John Van Buren

American lawyer and politician

John Van Buren (February 18, 1810 – October 13, 1866) was an American lawyer, official and politician. In addition to serving as a key advisor to his father, President Martin Van Buren, he was also Attorney General of New York from 1845 to 1847. A son of Hannah (née Hoes) and Martin Van Buren, John Van Buren graduated from Yale University, studied law, and attained admission to the bar in 1830. He served as secretary of the U. S. legation when Martin Van Buren was US Minister to Britain in 1831 and 1832, after which he practiced law in Albany, New York. He returned to England in from 1838 to 1839, and attended the Coronation of Queen Victoria. Van Buren served as New York's attorney general from 1845 to 1847, and was the chief prosecutor of the leaders of the Anti Rent War. Van Buren later practiced law in New York City, where he developed a reputation as an effective trial attorney, with his memory for details and oratorical skills making him a formidable courtroom advocate. In 1848, Van Buren led the Barnburners—New York Democrats opposed to the election of Lewis Cass as president on the grounds that he was too friendly to the slaveholding South. Van Buren persuaded his father to run as the candidate of the Barnburners and the Free Soil Party in order to defeat Cass; Martin Van Buren won enough votes in New York to enable Zachary Taylor to defeat Cass and win the presidency. In Van Buren's later years he traveled extensively; he died aboard ship while en route from England to New York, and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.

He was born on February 18, 1810, in Hudson, Columbia County, New York, the second son of President Martin Van Buren and Hannah Hoes Van Buren. (Some sources list his birth date as February 10.) He graduated from Yale College in 1828, studied law with Benjamin F. Butler and Aaron Vanderpoel, and attained admission to the bar in 1830. In 1831, when Martin Van Buren was appointed U. S. Minister to Britain, John Van Buren accompanied him as secretary of the American Legation in London. Both returned in 1832 after Congress failed to confirm the appointment. John Van Buren then opened a law practice with James McKown in Albany. Contemporaries said he had a remarkable memory and that "his success at the bar was great, but his fame as a lawyer has been dimmed by his wit and his wonderful ability as a politician." He returned to England on his own from 1838 to 1839. He had seats at Queen Victoria's coronation, attended the Queen's prorogue of Parliament, and earned the nickname "Prince John" from newspaper reporters after he danced with her at an 1838 ball. They had one daughter, Anna (1842–1923).

From 1845 to 1847, he served as New York State Attorney General, the last holder of that office elected by joint ballot of the Assembly and Senate, under the provisions of the state Constitution of 1821. In 1845, he conducted the prosecution of some leaders of the Anti Rent War at their trial for riot, conspiracy and robbery in protest of attempts by the wealthy owners of Van Rennsselaer Manor and other large upstate New York land grants to collect overdue rents, which Stephen Van Rensselaer and other patroons had long deferred. At the first trial the jury was deadlocked. The bill was the most radical reform considered by the New York State Legislature during the Anti Rent years. The defense, led by William H. Seward, tried to prove that Freeman was insane and therefore could not stand trial, but a jury empaneled to consider the question disagreed. Another jury was then empaneled and the murder trial began. In his speeches Van Buren frequently argued against slavery, calling it a degrading influence on free labor. The Barnburners met for a State Convention in Utica, New York on June 22 and nominated Martin Van Buren as their presidential candidate. On August 9, the National Convention of the Free Soil Party, held in Buffalo, New York, endorsed this nomination. Though most former Free Soil members became Republicans because of the slavery issue, many including Martin and John Van Buren chose to return to the Democratic fold.

In 1865, John Van Buren again ran for New York state Attorney General on the Democratic ticket, and was defeated by Republican John H. Martindale. After Van Buren's election defeat, he visited Europe accompanied by his daughter and niece. "They traveled extensively in England, Sweden, Norway and Russia." A storm set in after his death, and believing it was an omen, the Scotia's sailors tried to cast his body into the sea, but the captain would not allow it. After the ship arrived in Manhattan, funeral services were held at Grace Church, where pallbearers included Samuel J. Tilden, Gouverneur Kemble, Alonzo C. Paige, Edwin W. Stoughton, Samuel L. M. Barlow, and James T. Brady, and mourners included Peter Cooper and Gulian C. Verplanck. A second service took place at St. Peter's Church in Albany. Van Buren was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery, Section 62, Box 28.

John Van Buren, the son of Martin Van Buren, is sometimes confused with judge and congressman John Van Buren of Kingston, Ulster County, New York. President Van Buren's son was born in 1810 and died in 1866. John Van Buren of Kingston was born in 1799 and died in 1855. While both John Van Burens were active in New York's Democratic Party, President Van Buren's son never lived in Kingston, served as a judge, or was elected to Congress.

Van Buren was a man surrounded by innuendoes, even after his death. According to a legend still repeated in upstate New York, Van Buren lost $5,000, and with it, his father's home Lindenwald, as well as a mistress, the very popular Elena "America" Vespucci, descendant of Amerigo Vespucci, to George Parish of Ogdensburg, New York in a card game at the LeRay Hotel in Evans Mills, New York. This story is almost certainly untrue, but it has remained associated with Van Buren. Van Buren has also been credited (possibly apocryphally) with a semi humorous expression related to ballot stuffing, "Vote early and vote often".