<P> With Jackson's strong support, Van Buren faced little opposition for the presidential nomination at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig opponents in the 1836 presidential election . He was the first president to be born a United States citizen . Of Dutch ancestry, he is the only president who spoke English as a second language . As president, Van Buren was blamed for the depression of 1837; hostile newspapers called him "Martin Van Ruin". He attempted to cure the economic problems by keeping control of federal funds in an independent treasury, rather than in state banks, but Congress would not approve of this until 1840 . In foreign affairs, he denied the application of Texas for admission to the Union, unwilling to upset the balance of free and slave states in the Missouri Compromise, and hoping to avoid war with Mexico over Texas annexation . Additionally, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada proved to be strained from the bloodless Aroostook War and the Caroline Affair . In the 1840 election, Van Buren was voted out of office, losing to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison . </P> <P> Van Buren was the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1844, but his continued opposition to the annexation of Texas caused him to lose to James K. Polk, who went on to win the election . In the 1848 election, Van Buren ran unsuccessfully as the candidate of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party . He returned to the Democratic fold to endorse Franklin Pierce (1852), James Buchanan (1856), and Stephen A. Douglas (1860) for the presidency . His increasingly abolitionist views and support for the Union led him to support Abraham Lincoln's policies after the start of the American Civil War . Van Buren's health began to fail in 1861, and he died in July 1862 at age 79 . </P> <P> Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in the village of Kinderhook, New York about 20 miles (32 km) south of Albany on the Hudson River . He was the first President not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry . He was a descendant of Cornelis Maessen of the village of Buurmalsen, near the town of Buren in the Netherlands, who had come to North America in 1631 and had purchased a plot of land on Manhattan Island; his son Martin Cornelisen took the surname Van Buren . His father, Abraham Van Buren (1737--1817), owned and operated an inn and tavern, and Martin was born in a house that was attached to the tavern . Abraham Van Buren supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution as a captain in the Albany County Militia's 7th Regiment, and later joined the Jeffersonian Republicans . He was active in local politics and government, and served as Kinderhook's town clerk from 1787 to 1797 . In 1776, Abraham Van Buren married Maria Hoes (or Goes) Van Alen (1747--1818), the widow of Johannes Van Alen . </P> <P> Although both Abraham and Maria Van Buren were fifth generation residents of the Province of New York, all of their forebears were of Dutch ancestry, as was the case for most of Kinderhook's residents, and they still spoke Dutch as their first language . The future president was baptized on December 15, 1782, as "Maarten Van Buren", the original Dutch spelling of his name . He had four full siblings and three half - siblings . From his mother's first marriage: </P>

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