VAN BUREN, MARTIN (BUREN, V-A_N, ante), 1782-1862; b. N. Y.; a lawyer and politician before he had come of age. In 1812 he was in the state senate; three years later was attorney-general; and after being again state senator, was chosen U. S. senator in 1821. He was re-elected in 1827, but resigned to accept the office of governor of the state. He was elected vice-president in 1832 on the ticket with Andrew Jackson, and was elected president at the close of Jackson's eight years' administration in 1837. His administration was rendered notable by his financial views during the panic which occurred in its first year, and which eventually resulted in the passage of a• law estab lishing the independent treasury system. The influence of the slavery question in politics became virulent at this time, and it was even proposed by a member of the South Carolina delegation in the house of representatives that that state should secede from the union. Mr. Van Buren was defeated for a second term in 1840 by the Whig candidate William H. Harrison. In 1844 his name was proposed for nomination, but
Mr. Polk was nominated and elected. In 1848 he accepted the nomination of the free soil party, and his candidacy occasioned the election of gen. Taylor. He now retired from public life; made a tour in Europe, 1853-55; and died at his birth-place, Kinder hook, Columbia co., N. Y., July 24, 1862. A posthumous work by him was published in 1867, entitled An Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United Stales.
VANCE, 7..E.BuLoN B., b. N. C., 1830; spent a year at the university of N. C., admitted to the bar, 1853; member of the legislature, 1854-58; member of congress, 1858; re-elected, 1859; governor of the state at its secession, 1861, which at first he opposed; though he afterward was active in the rebellion; was elected to the U. S. senate, 1870; re-elected governor, 1876; and re-elected to the U. S. senate, 1879.