#Vice President Van Buren

[deadpresidents]

"Van Buren is as opposite to General Jackson as dung is to a diamond...He is what the English call a 'dandy.' When he enters the Senate chamber in the morning, he struts and swaggers like a crow in the gutter. He is laced up in corsets, such as women in town wear, and, if possible, tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say, from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or woman, but for his large...whiskers."

-- Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee, on then-Vice President Martin Van Buren, 1835

[jamjarjiminy]

Pulp Announcement Thoughts and Predictions!

Hello hello hello, everyone! I've gotten sufficiently insane enough about the announcement (and by that, I mean I've rewatched it like 500 times) I thought I'd come by to drop my thoughts and what I think's gonna happen.

First and foremost, the 'hard times' Benjamin and the nation's facing is the Panic of 1837. It was a huuuggeee economic crisis the nation faced after Andrew Jackson fucked up the banks. And of course, Jackson's Vice President and now incumbent president Martin Van Buren had to deal with it.

Van Buren's intervention unfortunately did not work and he ended up being a low level 1 termer no one cares about or remembers. He soon lost reelection to William Henry Harrison.

I think it's pretty obvious at this point, but Benjamin's shiny new opportunity is that of the Vice Presidency. Under who you ask? Chester Thomas! Yeah, pretty obvious and lines up with what we already know.

So in this timeline, Chester Thomas becomes the 9th President instead of William Henry Harrison. We're just gonna assume that the Thomas-Park ticket ran as Whigs, mainly because that's what Harrison was and I don't see any reason Thomas and Benjamin would run as anything else.

So, what did William Henry Harrison do as President? Urm.. nothing. No, like literally nothing. He died a month into office.

And in all honesty, it'd be really funny if the same thing happened to Thomas and Benjamin had to take over suddenly.

So, those are my thoughts so far? What do you guys think? I cannot wait for January!

[pranklinfierce]

This was a random question that popped into my mind. What was the relationship between m🚐b and John C Calhoun?

Thank u

Unfortunately, I am not the resident expert on either of these men, but I'll do my best to answer this, even if my answer lacks the detail that could be expected if I were more read on them specifically. I like your bowl of aliens.

They are the two men who were vice president to Jackson under his two terms, obviously. Calhoun was disposed of (or, rather, resigned, disposing of himself) after the Petticoat Affair and grievances following the Nullification Crisis. Van Buren was already involved in the administration at this point, as he was Secretary of State and later Minister to England, and was the major advocate for Jackson's election in the north. After Calhoun's resignation (which was quite close to the end of the term), it was known Van Buren would be put on the 1832 ticket as his replacement, and he was later confirmed by the Democratic National Convention. So, just as is the case between Calhoun and Jackson, their relationship was dependent on where you look in the timeline.

I don't believe they were ever friendly, but there were plenty of times, early on, when they had to collaborate. For instance, Van Buren, always a maneuverer, sought Calhoun's alliance in his aims to aggregate the Democratic party, already becoming factious. Additionally, both with an interest in Jackson's 1828 election, they pursued his election, though in different regions. To my understanding, the short-lived positive dynamic was purely political.

A lot of Van Buren's alliance with Jackson was the cause of the growing resentment between him and Calhoun. Many of the things you can think of as reasons why Calhoun and Jackson hated each other were true for Van Buren too, except Calhoun maybe received fewer murder threats from Van Buren lol. Van Buren's show of respect towards the Eatons both elevated him further into prominence while making him the enemy of Petticoat agitators. But more importantly, and less isolated within Jackson's cabinet interests, their differences in regard to sectional interests and states' rights made their relationship politically contentious. Calhoun's support of Nullification was adverse to Van Buren's unionist interests. In a personal sabotage, Calhoun was the one Senate vote to deny the confirmation of Van Buren's appointment of Minister to England (basically, this happened due to a strategic move by Van Buren to resign his SoS position so Jackson could fire and reorganize his cabinet with less opposition.) Another personal sabotage was Calhoun's attempt, early on, when being accused by Jackson of speaking ill of his Florida escapades, to blame Van Buren for conspiracy. These letters are really funny, honestly (they're free on Google Play Books and pretty entertaining if you have the stamina for long-winded bickering that reads like the 1800s equivalent of a YouTuber dramatically revealing "receipts" for an accusation made against them. Calhoun released the letters in an attempt to defend himself. He only makes reference to Van Buren once, though, so they're more relevant in regards to the broader feud than his blame of Van Buren.) They clashed in more minor respects regarding partisan issues like states' interests and internal improvements, etc., but that's all I know of.

Van Buren and Calhoun experts may have more specifics, and may correct anything I've said. But the general impression (TLDR) I get of their dynamic was that they were technical political allies when in the mutual interest of an end, and enemies along the same trajectory of Calhoun's split with Jackson.

[dwellordream]

“The story of the Cherokee illustrates how the lives of Indian people were drastically altered by American expansion. The Cherokees were one of the Five Civilized Tribes, so named because they had proved much more adept at integrating white culture into their own than had other tribes. In the eyes of white Americans, the Cherokees were perhaps the most ‘civilized’ of the five.

…Although the Cherokees were willing to adopt some Anglo-American traditions, they held onto other parts of their culture. Within Cherokee culture, women were responsible for almost all agricultural production. They worked the soil, seeded and weeded the land, harvested the results, collected the firewood, cooked the food, and processed the leftovers for winter. Cherokee women also made clothing, pottery, and baskets for use by the tribe and for trade. Cherokee men were responsible for hunting, fishing, and warfare.

…For a Cherokee woman, power in the community meant more power in her marriage. After marriage, a husband would come to live among his wife’s relations. If the marriage ended in separation, the man was expected to return to his mother’s house to live. Any children born during the marriage would remain in the mother’s house and would be cared for by the mother’s extended family. Any shuffling of marriage partners took place while the core extended family remained constant, thus giving children a safe harbor from the usual problems of ‘broken homes.’

To missionaries and other reformers, such arrangements made no sense, and they struggled mightily to instill the ideals of European domesticity into the tribe. Reformers hoped that the Cherokees and other tribes would embrace the ideal of separate spheres, so that husbands worked in the fields, wives in the home, and both knew their place. …Missionaries then teamed up with a number of Cherokee leaders--women as well as men--to try to persuade the Cherokees to accept Anglo-American ideas about the roles of men and women. The leadership supported the establishment of schools, run by missionaries, that would teach young Cherokees about Anglo-American culture. Missionaries were especially concerned with ‘domesticating’ Cherokee girls.

…Cherokee leaders had hoped that acculturation would lead to acceptance by whites. But while missionaries and reformers were concerned with the Cherokees’ cultural transformation, most whites in the South merely wanted the tribe’s land. These whites were supported by President Andrew Jackson, who had never hidden his prejudice against Indians. The state of Georgia nullified the Cherokee constitution in 1829 and demanded that the Cherokees sell their land to the state for $30,000.

…When most Cherokees refused to move in 1838, President Marshall Van Buren--who had been Jackson’s Vice President--ordered the army to round up those who resisted. The Cherokees, after being forced into detention camps, were then herded toward Indian Territory. More than a quarter of the Cherokee marchers perished along the way. For Cherokee women, the ideal of domesticity did not bring peace and harmony, as the missionaries and Cherokee leaders had hoped. The ideal of domesticity had given northern middle-class women the opportunity to use the home as a jump-off point to political activity. For Cherokee women, however, domesticity meant the loss of their economic and political power.

…The Indians of California were first conquered not by Americans, but by Hispanics from the Spanish colony of Mexico. These Californos, as the Spanish came to be called, were eager to convert the local Indian tribes to the Catholic faith. Unlike the American missionaries, however, the Californos established elaborate missions for the purpose of utilizing Indian labor while at the same time teaching Catholic beliefs.

The mission system called for Indians to pledge their souls to Catholicism, and to hand over control of their lives to the Catholic padres, or fathers, who led the missions. After a number of years of training, and vigorous tests to prove that these converted Catholics had been civilized, the transformed Indians would be freed from the mission’s control and given their own land. They could then become independent small farmers and loyal subjects of Spain. Like most missionaries’ visions, the Californos’ system was fatally flawed. Few Indians seemed to have become sufficiently civilized in the eyes of the padres to be released from the missions.

…In order to attract new converts to the missions, the padres specifically recruited Indian women. The missions had a number of advantages to offer them. Unlike many other Indian cultures, California Indian tribes were extremely patriarchal--power belonged to the men; women had little control either over the community’s affairs or within their families. Thus, the material conditions at the missions were much improved for women.

…Although the soldiers were ultimately responsible for the destruction of the California Indians, their chief weapons were not the sword and the gun. Rather, the soldiers decimated the Indian population by spreading syphilis among them. This deadly sexually transmitted disease had been unknown to California Indians before the arrival of the Spaniards, and it wreaked havoc among the native population. The Spaniards most often infected Indians by raping Indian women caught in raids.”

- Michael Goldberg, “Conquerors and Conquered.” in Breaking New Ground: American Women, 1800-1848

[darkmaga-returns]

Peter Van Buren

Nov 11, 2024

This was an angry election; none of that “which candidate would you rather have a beer with” stuff here. Trump is an angry man representing angry constituents. Harris was angry that things were not going her way and constantly expressed the Hillary-esque idea “How could I possibly be losing to a guy like Trump?” Both sides prioritized personal attacks over policy. At times it felt like elementary-school playground stuff, name-calling, but in the end it was much more serious than that. Harris lost because she tried to make “Trump is a fascist” her closing argument, and no one was listening anymore. The girl had cried wolf for the last time.

Now, to be fair, Harris’s fate also rested on the fact that she is wholly unqualified for the toughest job in the world, having distinguished herself as Vice President of Nothing. She was an empty suit and kept showing it. A candidate created whole in the womb by the media with a past that supposedly did not matter and a future as vague as her recollections of that past. She had one job—the border—and made a royal mess out of doing nothing about the many problems there to the point where thousands of migrants (we use the word as a generic term because no one in the Harris house cared whether they were legal, illegal, asylees, protected peoples or whatever witches’ brew our immigration system could cook up) poured in.

Harris did nothing of substance as VP; she made matters worse by having no real plans or policies for her presidency besides giving away money. Softball questions from the ever-so compliant mainstream media were met with ever-vaguer answers, bits of biography, and the odd nasty remark about Trump. It was Orange Man Bad all over, and the electorate had had enough. Trump’s shortcomings were baked in after what seems like an eternity of campaigning, never mind four years in the White House itself. The Never Trumpers had had their day four years ago. Most Americans had taken Trump’s measure, for good or ill. By contrast, many Americans remained unsure who Harris was and what she stood for. In the background, Biden's inflation and the fastest rise in interest rates since the early 1980s nagged. And working people worry much more about payday than they do January 6.

[donpishya]

"Balie Peyton, a racing enthusiast and close friend of Jackson, related an interesting incident which occurred during one of these visits. Peyton, a Congressman, had been to watch some horses take their practice rims. He was in company of a number of politicians including the Vice-President Martin Van Buren.

When Busirus, a big burly horse, began to kick and rear up requiring two men to hold him, Jackson boomed the he could have had the horse broken of such nonsense within an hour. He then proceeded to bombard all the handlers with orders and directions.

When the horse again became unmanageable and dangerous, Jackson shouted to the youthful Van Buren to "get behind me, Mr. Van Buren, they will run over you, sir." The Vice-President, not one to quibble with Jackson, especially over these matters, hastily complied.

Van Buren used to tell this tale to indicate Jackson's fatherly protection and care for him when he was campaigning for the Presidency in 1836."

~ 22 Balie Peyton, "President Jackson's Orders and Reminiscences," in The Rural Sun ( 1873 ), quoted in Anderson, The American Thoroughbred, 245

Geez, everyone just sees Jackson as a papa wolf, don't they?

I can easily imagine Buren fake crying against someone he doesn't want to win. And Jackson makes Buren get behind him while bombarding that someone insults. All the while Buren is just smirking watching the scene unfold.😑😑

But I love these kinds of stories about him!

It shows how nice and caring he was towards his friends 🥰

[antebellumite]

For the fic title game: Don’t you hear me howling, babe? (Hozier lyrics always seem to be good titles)

Title: Don't you hear me howling, babe? Author: antebellumite Fandom: Political RPF-US 19th C. Rating: M Summary: AU in which the Nullification Crisis blows up in 1831, resulting in, among other things, South Carolina and Georgia both nullifying federal law, military action being sent into these states, a combination of unlikely allies as attempts to stem a revolt kick in, and much more. This story is told through a THEN and NOW format.

The NOW aspect is the main storyline. It takes place in 1838. It features a post-war/currently-occupied Georgia and SC negotiating a rejoining of the Union. This is told through the POV of Henry Clay as he battles post-war reconstruction through the roadblocks of a tired Van Buren administration, a struggling economy, and disgruntled colleagues who aren't willing to compromise (Benton, Webster, Clayton). Along with that, Clay must contend with an ex-Vice President on the run, the ever-present issue of Native American sovereignty, and his own political ambitions. that he's struggling to keep afloat. It's a juggling act, hard for anyone, and especially for Clay. Some of Clay's enemies even suspect that he himself might have played a roll with John C Calhoun's apparent escape...an allegation that might have more merit than the people know.

Spread among the NOW aspect are occasional flashbacks showing the politics, point of divergence, backroom deals, emotions, etc that led up to this point. Some revelations include why Georgia joined up in Nullification, how the Jackson administration actually dealt with the secession in the early years, what happened to the Cherokee and Seminoles as they negotiated with the federal government in order to make the best out of this new situation, what the political situation was like in the Union during the war, how many people died during the war, what's the occupation like now...and perhaps most interestingly for our audience... how did Vice President Calhoun actually escape prison (where he was supposed to be executed) and where is he now?

It's a longfic, probably non-chronological, and yes, hozier makes for amazing titles.

[notreallyimportant]

The DailyMail put out an article saying that Vice President Kamala Harris is a descendant of an Irish enslaver that made his way over to Jamaica, but then fought for abolition in London. Like I wonder why? And there’s a 99% chance it wasn’t consensual. Most African Americans, AfroLatinos, and Afro Caribbeans that have European DNA from their 4x(+) grandparents were because of rape, enslaved Africans weren’t even seen as property in a lot of cases, some treated worse than animals.

But many refuse to acknowledge the fact that, of the 18 presidents from 1789- 1877, its been confirmed that 12 of them owned enslaved Africans. They were : George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses Grant. And it’s also been confirmed that Thomas Jefferson has Black descendants via ( because she couldn’t say no when she was owned by him, it was rape) Sally Hemming.

[digitalnewberry]

Pass the three varieties of squirrel, please: Thanksgiving in 1870

Menu for Thanksgiving Day, Everett House hotel, Chicago, November 24, 1870

While many think of Thanksgiving Day as a timeless American tradition, it did not become the federal holiday celebrated on a late November Thursday until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. The Newberry's Graff Collection includes the printed menu for the Thanksgiving Day meal served seven years later, on November 24, 1870, at Chicago's Everett House hotel, located at the corner of Clark and Van Buren streets. The details of this nineteenth-century menu may shock a twenty-first-century palate. Some of today's usual suspects are here: roast wild goose and turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed and sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie all appear on the menu. In addition, however, there is an assortment of "side dishes" of roasted or broiled game, including black bear, buffalo, sandhill crane, "oppossum" (sic), nine varieties of duck, and three of squirrel. "Maccaroni" (sic) appears as a dessert option, after the pastry course of pies, cakes, and puddings.

Read the full post by Will Hansen, Vice President for Collections and Library Services and Curator of Americana

View this item or more items from the Everett D. Graff Collection of U.S. Western Expansion at Newberry Digital Collections

[yr-obedt-cicero]

Did James and A Junior not get along? What's their whole deal?

There seems to have been strain between the two, heavily on James's side. There aren't many signs of the two starting this sort of rivalry in childhood, but when you consider the way the children were usually grouped into two or three kids when traveling or attending school, and with James and Alexander not being too far from each other in age; it is likely constantly being shoved together may have started some bitter feelings—In 1795 when the family moved back to New York, the boys enrolled in Bishop Moore's school for boys on Staten Island, [x] and later Alexander was then likely transferred to Tod's school in New Utrecht with James, during 1800. [x]

But the only moment one can actually definitely pinpoint when their clashing started was - according to James - when their grandfather, Philip Schuyler, died in the November of 1804. And James claimed to have had to help his mother with their finances by himself since Alexander was “was away from home attending to his commercial affairs”;

It was my good fortune to have almost the entire care and management of [Elizabeth Hamilton's] affairs. The elder son, Alexander, was away from home attending to his commercial affairs. I remained at the Grange with her as long as she remained there, attending to the cultivation and household, and after her father’s death I became useful in collecting her rents and selling such parts of her property as her needs required.

Source — Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton

James was a bit young at the time, only being 16 years old and hadn't even graduated yet. General Schuyler's death was also salt in the wound for the family that was still grieving the death of Hamilton, so it must have been a large amount of responsibility and heartache for James to take up at such a young age. James doesn't describe much as to where Alex was, or what he was doing; but he was likely taking on his lessons and jobs, as he had graduated near Hamilton's death, and letters to and from Eliza showcase his eagerness to leave the nest, and even small implications of misbehavior (Check out @theelizapapers for more information). Eliza evidently being saddened by this as she was finding it hard to let her children go so soon after Hamilton's death. Which may have also played a part in James's resentment towards Alexander for repeatedly only caring about himself when Eliza was in a depressed state of grieving.

James claims Alexander was busy with commerical affairs, which might have been his work in a commercial house—as just a few months prior in August, King mentions to Clarkson; “Mrs. Hamilton having written to Mr. Cabot to endeavour to procure for Alexander a situation in a respectable commercial house, Mr. Higginson has readily consented to take him; and until a suitable family can be found to take Alexander as a boarder, Mr. Higginson will receive him into his own family.” [x]

In fact, James seems to bash Alexander a little more in his memoirs with a petty undertone as these certain details come up unnecessarily;

I was moved to go on this expedition, first, because I felt it was my duty to show a readiness to risk something in support of law and order; second, because I wished to give this public demonstration that I did not concur in the views entertained on this subject by my brother Alexander, who was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Park meeting, and lastly, because I desired to be in a fight to know how men do and how I myself would behave on such an occasion.

Source — Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton

The brothers seemed to have contrasting political opinions that likely fueled their resentment, James was a loyal Jacksonian with a close partnership with Andrew Jackson, and Alexander was a Calhounite who supported and corresponded with John C. Calhoun (Way to disappoint your father, guys). When James was assisting Jackson and Van Buren with work on a speech that preached to get rid of the Bank of the United States, it appears Alexander sent a letter to Biddle warning him that the permanency of the Bank was in danger, who unfortunately, didn't believe him at first;

However, a week later, Nicholas Biddle was warned by Alexander Hamilton, jr., 27 November 1829, that the President would speak against the Bank in his message: “I have long had an anxious solicitude for the permanency of the Bank of the United States,” he wrote, “and it is consequently a source of deep regret that I understood the renewal of its charter is to be unfavourably noticed in the President's message.” Mr Biddle refused to believe the warning. He replied the next day: “The rumor to which you allude,” he said, “I have not heard from any other quarter, and I believe it is entirely without foundation. My reason for thinking so is that during a recent visit to Washington from which I returned on Thursday last, I had much conversation of a very full and frank character with the President about the Bank, in all which he never intimated any such purpose. On the contrary he spoke in terms the most kind and gratifying towards the institution—expressed his thanks for the services it had rendered the Government since his connection with it, and I look to the message with expectations of the most satisfactory kind.”

[...]

Alexander Hamilton, jr., was a supporter of John C. Calhoun—his brother James A. Hamilton, a supporter of Andrew Jackson. But it is a reasonable conjecture that the first brother got from the second the news of which he warned Nicholas Biddle.

[...]

James A. Hamilton says that he was called on to help President Jackson with this message and that in the draft already written the Bank “was attacked at great length in a loose, newspaper, slashing style.” He says he advised that the subject be omitted, but the President declared himself to be “pledged against the Bank.” He says the President told him a little later that in attacking the Bank he disliked to act contrary to the opinion of a majority of his Cabinet but could not shirk his duty. At the same time, Hamilton says he was asked to work out the details of Jackson's “proposed National Bank,” which was to be “attached” to the Treasury and to have the “Customhouse a branch.”

Source — Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War, by Bray Hammond · 1991

Additionally, according to The Hamiltonian Tradition in the United States, 1804-1912, when James was writing in the newspaper advocating for the use of black regiments against the Confederacy, Alexander offered to volunteer and lead one. Although he was like 77 years old, so of course it didn't actually happen. [x]

In Alexander's defense, he was not as deadbeat as James usually claims him to be. In 1833, Alexander used the funds from the sale of The Grange and purchased a townhouse, and between 1833-1842, he and his wife, Eliza P. Knox, lived with his mother, his sister, Eliza Hamilton Holly, and her husband, Sidney Augustus Holly, in New York City, at 4 St. Mark's Place.

But there did seem to be reappearing family disputes between the two, as in the November of 1859, Holly had died a month earlier, and the surviving brothers (Alex, James, John, Phil II) and their respective families were trying to reach a satisfactory conclusion on how to deal with her will. James was angered by Alexander's and his wife's demands, and Phil seemed to have taken the place as a peace maker;

I hope you have taken measures to prove the will without delay the parton [illegible] by going an address [illegible] will render delay unnecessary. I hope you will sell all the furniture at Auction & Press after distributing the articles bequeathed then, the work is done except so far as refers to your payment to Alex & wife during their Les Interest on $7000 as to that if he should talk to you about security altho he has no right to it tell him I will be security for you or that you will purchase an annuity to him & his wife of $420.

Here is a man who has the audacity to ask his brother who is Executor to give security for the luckful perkmen of [illegible] when he was administrator squandered the Estate leaving a larger debt unpaid and his to be prosecuted. Such impudence be excused. How all much forgive but not yet forget. Let me know if I can be of use to you (...).

Source — James Alexander Hamilton to Philip Hamilton II, [November 1, 1859]

It seems grudges were still being held. To make matters worse, Holly seems to have been the one to hold many of her father's papers after her mother passed, and during this family arrangement Alexander Jr had taken off with some of his father's documents without any explanation. As Phil expressed his annoyance with this when in 1859, Phil created a calendar of letters written by his father that Holly had been holding. Each description is of a letter, but one to Alexander Hamilton from Sarah Alexander, Lady Stirling, dated the 26th of June, 1801, Phil remarks that it had been; “taken by my brother Alexr Hamilton from the house of my sister E H Holly immediately after her death without any colour of right or authority.” [x]

I've made plenty of analysis and theory posts about why Alexander seems to have been so negligent and arrogant towards his siblings, but I'll summarize them by saying that Alexander was likely insecure and felt he wasn't suited for the role of head of the family. Even when it was most traditional for the eldest son to take up the spot, Alexander was nowhere near prepared to take on such a heavy responsibility after his eldest brother died, his sister became mentally impaired, and his father's unfortunate death too. Not to mention, Alexander seems to have felt as though he constantly needed to prove himself worthy of being Hamilton's son, and likely prioritized his career and name over his family's situation due to such. And there is the whole deal about Eliza claiming James was Hamilton's favorite son (While living with Alex Jr too), [x] which would have been considerable if true as Hamilton seemed to have taken preference for James over Alex after Philip's death. An interesting note if Hamilton was truly just valuing the eldest to be prepared to take on the family mantle, but instead found James more promising than Alexander.

Anyway, hope this helps!

[ausetkmt]

Her name was Julia Chinn, and her role in Richard Mentor Johnson’s life caused a furor when the Kentucky Democrat was chosen as Martin Van Buren’s running mate in 1836.

She was born enslaved and remained that way her entire life, even after she became Richard Mentor Johnson’s “bride.”

Johnson, a Kentucky congressman who eventually became the nation’s ninth vice president in 1837, couldn’t legally marry Julia Chinn. Instead the couple exchanged vows at a local church with a wedding celebration organized by the enslaved people at his family’s plantation in Great Crossing, according to Miriam Biskin, who wrote about Chinn decades ago.

Chinn died nearly four years before Johnson took office. But because of controversy over her, Johnson is the only vice president in American history who failed to receive enough electoral votes to be elected. The Senate voted him into office.

The couple’s story is complicated and fraught, historians say. As an enslaved woman, Chinn could not consent to a relationship, and there’s no record of how she regarded him. Though she wrote to Johnson during his lengthy absences from Kentucky, the letters didn’t survive.

Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, who is working on a book about Chinn, wrote about the hurdles in a blog post for the Association of Black Women Historians.

“While doing my research, I was struck by how Julia had been erased from the history books,” wrote Myers, a history professor at Indiana University. “Nobody knew who she was. The truth is that Julia (and Richard) are both victims of legacies of enslavement, interracial sex, and silence around black women’s histories.”

Johnson’s life is far better documented.

He was elected as a Democrat to the state legislature in 1802 and to Congress in 1806. The folksy, handsome Kentuckian gained a reputation as a champion of the common man.

Back home in Great Crossing, he fathered a child with a local seamstress, but didn’t marry her when his parents objected, according to the biography “The Life and Times of Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky.” Then, in about 1811, Johnson, 31, turned to Chinn, 21, who had been enslaved at Blue Spring Plantation since childhood.

Johnson called Chinn “my bride.” His “great pleasure was to sit by the fireplace and listen to Julia as she played on the pianoforte,” Biskin wrote in her account.

The couple soon had two daughters, Imogene and Adaline. Johnson gave his daughters his last name and openly raised them as his children.

Johnson became a national hero during the War of 1812. At the Battle of the Thames in Canada, he led a horseback attack on the British and their Native American allies. He was shot five times but kept fighting. During the battle, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh was killed.

In 1819, “Colonel Dick” was elected to the U.S. Senate. When he was away in Washington for long periods, he left Chinn in charge of the 2,000-acre plantation and told his White employees that they should “act with the same propriety as if I were home.”

Chinn’s status was unique.

While enslaved women wore simple cotton dresses, Chinn’s wardrobe “included fancy dresses that turned heads when Richard hosted parties,” Christina Snyder wrote in her book “Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers & Slaves in the Age of Jackson.”

In 1825, Chinn and Johnson hosted the Marquis de Lafayette during his return to America.

In the mid-1820s, Johnson opened on his plantation the Choctaw Academy, a federally funded boarding school for Native Americans. He hired a local Baptist minister as director. Chinn ran the academy’s medical ward.

“Julia is as good as one half the physicians, where the complaint is not dangerous,” Johnson wrote in a letter. He paid the academy’s director extra to educate their daughters “for a future as free women.”

Johnson tried to advance his daughters in local society, and both would later marry White men. But when he spoke at a local July Fourth celebration, the Lexington Observer reported, prominent White citizens wouldn’t let Adaline sit with them in the pavilion. Johnson sent his daughter to his carriage, rushed through his speech and then angrily drove away.

When Johnson’s father died, he willed ownership of Chinn to his son. He never freed his common-law wife.

“Whatever power Chinn had was dependent on the will and the whims of a White man who legally owned her,” Snyder wrote.

Then, in 1833, Chinn died of cholera. It’s unclear where she is buried.

Johnson went on to even greater national prominence.

In 1836, President Andrew Jackson backed Vice President Martin Van Buren as his successor. At Jackson’s urging, Van Buren — a fancy dresser who had never fought in war — picked war hero Johnson as his running mate. Nobody knew how the Shawnees’ chief was slain in the War of 1812, but Johnson’s campaign slogan was, “Rumpsey, Dumpsey. Johnson Killed Tecumseh.”

Johnson’s relationship with Chinn became a campaign issue. Southern newspapers denounced him as “the great Amalgamationist.” A mocking cartoon showed a distraught Johnson with a hand over his face bewailing “the scurrilous attacks on the Mother of my Children.”

This political cartoon was a racist attack on Johnson because of his relationship with Julia Chinn. (Library of Congress)

Van Buren won the election, but Johnson’s 147 electoral votes were one short of what he needed to be elected. Virginia’s electors refused to vote for him. It was the only time Congress chose a vice president.

When Van Buren ran for reelection in 1840, Democrats declined to nominate Johnson at their Baltimore convention. It is the only time a party didn’t pick any vice-presidential candidate. The spelling-challenged Jackson warned that Johnson would be a “dead wait” on the ticket.

“Old Dick” still ended up being the leading choice and campaigned around the country wearing his trademark red vest. But Van Buren lost to Johnson’s former commanding officer, Gen. William Henry Harrison.

Johnson never remarried, but he reportedly had sexual relationships with other enslaved women who couldn’t consent to them.

The former vice president won a final election to the Kentucky legislature in 1850, but died a short time later at the age of 70.

His brothers laid claim to his estate at the expense of his surviving daughter, Imogene, who was married to a White man named Daniel Pence.

“At some point in the early twentieth century,” Myers wrote, “perhaps because of heightened fears of racism during the Jim Crow era, members of Imogene Johnson Pence’s line, already living as white people, chose to stop telling their children that they were descended from Richard Mentor Johnson … and his black wife. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that younger Pences, by then already in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, began discovering the truth of their heritage.”

[deadpresidents]

If Walz wins he'll be the third vp in 50 years from MN. If VA is the cradle of presidents what is the cradle of vps??

Virginia is barely holding on to the title of "Cradle of the Presidents". There have been eight Presidents born in Virginia (Washington; Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; W.H. Harrison; Tyler; Taylor; and Wilson), and seven Presidents born in Ohio, all of whom served in the White House in the 52 years before the 1868 and 1920 elections (Grant; Hayes; Garfield; B. Harrison; McKinley; Taft; and Harding).

As for Vice Presidents, New York is, by far, the "Cradle of the Vice Presidents". Eight Vice Presidents were born in New York (G. Clinton; Tompkins; Van Buren; Fillmore; Colfax. Wheeler; T. Roosevelt; and Sherman). And New York was the official state of residency for eleven Vice Presidents (Burr; G. Clinton; Tompkins; Van Buren; Fillmore; Wheeler; Arthur; Morton; T. Roosevelt; Sherman; and Rockefeller).

Here's a quick look at the state of birth for each of our Vice Presidents, as well as the state they represented (which was their official state of residency at the time of their election):

[reynard61]

Yesterday, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker wrote to Abbott, calling him out for choosing “to sow chaos in an attempt to score political points.” Pritzker noted that Abbott is “sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter—many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow—to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here.” Chicago’s temperatures are set to drop below zero this weekend, Pritzker wrote, and he “strongly urge[d]” Abbott to stop sending people to Illinois in these conditions. “You are dropping off asylum seekers without alerting us to their arrivals, at improper locations at all hours of the night.” Pritzker wrote that he supports bipartisan immigration reform but “[w]hile action is pending at the federal level, I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves. Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people’s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state. We are asking you to help prevent additional deaths. We should be able to come together in a bipartisan fashion to urge Congress to act. But right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival. I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now.” Speaking on the right-wing Dana Loesch Show last week, Abbott said, “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”

Given that your cruel, hateful edict -- one cannot rightly call it a "law" or "policy" given how willfully criminal it is -- has already killed three people, that would be an excellent idea.

On January 13, 1833, President Andrew Jackson wrote to Vice President–elect Martin van Buren to explain his position on South Carolina’s recent assertion that sovereign states could overrule federal laws. “Was this to be permitted the government would lose the confidence of its citizens and it would induce disunion everywhere. No my friend, the crisis must be now met with firmness, our citizens protected, and the modern doctrine of nullification and secession put down forever…. [N]othing must be permitted to weaken our government at home or abroad,” he wrote.

How ironic, given that Jackson a) is such a hero of The Fascist Gasbag, whose own immigration policies edicts have contributed to much of the current chaos and himself did much to "weaken our government at home or abroad"; and b) practiced his own doctrine of nullification when he stripped indigenous Americans of their lands and homes. Not someone that I'd be quoting in this particular circumstance... 😒

[umbralwaves]

Award-winning historian Amrita Chakrabarti Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796–1833), the enslaved wife of Richard Mentor Johnson, owner of Blue Spring Farm, veteran of the War of 1812, and US vice president under Martin Van Buren. Johnson never freed Chinn, but during his frequent absences from his estate, he delegated to her the management of his property, including Choctaw Academy, a boarding school for Indigenous men and boys on the grounds of the estate. This meant that Chinn, although enslaved herself, oversaw Blue Spring's slave labor force and had substantial control over economic, social, financial, and personal affairs within the couple's world. Chinn's relationship with Johnson was unlikely to have been consensual since she was never manumitted.

What makes Chinn's life exceptional is the power that Johnson invested in her, the opportunities the couple's relationship afforded her and her daughters, and their community's tacit acceptance of the family—up to a point. When the family left their farm, they faced steep limits: pews at the rear of the church, burial in separate graveyards, exclusion from town dances, and more. Johnson’s relationship with Chinn ruined his political career and Myers compellingly demonstrates that it wasn't interracial sex that led to his downfall but his refusal to keep it—and Julia Chinn—behind closed doors.

[rahulrainbow]

ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES OF AMERICAN ELECTION 2024

About Presidential Candidates Of American Election 2024 The United States of America’s presidential election will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. The eligible voters will elect a president and vice president for a term of four years. About Presidential Candidates Of American Election 2024 . About Democratic Party It is founded in 1828 by Martin Van Buren. He assembled politicians in every…

[digitalyarbs]

The Real Face of 8th President Martin Van Buren.

An updated and more realistic version of the the reconstructed life mask of 8th President Martin Van Buren cast by sculptor John Henri Isaac Browere in 1833.

During the late spring of 1833, Browere embarked on a journey to Washington with the intention of creating a life mask of President Andrew Jackson. However, Jackson declined the offer to sit for the mask. Fortunately, Vice President Martin Van Buren stepped in and agreed to be the subject instead. Browere captured Van Buren's likeness in the form of a life mask bust, marking the the last known life mask to be cast by Browere.

The life mask of Van Buren presents a different image than what we are accustomed to seeing in his later photographs. Unlike the familiar portrayal of him with disheveled hair and large sideburns, the life mask captures him during a time when his hair was brown and he maintained a more polished and well-groomed appearance.

Browere's casting process was done with his subjects sitting upright using a lighter plaster mixture that did not distort the facial features.

According to David Meschutt's "A Bold Experiment: John Henri Isaac Browere's Life Masks of Prominent Americans","In preparing his subjects, Browere oiled the skin, eyebrows and hair, and put straws in the nostrils to facilitate breathing. He then warmed his mixture in order to make it more pliable and applied it in several light layers to the face and, in some cases, to the neck, shoulders, and chest of the subject. He allowed about twenty minutes for the plaster to set. When he removed the hardened plaster, he had a negative mold; by pouring plaster into the mold, he produced a positive cast of the subject's head. He then applied the mask to an armature and molded the torso in plaster. He refined the mask by by modeling open eyes and hair, but did not otherwise alter its appearance. The result was a startlingly realistic likeness, in no way idealized.

"The substance which Browere applied to his sitter's face was his own invention. Earlier sculptors had used plaster of Paris but that is heavy material and can distort the shape of the face. Browere experimented with different mixtures of plaster until he finally produced a light weight substance. The exact composition of the medium was a closely-guarded secret which Browere passed along only to his son Albertus and which Albertus transmitted to no one."