Martin Van Buren: Serpent In The American Eden

[rosco rathbone]

It burns me up to think that this oily scoundrel has lost his place in the ranks of ignominy. To most people he's just another faceless 19th century President, like Milliard Fillmore and Rutherford B Hayes.

But it is a fact, no longer appreciated, that he single-handedly destroyed the comity of the US political establishment in pursuit of his own selfish ends. His manipulation of the Eaton Affair alone to gain the favor of Andrew Jackson and shiv John Calhoun in the spleen is enough to mark him the Iago of American politics, but his crimes are in fact too many to number.

In a republic where justice and equity were truly valued all statues, momumental sculptures and busts of of Van Buren would be chained to armored vehicles and overtoppled to the cheering of mobs.

"...the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker." -James Parton Life Of Jackson

 

[WeedSmoke420]

~interesting~

 

[JohnnySavage]

Van Buren's nickname was 'Old Kinderhook'. He often approved things by signing 'O.K.' which is where 'OK' came from. Because he was skilled at attaining his political goals, he was also nicknamed the 'Little Magician'. Van Buren was the first President born as a citizen of the United States.


I tend to disbelieve the 'OK" attribution, but it was on the internet so it must be true.

 

[Tryharder62]

"...the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker." -James Parton Life Of Jackson

Never trust a man with soft hands my grandma always use to say, and why did Mrs. Eaton only have one knocker?

 

[kotori]

Listening to an old "Studio 360" podcast?

 

[rosco rathbone]

"...the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker." -James Parton Life Of Jackson

Never trust a man with soft hands my grandma always use to say, and why did Mrs. Eaton only have one knocker?

The sexual innuendo in that quote is delightfully done. They don't do subtle malice like that anymore.

Listening to an old "Studio 360" podcast?

Reading about the 1820s.

 

[kotori]

The sexual innuendo in that quote is delightfully done. They don't do subtle malice like that anymore.



Reading about the 1820s.

Ah. That programme had a piece on the Eaton Affair a few months back.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Ah. That programme had a piece on the Eaton Affair a few months back.

I've never been able to enjoy podcasts, lectures and interview shows. Something about being forced to ingest information at the speed of the speaker. I read at an uneven pace, very fast for a paragraph or a page and then spacing out for as long as half an hour.

 

[MatthewVett]

Van Buren's nickname was 'Old Kinderhook'. He often approved things by signing 'O.K.' which is where 'OK' came from. Because he was skilled at attaining his political goals, he was also nicknamed the 'Little Magician'. Van Buren was the first President born as a citizen of the United States.


I tend to disbelieve the 'OK" attribution, but it was on the internet so it must be true.

The Oxford English Dictionary disbelieves it, as well. While OK in reference to Van Buren first appears in 1840, OK as the word appears in 1839, and possibly in 1815, so it's more likely that Van Buren's people used OK because of the word.

From the OED entry for "OK:"

Etymology: Apparently < the initial letters of oll (or orl) korrect, jocular alteration of ‘all correct’: see A. W. Read in Amer. Speech (1963) 38, (1964) 39, etc.
From the detailed evidence provided by A. W. Read it seems clear that O.K. first appeared in 1839 (an instance of a contemporary vogue for humorous abbreviations of this type), and that in 1840 it became greatly reinforced by association with the initialism O.K. n.1, O.K. int.2 (see discussion at that entry).

Other suggestions, e.g. that O.K . represents an alleged Choctaw word oke ‘it is’ (actually the affirmative verbal suffix -okii ‘indeed, contrary to your supposition’), or French au quai , or Scottish English och aye , or that it derives from a word in the West African language Wolof via slaves in the southern States of America, all lack any form of acceptable documentation.

Competing theories as to the origin of the expression have been in evidence almost since its first appearance; compare:
1840 Lexington Intelligencer 9 Oct. 3/2 O.K. Perhaps no two letters have ever been made the initials of as many words as O.K... When first used they were said to mean Out of Kash, (cash more recently they have been made to stand for Oll Korrect, Oll Koming, Oll Konfirmed, &c. &c.

It is not clear whether the ok of the following quotation represents the same expression:
1815 W. Richardson Diary 21 Feb., Arrived at Princeton, a handsome little village, 15 miles from N Brunswick, ok & at Trenton, where we dined.

In form okeh (as used by Dr Woodrow Wilson: see quot. 1919 at sense A. 1β. ) on the understanding that the word represents an alleged Choctaw word oke (see above).

 

[Tryharder62]

Does anybody care about poor Mr. Eaton? Being sent back out to sea by his wife's lover, eventually killing himself.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Does anybody care about poor Mr. Eaton? Being sent back out to sea by his wife's lover, eventually killing himself.

I definitely feel sorry for the poor bastard, whether he killed himself due to shame and loss over being cuckholded by that brazen hussy, or due to the fact that his asthma was unbearable.

Eaton was the lover, can't remember cuckhold's name.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

At least VB got some comeuppance in 1844.

Fifty four forty or fight!

 

[trysail]

The sexual innuendo in that quote is delightfully done. They don't do subtle malice like that anymore.



Reading about the 1820s.

Interesting fellow, that Larry Schweikart.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14332/In+Depth+Larry+Schweikart.aspx


Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton.

Larry Schweikart is the author or co-author of eight popular non-fiction books:

A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2004); America's Victories: Why the U.S. Wins Wars and Will Win the War on Terror (2006); 48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School) (2008); Seven Events That Made America America: And Proved That the Founding Fathers Were Right All Along (2010); American Entrepreneur: The Fascinating Stories of the People Who Defined Business in the United States (2010); What Would the Founders Say?: A Patriot’s Answers to America’s Most Pressing Problems (2011); The Patriot’s History Reader: Essential Documents for Every American (2011); and A Patriot’s History of the Modern World: From America’s Exceptional Ascent to the Atomic Bomb: 1898-1945 (2012).

For more information, visit: http://www.patriotshistoryusa.com

 

[rosco rathbone]

At least VB got some comeuppance in 1844.

Fifty four forty or fight!

I am forming an Anti-Van Buren League. We're meeting last Sunday of every month in the good parlor of Mrs. Smith's Boardinghouse for tea, Bible study, and to plan the utter destruction of the good name of Van Buren, the treacherous swine. The League Rules are 1. No spitting on the floor 2. No Freemasons 3. No horse racing in the lane.

I raise a glass to the League! Confusion to Van Buren. As the Prophet sayeth,
And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.

 

[MatthewVett]

Interesting fellow, that Larry Schweikart.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14332/In+Depth+Larry+Schweikart.aspx


Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton.




For more information, visit: http://www.patriotshistoryusa.com

Jesus Christ, that's a warning list of a bibliography if I've ever seen one.

 

[pointless]

it seems like in the early mid-19th century pretty much all of our presidents were at best total bastards. must have been fun times.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Interesting fellow, that Larry Schweikart.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/14332/In+Depth+Larry+Schweikart.aspx


Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton.




For more information, visit: http://www.patriotshistoryusa.com

Do you have a specific tome to (highly) reccommend? My reading list is already going to take 10 lifetimes to complete.

 

[phrodeau]

"...the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker." -James Parton Life Of Jackson

Never trust a man with soft hands my grandma always use to say, and why did Mrs. Eaton only have one knocker?

Because her back door had bells on it?

 

[rosco rathbone]

Because her back door had bells on it?

That's what I like to see. Good old fashioned 19th century firelight fun: parlor games, puns and word play. Let's have more of that to pass the time, more singing to sheet music, even a hand of cards (for buttons of course not money) and less new fangled nonsense like soda parlors, billiard halls and vaudeville shows.

 

[slave_]

Then there's the notorious 'Van Buren Boys'

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Before there was the interwebs, there was ----Dear Abby:

With reference to ``OK,`` Charles Berlitz, the famous linguist, says ``OK`` came from ``Aux Cayes,``
a port in Haiti, famous for its rum. His theory holds that American sailors were so fond of the rum, that

``Aux Cayes,`` which later became ``OK,`` became their expression for approval.

and-

I submit that the term ``OK`` originated in the early days of shipbuilding on the East Coast.

In building a ship, the first step was laying the keel. Subsequently all other parts were measured
and installed, based on the keel. If a part was installed correctly, it was said to be ``On Keel``--
hence the term ``OK.``

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-08-09/features/8502210975_1_dear-abby-ethel-max

(The writings on the page of a cartoon, that was critical of a political figure, or a political party-
used droll types of spellings. )

 

[trysail]

Do you have a specific tome to (highly) reccommend? My reading list is already going to take 10 lifetimes to complete.

I haven't read any books by Schweikart. He's a new name to me. I just saw him interviewed on C-Span's BookTV ( http://www.BookTV.org ). I thought he had a good grasp of history and some of his titles might be interesting.


You put a tremendous burden on me with your request for a recommendation. I suppose if I were going to read a single book on the American Revolution, it would be A. J. Langgguth's Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution (New York, NY 1988). It was this work that opened my eyes to the fact that Sam Adams was a flat-out malcontent and rabblerouser who may have actually been slightly deranged. It's possible that he was close to being an out-and-out anarchist. John Hancock was basically a fellow who'd gotten rich as a smuggler and wanted to stay that way.


Few people comprehend that the Revolutionaries were probably no more than a third of the Colonial population. In many respects, the Revolution was our first civil war. Not many people fully comprehend how deadly serious this stuff was. Ben Franklin and the boys suffered no illusions; they knew they damn well better win the thing 'cause the alternative was death by any number of unpleasant methods. The British were seriously pissed off and they weren't fucking around. The war was a particularly nasty affair in the South. The ultimate revenge taken against Tories reflected the fact. See: http://www.patriotshistoryusa.com/teaching-materials/bonus-materials/the-barbarism-of-the-times/

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

I am forming an Anti-Van Buren League. We're meeting last Sunday of every month in the good parlor of Mrs. Smith's Boardinghouse for tea, Bible study, and to plan the utter destruction of the good name of Van Buren, the treacherous swine. The League Rules are 1. No spitting on the floor 2. No Freemasons 3. No horse racing in the lane.

I raise a glass to the League! Confusion to Van Buren. As the Prophet sayeth,
And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.

As long as it includes roast fowl and the abusive consumption of spiritous liquors.