A passage from the diary of Charles Jared Ingersoll (Life by William M. Meigs, 1897) tempts me, in this most conspicuous place of the book, to emphasize my observation upon one injustice often done to Van Buren. Referring, on May 6, 1844, to his letter, then just published, against the annexation of Texas, Mr. Ingersoll declared that, in view of the fact that nearly all of Van Buren's admirers and most of the Democratic press were committed to the annexation, Van Buren had committed a great blunder and become _felo de se_. The assumption here is that Van Buren was a politician of the type so painfully familiar to us, whose sole and conscienceless effort is to find out what is to be popular for the time, in order, for their own profit, to take that side. That Van Buren was politic there can be no doubt. But he was politic after the fashion of a statesman and not of a demagogue. He disliked to commit himself upon issues which had not been fully discussed, which were not ripe for practical solution by popular vote, and which did not yet need to be decided. Mr. Ingersoll should have known that the direct and simple explanation was the true one,--that Van Buren knew the risk and meant to take it. His letter against the annexation of Texas, written when he knew that it would probably defeat him for the presidency, was but one of several acts performed by him at critical periods, wherein he deliberately took what seemed the unpopular side in order to be true to his sense of political and patriotic duty. The crucial tests of this kind through which he successfully passed must, beyond any doubt, put him in the very first rank of those American statesmen who have had the rare union of political foresight and moral courage. EDWARD M. SHEPARD. January, 1899. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. AMERICAN POLITICS WHEN VAN BUREN'S CAREER BEGAN.-- JEFFERSON'S INFLUENCE 1 II. EARLY YEARS.--PROFESSIONAL LIFE 14 III. STATE SENATOR: ATTORNEY-GENERAL: MEMBER OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 38 IV. UNITED STATES SENATOR.--REËSTABLISHMENT OF PARTIES.--PARTY LEADERSHIP 88 V. DEMOCRATIC VICTORY IN 1828.--GOVERNOR 153 VI. SECRETARY OF STATE.--DEFINITE FORMATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC CREED 177 VII. MINISTER TO ENGLAND.--VICE-PRESIDENT.--ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY 223 VIII. CRISIS OF 1837 282 IX. PRESIDENT.--SUB-TREASURY BILL 325 X. PRESIDENT.--CANADIAN INSURRECTION.--TEXAS.--SEMINOLE WAR.--DEFEAT FOR REËLECTION 350