APUSH ch 13 notes

5. Van Buren, squired into office by the close popular vote but by the comfortable margin of 170 to 124 votes (for all the Whigs combined) in the Electoral College N. Big Woes for the “Little Magician” 1. Martin Van Buren, eighth president, was the first to be born under the American flag 2. An accomplished strategist and spoils man—the “wizard of Albany”—he was also a statesman of wide experience in both legislative and administrative life 3. From the outset the new president labored under sever handicaps a. As a machine-made candidate, he incurred the resentment of many Democrats—those who objected to having a “bastard politician” smuggled into office behind Jackson b. Mild-mannered Martin Van Buren seemed to rattle in the military boots of his testy predecessor; the people felt let down and Van Buren inherited the Jackson’s enemies c. Van Buren’s four years overflowed with toil and trouble; a rebellion in Canada in 1837 stirred up ugly incidents along the northern frontier and threatened to trigger war with Britain; the president attempted to play a neutral game d. The antislavery agitators in the North were in full cry; among other grievances, they were condemning the prospective annexation of Texas; worst of all, Jackson bequeathed to Van Buren the makings of a searing depression—hard times ordinarily blight the reputation o the president and Van Buren was no exception O. Depression Doldrums and the Independent Treasury 1. The panic of 1837 was a financial sickness of the times; its basic cause was rampant speculation prompted by a mania of get-rich0quickism—gamblers in western land s were doing a “land-office business” on borrowed capital, much of it the shaky currency of “wildcat banks”—the speculative craze spread to canal, roads, railroads, and slaves 2. But speculation alone did not cause the crash; Jacksonian finance, including the Bank War and the Specie Circular, gave an additional jolt to an already teetering structure a. Failures of wheat crops,