"The one characteristic for which Van Buren was famous was the one that suggested perhaps he was not always under control. This was his political ruthlessness. He was ruthless enough to stick with William Harris Crawford long after the Georgian had suffered a disabling stroke. He kept plotting to keep John Quincy Adams from the presidency in 1825. He cleared out most of the Adams postmasters in New York in 1829. As the stories about him spread, he acquired the nicknames of "Little Magician" and "Sly Fox." His reputation and political skill gave him a place in history, but he hated the image and sought steadily to be something else. He might have been a more successful President if he had been more willing to exploit his reputation."
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Presidents of the United StatesLawyers from New York (state)Politicians from New York (state)New York Free SoilersUnited States Ambassadors to Great Britain and the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
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Sources
Donald B. Cole, Martin Van Buren and the American Political System (1984), p. 432
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Van_Buren
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Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed "Old Kinderhook", was the eighth president of the United States of America. He was the first president born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the first not of British descent, and the only U.S. president whose first language was not English (it was Dutch).
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