"Van Buren basically was optimistic, cheerful, quick to smile and laugh. From an early age he was an engaging conversationalist. In politics, however, he preferred to let others talk about specific issues rather than to expound his own views. In drawing others out while keeping his own opinions closely guarded, he grained a reputation as a crafty partisan who, as one colleague asserted, "rowed to his object with muffled oars." His rather unflattering nicknames, the Red Fox of Kinderhook and the Little Magician, reflected this image. He spoke cautiously, often in carefully worded phrases that left listeners in doubt about his true feelings. Van Buren was ambitious, but he was also a man of principle."
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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
William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (1984), p. 123
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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