
meant to take it. His letter PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION vii
against the annexation of Texas, written when he knew that it would
probably defeat him for the presidency, was but one of several acts
performed by him at critical periods, wherein he deliberately took
what seemed the unpopular side in order to be true to his sense of
political and patriotic duty. The crucial tests of this kind
through which he successfully passed must, beyond any doubt, put
him in the very first rank of those American statesmen who have had
the rare union of politi cal foresight and moral courage. EDWARD M.
SHEPARD. January, 1899. CONTENTS PA01 L AMERICAN POLITICS WHEN YAK
BUBBNS CAREER BEGAN. JBFFEBSONS INFLUENCE... 1 IL EABLY TEARS.
PBOFBSSIONAL LIFE . . 14 EDL STATE SENATOR ATTORNEY-GENEBAL MEMBER
OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION . . 88 IV. UNITED STATES SENATOR.
BBE TABUSHMTENT OF PASTIES. PABTY LEADERSHIP ... 88 V. DEMOCRATIC
VIOT DBY IN 1828. GOVBENOB . 158 VI. SECBETABY OF STATE. DEFINITE
FORMATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC CREED . .... 177 VIL MJNISTEB TO
ENGLAND. VICB-PBESIBBNT. ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY .... 228 Vm.
CBISIS OF 1837 282 IX. PBESIDENT. STTB-TBEASTTBY BILL . .825 X.
PBBSIDBNT. CANADIAN INSURRECTION. TEXAS. SEMINOLE WAB...
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