Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren December 5, 1782 July 24, 1862 was an American politician who served as the eighth President of the United States . A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President and tenth Secretary of State , both under Andrew Jackson. Van Burens inability as president to deal with the economic chaos of the Panic of 1837 and with the surging Whig Party led to his defeat in the 1840 election.

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in the village of Kinderhook, New York aboutmiles south of Albany on the Hudson River. He was the first president to be born after the United States declared independence. He was baptized on Decemberof that year as Maarten van Buren, the original Dutch spelling of his name. In the era before the steamboat, Kinderhook was an isolated village, and most of the townsfolk, including the Van Burens, spoke Dutch at home. Martin Van Buren is the only president who spoke English as a second language. Van Buren descended from Cornelis Maessen of the village of Buurmalsen, near the town of Buren in the Netherlands, who had come to America in 1631 and purchased a plot of land on Manhattan Island his son Martin Cornelisen took the surname Van Buren.

Source: Wikipedia