II 
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 1836-1840 
The administration of Van Buren was, in most respects, a 
continuation of General Jackson’s. Some of the best histor- 
ians have called it the third term of Andrew Jackson.^^ The 
Cabinet was practically unchanged, and the administration 
measures were those that would have naturally grown out of 
Jackson’s policies. Van Buren owed his position to the in- 
fluence of Jackson and never pretended to act except as the 
agent to carry out the will of his great chief. He was supe- 
rior in statecraft to his hero, but because of the circumstances 
of his election, he feared to cut loose from his moorings. In 
his inaugural address, he said: 
The practice of all my predecessors imposes on me an obligation I 
cheerfully fulfill. ... In imitating their example I tread in the foot- 
steps of illustrious men, ... In receiving from the people the sacred 
trust twice confided to my illustrious predecessor, and which he has 
discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I cannot expect to 
perform the arduous task with equal ability and success.^® 
Perhaps he would have commanded more respect and less 
opposition if he had appeared more independent. 
On the slavery question. Van Buren took the ground most 
satisfactory to the whole country. In his inaugural address 
he reiterated a previous statement that 
I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromis- 
ing opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery 
in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slave-holding 
States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist the 
slightest interference with it in the states where it exists.” 
But it was not the slavery question that gave the President 
the most concern. He was scarcely in office when the panic 
of 1837 broke upon the country. This was due to the reckless 
tendencies of bankers, merchants, and other business men of 
the period, whose activities were almost without regulation 
by either the federal government or the governments of the 
states. Added to this, there was a similar money panic in 
Albert Bushnell Hart, Herman Von Holst, and David Saville Muzzey. 
1® James D. Richardson (ed.). Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington, 
1895), III, 313-320. 
^Uhid., 318. 
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