Welcome to Blogging the Presidents: A Voting While Intoxicated™ Almost Original Series. We will be taking a serious look at the 42 men who have led our country and hopefully finding a few laughable details.
PART VIII
After a string of at least notable Presidents (all of them two term Presidents except the Johns Adams) we enter a period that at the best is obscure and at worst detrimental until Lincoln. Van Buren, as Jackson’s VP, took over and continued many of the same policies, though arguably better on matters of the economy and foreign policy, struggling in many ways under the burden of Jackson’s ill-advised moves. One of the more notable things about him (aside from his hair styling) is that in my research thus far, he represents the first politician to blatantly sell out in the name of political considerations. He did this by persecuting Mormons in Missouri, thereby holding the Missouri vote (at least the non-Mormon majority). He is quoted on wikipedia responding to Mormon leader Joseph Smith’s plea for help:
Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you; if I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri.
The many demerits of Mormonism aside, religious persecution in the United States is generally considered a bad thing. I don’t know if his quote makes him sound more truly a Democrat (weak willed) or a Republican (cynical in pursuit of electoral success at all cost).
Either way, he was one and done.
