MVB Papers (DLC)
"The Martin Van Buren Papers, one of twenty-three presidential collections in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, contains more than 6,000 items dating from 1787 to circa 1910. The bulk of the material dates from the 1820s, when Van Buren (1782-1862) was a U.S. senator from New York, through his service as secretary of state and vice president in the Andrew Jackson administrations (1829-1837), to his own presidency (1837-1841) and through the decade thereafter when he made unsuccessful bids to return to the presidency with the Democratic and Free Soil parties. Included are correspondence, autobiographical materials, notes and other writings, drafts of messages to Congress in 1837 and 1838, and other speeches, legal and estate records, miscellany, and family items.
The collection primarily consists of letters received by Van Buren from other individuals, as well as copies, drafts, transcripts, and photocopies of letters written by him. Correspondents include George Bancroft, Thomas Hart Benton, Francis P. Blair, James Buchanan, law partner Benjamin F. Butler (1795-1858), Churchill C. Cambreleng, John A. Dix, John Fairfield, Azariah Cutting Flagg, Henry D. Gilpin, James Hamilton, Jr., Jesse Hoyt, Charles Jared Ingersoll, Andrew Jackson, Amos Kendall, William L. Marcy, Louis McClane, Richard Elliot Parker, James Kirke Paulding, Joel R. Poinsett, James K. Polk, Thomas Ritchie, William Cabell Rives, Andrew Stevenson, Levi Woodbury, and Silas Wright.
The Calendar of the Papers of Martin Van Buren created by Elizabeth Howard West for the Manuscript Division in 1910 provides a list and index for the general correspondence contained in the original collection up to that date. Some 150 letters received by the Library of Congress after 1910 are not represented in the calendar. These items have been interfiled within Series 2 of the collection. Typescripts of letters can also be found in Series 7, Miscellany. A finding aid to the current Van Buren Papers collection is available online.
Note that this site is limited to the Martin Van Buren Papers collection and does not include all documents by, about, or related to Van Buren in the Library of Congress. The Library’s Manuscript Division holds additional Van Buren-related documents pertaining to his family and his long and varied political career in New York and Washington, as well as his role in evolving party politics in his era. These documents are located in the collections of other individuals, including Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson Donelson, James K. Polk, William L. Marcy, William C. Rives, Charlotte Cushman, Duff Green, Reverdy Johnson, Andrew Stevenson, and Nicholas P. Trist, and in the family papers of the Blair, Bancroft-Bliss, Henry Clay, Samuel Smith, and Singleton families."
"This collection of Martin Van Buren Papers is arranged into eight series and oversize. Series 8 of the collection contains the newer additions. These are grouped by the year the addition was received or processed as part of the collection. The bulk of the collection was captured on 35 reels of microfilm, the scans of which comprise the bulk of this online collection. A list of the series follows.
- Series 1, Autobiography, 1854-1862 (Reels 1-3)
- Series 2, General Correspondence, 1787-1868 (Reels 4-34)
- Series 3, Additional Correspondence, 1811-1853 (Reel 34)
- Series 4, Messages, 1837-1838 (Reel 35)
- Series 5, Legal Record Book, 1807-1813 (Reel 35)
- Series 6, Estate Record Book, 1862-1863 (Reel 35)
- Series 7, Miscellany, 1814-1910 (not microfilmed; scanned from originals)
- Series 8, Addenda, 1799-1862 (Reel 36 and not filmed; some scanned from originals)
- Oversize, 1837-1839 (not microfilmed; scanned from originals)"
https://www.loc.gov/collections/martin-van-buren-papers/about-this-colle...
Print DocumentDocuments in this Collection:
Your letter has reached me here in the midst of a circuit & I have but time to say a word to you on the interesting points you speak of. Advise Thompson by no means to have such a meeting, it would as you say set an example for Mr Clinton ^for^ which he would give the world. The dire necessity to which he will be subjected of resorting to such nominations galls him to the quick. Such a... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
Recipient: Mordecai Manuel Noah
Your favour from Hudson reached me this morning. You confirm me in the belief that it would be inexpedient to get up meetings to nominate Tompkins & I shall represent it so to our friends I reced. a letter from Ontario informing me that on the 24th a Convention or meeting would be held in Canandaigua which would speak of Tompkins as the Candidate. You may be in time to prevent it. When things... Continue Reading
Sender: Mordecai Manuel Noah
Recipient: MVB
With this you will receive a copy of the Bucktail Bards. Dick Shift you will find in a more respectable dress—and the epistles of Pindar Puff somewhat improved. J Duer is as you know the author of the first and G C Verplanck of the last, as also of the Proligomena &c. We shall send some of the numbers to Albany—and trust you will lend us your aid in giving an extensive circulation to what... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
I have learnt with great pleasure that you have wisely determined henceforward to Identify yourself with the Republicans of the State & union. I am persuaded you as this step in pre act is purely spontaneous & wholly ^un^influenced by political ^sinister^ considerations it is a step of which I am persuaded you will never have occasion to regret. You may for a season be somewhat annoyed by... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
The V. P. left town today at 12oClk on his return home. He stopped at the Senate on his way and I had a short Conference with him in one of the Comee. Rooms. I had not seen him for some days, during which from considerations of delicacy I omitted to visit him.
Referring to his nomination, he asked what Course the Federalists would be likely to pursue as between him and Mr C. Before answering I... Continue Reading
Sender: Rufus King
Recipient: MVB
I have but just now received your favr of 28th Ultm. I am at Skinner Number 4, with a good fire & one friend only, shall be much gratified to see you with Mr. P. R Livingston or if he is not in Town with any other one or two of your respectable friends at any time between two & four OClock this afternoon.
Recipient: MVB
I presume your time must be very much engrossed or you would not forget your promises. I have been looking very impatiently for some ^time^ for a certain book, but have not received it nor have I been able to get sight of one, altho I believe some have reached this quarter. Before this comes to hand I presume you will be fairly engaged in your winter campaign, and perhaps the decisive battle... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
You will receive herewith a letter from a committee of the Legislature soliciting your acceptance of the nomination as a candidate for the office of Governor. The uncertainty in which we are left as to your movements has somewhat embarrassed us, but we have concluded to send this together with your nomination to our friend Mr Jonathan Thompson with a request that he should proceed to Washington... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
Your letter of the 13th Inst recd is extremely gratifying to me as the renewed evidence of your regard for me and because it affords me an other opportunity to communicate with you in that candid honorable and friendly manner which has distinguished our intercourse almost from our earliest knowledge of each other
The explanation of your views and motives as to the Candidate (although I do not... Continue Reading
Sender: James Alexander Hamilton
Recipient: MVB
You had my permission to use my name as a committee to call a meeting of our Citizens to express their opinion on the Missouri question & the propriety of your doing so has not been questioned ^by me^. The ^You surely^ cannot suppose that the use of my name for that purpose imposed on me thean obligation to sign whatever memorial might be agreed upon atby the meeting—being out of town when... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
I owe you an apology for not having more frequently written you, but my time has really been so much taken up with official business that I can hardly find a moments leisure. I am looking with anxious eyes to the course of things in our State. I have been I must confess somewhat disappointed as to the course taken by many of the federalists in the Legislature. It must have arisen from the great... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
I have received your letter, accompanyed by a copy of a letter sent to the Vice President. I have had a full conversation with him on the subject. First however he has not received any communication from the Committee appointed to inform him of his nomination. Nor has he received the original a copy of which you sent me. I have however informed ^him^ the substance of it. He says he has received a... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
I am still under the necessity of saying that the Vice President has not yet left here, but intends certainly to go to morrow morning. He took leave of the Senate some days since. I dont know that he has given an absolute answer to the inquiry whether he will accept the nomination or not But am my self satisfyed he will, and under existing circumstances it is now expedient that he should. He will... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
In my conversations with the S of the N. he has been open & explicit in his opinion, that the V. P. can not decline the nomination without some disadvantage—in these sentiments I am convinced the S of the N. is very sincere. I have not however inferred that he would refuse to be the Candidate shd the V. P. decline. He has not said that in this Case he would accept a nomination—nor has he told... Continue Reading
Sender: Rufus King
Recipient: MVB
You will perceive by our papers of to-day what the County Convention did last week. A high compliment was passed upon you and a strong expression of disapprobation of Clinton's administration, given. Every exertion is making to call up the spirits of our friends, but tho' most of them are determined to do their utmost for the cause, yet they are possessed with a despondency that it is difficult... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
You will ^have^ doubtless remember that when at your room ^Louis's^ during the sitting of the supreme court you mentioned to me that Chief Justice Spencer had declared to Genl. Brown that there was no longer a ^the^ republican party no longer existed ^as such^ & that henceforth our Citizens would be divided among the supporters & opposers of the present administration. The sentiments thus... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
"The Missouri question," is a phrase, which, in the nomenclature of the moment, comprehends the question respecting the admission of Maine, as a State, into the Union; the question concerning the admission of Missouri, as a State, into the Union; the question of the prohibition of slavery, in the proposed State of Missouri; and the question concerning the toleration or prohibition of slavery, in... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
I recd. yours this morning. I am no rampant politician you know, and feel sorry that we should be called to contend about minor points, when we have matters of such great moment to attend to. I have a perfect recollection of all that has taken place on the subject of the conversation, & have seen the commns. in the papers as from the Ch. J. & the Genl. with astonishment. While the former... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
By the mail of today I received your letter of the 2d. instant. I wrote to you on the day of the V. P. departure. Since then I have seen and frankly told him what passed between the V. P. and myself; holding back nothing which occured in our conference, or the letter which I wrote to you respecting the same, or in the confidential & personal note in wh. I told you that from my conversations... Continue Reading
Sender: Rufus King
Recipient: MVB
I am one more in Charge of the office. But how long I shall retain the station is very doubtful. My Reinstatement I am told was in opposition to the wishes of Mr. Cheves, who is now trying his strength with the new Board with the view of removing Mr Smith. If he succeds I shall probably be again subjected to his Caprices & perhaps again removed. In a pecuniary point of view, the office is... Continue Reading
Sender: Gorham Akin Worth
Recipient: MVB
Your obliging letter of the 2d instant, came to hand on the 7th.: I read it with great satisfaction; truely, it is a time for the old Patriots, to come forward in defence of the good old cause of republicanism. I should have pressed a general meeting, of the true republicans; but our republican county convention, was so nigh to wit, on the 15th inst, concluded it would not be best. I declined... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
Our sufferings owing to the rascality of deputy Postmasters is intolerable and Cries aloud for relief. We find it absolutely impossible to penetrate the interior with our papers and unless we can alarm them by two or three prompt removals there is no limiting the injurious consequences that may result from it. Let me therefore entreat the Postma[s]ter General to do an act of Justice and render us... Continue Reading
Sender: MVB
This caucus announced some time since, for last evening has evaporated in smoke. It could not be ascertained whence it originated. Some people were wicked enough to suspect the trust might have been given not a hundred miles from Albany. But that poor devoted place is suspected of all mischief, whether it originated there or not. The Clintonians here or some of them at all events were aiding it... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
I have communicated the papers sent by you relative to several Post Offices, to the Post Master General, with my earnest solicitation for his immediate & effectual interference. He will do all that can be done. His determination has been already announced, last week to the Post Masters, to remove instantly any and Post Master who impedes the due circulation of papers & Letters. You may... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
By the time this reaches you, Mr. C’s “short session” will probably have closed, and you be left in the quiet enjoyment of some repose, after the labor and exertion to which you have been subjected in exposing the base practices of a corrupt combination against the Republicanism of the State.
The assembly Report, has injured Clinton essentially with us. The matter, the manner &c so palpably... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB
Last week I spent entirely in reconnoitering the County of Oswego, from one end to the other. Matters continue to wear a very favourable aspect in every part of the County. The Republican interest has gained a great deal of strength since last election; and it still continues to gain. It is perfectly safe to say that the vice president will get more votes in that county than ever he did before.
I... Continue Reading
Recipient: MVB