Scope and Content Note
The papers of Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) extend from 1787 to 1910, although they principally relate to the period from 1820 to 1850. The papers are organized in eight series: Autobiography, General Correspondence, Additional Correspondence, Messages, Legal Record Book, Estate Record Book, Miscellany, and Addenda, as well as Oversize. Letters received by Van Buren constitute the bulk of his papers, but many drafts, contemporary copies, and original letters sent are also preserved, as well as transcripts and photocopies of letters written by Van Buren. The collection includes notes, drafts, and typescripts for some of Van Buren's writings, notably his autobiography; drafts of his messages to Congress, 1837-1838; drafts and notes for other addresses and speeches; a legal record book, 1807-1813, relating to matters handled by Van Buren; and an estate record book, 1862-1863, containing a copy of his will and entries relating to the settlement of his estate. The Addenda includes correspondence and a travel journal kept by John Van Buren during his trip to England and the European continent in 1838-1839.
Correspondence in Series 2-3 and Series 8 covers a wide range of subjects related to Martin Van Buren and his close associates. Among these subjects are slavery, the abolitionist and antislavery movements, banking and the Second Bank of the United States, party politics in New York state and on the national level involving the Federalist, National Republican, Whig, and Democratic parties, and the policies and programs of such opposition figures as John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, DeWitt Clinton, William Henry Harrison, Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, and Daniel Webster. Other topics represented in the Van Buren Papers are Indian affairs, internal improvements, the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico, the Free Soil movement, tariff questions, the affairs of the Washington Globe, foreign relations particularly with France and England, the Northeast Boundary Question, and Van Buren's home, "Lindenwald," in Kinderhook, New York. Preeminently, however, Van Buren's papers relate to the politics and policies of his own administration and to the presidency of Andrew Jackson.
Correspondents include George Bancroft, Thomas Hart Benton, Francis P. Blair, James Buchanan, 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 (more than 130 letters), Amos Kendall, William L. Marcy, Louis McLane, Richard Elliot Parker, James Kirke Paulding, Joel R. Poinsett, James K. Polk, Thomas Ritchie, William Cabell Rives, Andrew Stevenson, Levi Woodbury, and Silas Wright.
A Calendar of the Papers of Martin Van Buren (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910) provides a list and index for Series 2, General Correspondence, except for the one hundred and forty-eight letters received by the Library after 1910 that have been interfiled within the series. Typescripts of selected letters in Series 2 are included in Series 7, Miscellany.
Series 8, Addenda, formerly designated as Series 8 through Series 10, includes small additions in five separate subseries grouped according to the year the material was added to the Van Buren Papers. The 1980 Addition, consisting of correspondence, certificates, an indenture, and other material dated 1799-1861, has been microfilmed. Subsequent additions are not microfilmed.
The 1985 Addition, formerly designated as Series 9, includes a letter from Van Buren to Benjamin F. Butler, 1847, and a maritime document dated 1839.
The 1986 Addition, formerly designated as Series 10, contains correspondence and a travel journal dated 1838-1839 of the president's son, John Van Buren.
The 1996 Addition includes correspondence, principally letters from Van Buren to Benjamin F. Butler and wife, Harriet Allen Butler. Butler was an early law partner of Van Buren's who served as attorney general and secretary of war for Andrew Jackson and was appointed United States attorney for southern New York by Van Buren and James K. Polk. His son, William Allen Butler, an attorney in New York known for legal treatises and light verse, published a eulogy of Van Buren which is included in the 1996 Addition. Also included is a letter dated 1822 from Van Buren to Stephen Decatur Miller concerning an act for the reduction of the army and other matters before Congress.
The 2014 Addition contains a letter to Samuel Milroy, an autograph, and two land grants from Alabama.
The 2023 Addition contains correspondence, principally letters from Van Buren to Benjamin F. Butler from 1833 and 1857, discussing topics such as Andrew Jackson’s health, the South Carolina nullification crisis, and judicial authority of the Supreme Court. It also includes a certificate signed by President Andrew Jackson appointing Van Buren minister to England in 1831. The Ann Van Buren file contains letters from Ann Van Buren, a presumed family member, to sister Catherine Freeland discussing family matters unrelated to Martin Van Buren.
An edition of fifty-five reels of positive microfilm reproducing the papers of Martin Van Buren from the originals in the Library of Congress and in over 260 other repositories and private collections was produced in 1987 by Chadwyck-Healey, Inc. It is available for consultation in the Manuscript Division Reading Room with accompanying reel notes and item index.