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NPS Martin Van Buren Cover.qxp 9/6/2006 10:56 AM Page 1 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior History Program Northeast Region A RETURN TO HIS NATIVE TOWN MARTIN VAN BUREN’S LIFE AT LINDENWALD, 1839-1862 MARTIN VAN BUREN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE HISTORIC RESOURCE STUDY A RETURN TO HIS NATIVE TOWN Photograph of Martin Van Buren, ca. 1855-1862, Library of Congress. A RETURN TO HIS NATIVE TOWN Martin Van Buren’s Life at Lindenwald, 1839-1862 A Historic Resource Study by Leonard L. Richards Marla R. Miller Erik Gilg Prepared under cooperative agreement with University of Massachusetts, Amherst *********** Reports of a Site Review, November 17-19, 2005, by Sean Wilentz, Reeve Huston, and Jonathan Earle undertaken in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians National Park Service U. S. Department of the Interior Printed August 2006 Table of Contents List of Illustrations.......................................................................................................... vii Foreword........................................................................................................................... ix Document Approval Page................................................................................................ xi Introduction........................................................................................................................1 A Return to His Native Town Chapter One Martin Van Buren and Contemporary Historical Scholarship .....................................11 Chapter Two Lindenwald, 1839-1844: The Campaign to Maintain Control of the Party .................17 Chapter Three Lindenwald, 1845-1848: The Birth of the Free Soil Party...........................................73 Chapter Four Lindenwald, 1849-62: A Politician Retires, A Family Grows...................................109 Conclusion ................................................................................................................135 Works Cited..............................................................................................................147 Reports of a Site Review, November 17-19, 2005 undertaken in cooperation with the Organization of American Historians...........................................................165 v List of Illustrations Figure 1. Martin Van Buren in the years just prior to the purchase of Lindenwald. George Parker (d. 1868), engraver. This presidential portrait was based upon Henry Inman's (1801-1846) painting from life. Museum collection, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site .......................................................67 Figure 2. Close-up of East Elevation of Lindenwald prior to Upjohn's redesign. Martin Van Buren National Historic Site 1797 Elevations. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress..........................................68 Figure 3. Martin Van Buren National Historic Site 1797 Elevations. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress..........................................69 Figure 4. Center hall with large dining table. The creation of the dining hall was the major alteration Van Buren made when he took possession of the mansion. The photograph shows the hall as a period room installed by the National Park Service as part of its restoration of Lindenwald. Courtesy of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site...................................................70 Figure 5. Members of the Van Buren household including the extended Van Buren family and domestic servants as counted by the 1860 census. Columbia County, New York, Census Records, 1860. Columbia County Courthouse, Hudson, NY...................................................................71 Figure 6. Bank notes paid by Van Buren to Catherine Kelly, one of his domestic servants, for a monthly pay period. Museum collection, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site ..........................................................................72 Figure 7. Nineteenth century barn once located west of Lindenwald.Historic American Buildings Survey, January 16, 1937. Nelson E. Baldwin, photographer. Library of Congress...............................................................104 Figure 8. Martin Van Buren's Lindenwald Farm, c. 1850. Cover illustration by Steven N. Patricia reprinted from David Uschold, Cultural Landscape Report for Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Volume 2, Treatment Plan (Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior 1997) ...................................105 Figure 9. Angelica Van Buren. Engraving taken from an 1842 Henry Inman portrait. White House Historical Association. Reproduced in Carol E. Kohan, Historic Furnishings Report for "Lindenwald," Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Kinderhook, NY. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Harpers Ferry, WV ...................................106 vii Figure 10. John Van Buren, daguerreotype taken c. 1845 and 1860, Library of Congress .......................................................................................................107 Figure 11. Daguerreotype of Martin Van Buren by Mathew Brady (1823-1896), circa 1856, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution ....................139 Figure 12. Van Buren's Lindenwald as enlarged and designed by Richard Upjohn. Having a cupola (or tower) to provide a panoramic view of the countryside was in keeping with the Italianate style of architecture that Upjohn favored when he redesigned the Federal mansion. Courtesy of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site .....................................................140 Figure 13. Lindenwald South Gate House, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress ......................................................................................141 Figure 14. Inscription in a Bible given to Van Buren on his 70th birthday, by his niece, Christina Cantine. Museum collection, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site ...................................................................................142 Figure 15. Van Buren grandchildren Martin Van Buren IV (1856-1942) and Eliza Eckford Van Buren (1858-c1942). Children of Smith Van Buren and Ellen King James, they were both born at Lindenwald and lived there until 1862. Museum Collection, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. ..................143 Figure 16. Martin Van Buren's tombstone, a plain granite shaft bearing only his name, his title as eighth president, and dates of his birth and death. Photograph by Erik Gilg, 2003.....................................................................144 Figure 17. Lindenwald as a private residence in the early 1960s, before it was acquired by the National Park Service in 1975. Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress ...................................................................145 viii Foreword Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, New York, was established in 1974 as a unit of the National Park System in order to preserve in public ownership a significant property associated with the life of Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States. The site consists of the core portion of “Lindenwald,” Van Buren’s working farm and country seat. Van Buren purchased the property in 1839, during his presidency, and from 1841 to his death in 1862, Van Buren made Lindenwald his primary residence, taking up the life of a gentleman farmer while continuing his political activities, and later, while writing his autobiography. Lindenwald was the base from which Van Buren launched two failed campaigns to regain the Presidency, first, as a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1844, and then as the candidate for the Free Soil Party in 1848. This historic resource study (HRS) was undertaken in advance of a new National Park Service (NPS) planning effort, the first in twenty years, designed to reassess park themes and significance. While a considerable scholarly literature has been produced on Van Buren’s life and legacy, this literature only tangentially addresses Van Buren’s later career or life at Lindenwald. The NPS’s 1982 historic resource study provides vignettes of family life and a detailed account of decisions affecting the physical appearance of the mansion, but it does not place the chronicled events in a larger historical context. More recent NPS reports, which include a historic furnishings report and a cultural landscape report, document the physical history of the site. Van Buren’s final years at Lindenwald have up to now often been viewed as a retirement period. Most scholars have focused on Van Buren’s seminal contribution to the making of the American Party System and secondly, on his presidency—on events preceding his move to Lindenwald. NPS researchers have followed this lead. Thus, the park has been presented with the interpretive conundrum of making the park resources relevant to Van Buren’s significance. This study, by telling a new political story and by including all the residents of Lindenwald—the Van Buren family as well as those who worked on the estate—enhances our understanding of this place in the political and cultural history of the mid nineteenth century. Put simply, Van Buren played a critical role in the emergence of the post 1840 anti-slavery controversy that culminated in the coming of the Civil War. And Lindenwald also witnessed during these years the emergence of changes in labor and gender relations affecting the nation generally. As the authors