Martin Van Buren autograph note signed, 1 page, 4.75" x 5", dated March 5, 1861. The former President pens a brief and cordial note in his hand, reading in full: “Respectitiously today, with many kind regards to Mrs. Miller as ever, Very truly yours, M. Van Buren.” Neatly signed at the close. The reverse bears the docketed date. On lightly toned paper with minor handling marks. A charming post-presidency ANS from the eighth President, penned on the very day Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated.
Martin Van Buren was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party, he had previously served as the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States secretary of state, and the eighth vice president of the United States. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, thanks in part to the poor economic conditions surrounding the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and, despite prior opposition, an important anti-slavery abolitionist leader who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the presidential election of 1848.
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