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Indiana University 
Even before the suspension of specie payment, opposition 
to the policy which Van Buren had outlined began to arise. 
In a public letter of March 25, 1837, Abbot Lawrence ex- 
pressed his disapproval of Van Buren’s plan of state banks 
and also of his policy in regard to the disposition of the 
public lands, as well as opposition to the annexation of Texas, 
which question was before Congress at that time.^ 
Silas Wright, Jr., in a letter to his old friends in Vermont, 
on April 21, 1837, also voiced his opposition to the policy of 
the administration of Van Buren.'^ This dissatisfaction and 
disapproval of the policy of the administration soon began 
to be widespread. The currency of the country was in dis- 
order and times were hard. Of course, this condition of the 
country was blamed upon the administration then in power. 
It was not only by the opposition parties that Van Buren’s 
policies were opposed. The political history of his administra- 
tion shows that all the members of his own party did not 
agree with Van Buren. Altho during his whole term there 
was a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, he 
suffered repeated defeats in carrying thru his one favorite 
scheme and great measure, the establishment of the Inde- 
pendent Treasury system. Nevertheless, Van Buren was not 
abandoned by his party, nor was his administration an un- 
popular one among Democrats. On the contrary, a great 
majority of them believed in him, approved his measures, 
and desired his re-election. They were in favor of complet- 
ing the work which Jackson had begun, by divorcing the 
government altogether from private banking corporations.® 
By the summer of 1838 there was such opposition to Van 
Buren that it seemed that he would have difficulty in secur- 
ing his re-election, even if he could obtain the nomination of 
his party. In a letter to some of his constituents, dated 
August 29, 1838, J. Andrew Schulze said that he expected 
the re-election of Joseph Ritner as governor of Pennsylvania, 
and that “This triumph will assuredly be followed by one 
still more important, the election of a genuine Democratic 
president in 1840.” He also voiced the sentiments of the 
more extreme opponents of Van Buren in these words, “I 
have never seen any evidence that Mr. Van Buren has any 
4 Niles' Register, LII, 89. 
^Ibid., LII, 238. 
® Stanwood, A History of the Presidency, I, 192. 
