looking in at the windows, sobbed loudly. Turning to them, their dying master said, —

"What is the matter with my dear children? Have I alarmed you? Oh! do not cry, and we will all meet in heaven."

Soon after this, he suddenly, and without a struggle, ceased to breathe. Two days after, he was placed in a grave by the side of his wife. He had often said, "Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there." For miles around, the people flocked to the burial. It was estimated that three thousand were assembled upon the lawn in front of the house. A favorite psalm of the departed was sung,

"Why should we start, and fear to die?

What timorous worms we mortals are!"

A sermon was preached from the text, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The brief sketch which we have given of this remarkable man must leave the impression upon every mind that he possessed great virtues and great defects. He was the first president America had chosen who was not a man of intelligence, of culture, and of experienced statesmanship. Though intense in his prejudices, and slow to listen to the voice of reason, and though many of his actions were fearfully unjust, few will now deny that he was honest in his purposes, and sincerely patriotic.

Mr. Parton, in his admirable Life of Jackson, says very truly, "His ignorance of law, history, politics, science, of every thing which he who governs a country ought to know, was extreme. Mr. Trist remembers hearing a member of the general's family say that Gen. Jackson did not believe the world was round. His ignorance was as a wall round about him, high and impenetrable. He was imprisoned in his ignorance, and sometimes raged around his little dim enclosure like a tiger in his den." It is said, that, when he was elected President of the United States, he had never read a book through except " The Vicar of Wakefield." The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1833 by Harvard University.

Chief Justice Taney, at the time of his death, paid the following beautiful tribute to his memory: —

"The whole civilized world already knows how bountifully he was endowed by Providence with those high gifts which qualified him to lead, both as a soldier and as a statesman. But those only who were around him in hours of anxious deliberation, when great and mighty interests were at stake, and who were also with him in the retired scenes of domestic life, in the midst of his family and friends, can fully appreciate his innate love of justice, his hatred of oppression in every shape it could assume, his magnanimity, his entire freedom from any feeling of personal hostility to his political opponents, and his constant and unvarying kindness and gentleness to his friends."

CHAPTER VIII.

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

Birth and Childhood. Studies Law. - Talents and Industry. - Political Principles. Success as a Lawyer and Politician. - Aids in the Election of Jackson.-Secretary of State.-Mrs. Eaton. - Resigns his Secretaryship. - Minister to England. - Rejected by the Senate. Attains the Vice-Presidency. - Patronage of Gen. Jackson. Chosen President. Retirement and Declining Years.

THERE is but little in the life of Martin Van Buren of romantic interest. He fought no battles, engaged in no wild adventures.

Though his life was stormy in political and intellectual conflicts, and he gained many signal victories, his days passed uneventful

in those incidents which give zest to biography. His ancestors,

as his name indicates, were of Dutch origin, and were among the earliest emigrants from Holland to the banks of the Hudson. His father was a farmer, residing in the old town of Kinderhook. His mother, also of Dutch lineage, was a woman of superior intelligence and of exemplary piety. Martin, their eldest son, was born on the 5th of December, 1782.

He was decidedly a precocious boy, developing unusual activity, vigor, and strength of mind. At the age of fourteen, he had finished his academic studies in his native village, and commenced the study of the law. As he had not a collegiate education, seven years of study in a law-office were required of him before he could be admitted to the bar. Inspired with a lofty ambition, and conscious of his powers, he pursued his studies with indefatigable industry. After spending six years in an office in his native village, he went to the city of New York, and prosecuted his studies for the seventh year under the tuition of William P. Van Ness, who subsequently obtained celebrity as the second of Burr, in his duel with Hamilton.

Martin Van Buren's father was a tavern-keeper, as well as a farmer; a man of imperturbable good nature, and a very decided Democrat. His son inherited from him both his bonhomie and his political principles. It is said of the son, that, all through life, he was ever ready to greet his most bitter opponent with an open hand and a friendly smile. Burr was in the most brilliant period of his career when the young law-student first made his acquaintance. There was a certain congeniality of spirit between them which promoted friendship. Martin, then a young man of twenty, was very handsome, and was endowed with shining abilities; and one can apparently see in his after-life the influence which the seductive and commanding mind of Burr exerted upon his youthful nature. In one respect, indeed, they were different: Mr. Van Buren was ever a man of irreproachable morality.

In 1803, Mr. Van Buren, then twenty-one years of age, commenced the practice of law in his native village. The great conflict between the Federal and Republican party was then at its height. It has often been necessary in the previous sketches to allude to the principles which separated the two parties. Washington and John Adams considered our great danger to consist in not giving the Central Government sufficient power: the Democratic party, on the contrary, under the leadership of Jefferson,

thought that our danger consisted in not giving the State governments sufficient power.

In August, 1786, George Washington wrote to Jay, "We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederacy. I do not conceive that we can long exist as a nation, without having centralized somewhere a power which will pervade the whole Union in as energetic a manner as the authority of the State governments extends over the several States."

Mr. Van Buren was, from the beginning, a politician. He had, perhaps, imbibed that spirit while listening to the many discussions which had been carried on in his father's bar-room. He was in cordial sympathy with Jefferson, and earnestly and eloquently espoused the cause of State Rights; though, at that time, the Federal party held the supremacy both in his town and state. Though ever taking an active part in politics, he devoted himself with great assiduity to the duties of a village lawyer, and rose rapidly in his profession.

His success and increasing reputation led him, after six years of practice, to remove to Hudson, the shire-town of his county. Here he spent seven years, constantly gaining strength by contending in the courts with some of the ablest men who have adorned the bar of his State. The heroic example of John Quincy Adams, in retaining in office every faithful man, without regard to his political preferences, had been thoroughly repudiated under the administration of Gen. Jackson. The unfortunate principle was now fully established, that "to the victors belong the spoils." Still this principle, to which Mr. Van Buren gave his adherence, was not devoid of inconveniences. When, subsequently, he attained power which placed vast patronage in his hands, he was heard to say,

"I prefer an office which has no patronage. When I give a man an office, I offend his disappointed competitors and their friends. Nor am I certain of gaining a friend in the man I appoint; for, in all probability, he expected something better."

Just before leaving Kinderhook for Hudson, Mr. Van Buren married a lady alike distinguished for beauty and accomplishments. After twelve short years, she sank into the grave, the victim of consumption, leaving her husband and four sons to weep over her loss. For twenty-five years, Mr. Van Buren was an earnest, successful, assiduous lawyer. The record of those years