Martin Van Buren

Autograph fragment signed by Martin Van Buren, measuring approximately 1.75 x 4.25 inches. The piece bears Van Buren’s signature in ink, written during his retirement years at Kinderhook, New York, and dated 1852 in the hand at the upper edge of the fragment. The clipped fragment shows visible folds, age toning, scattered spotting, and uneven edges consistent with mid-19th-century paper.  Accompanied by a printed portrait image of Van Buren and an additional sheet providing brief biographical and historical background.

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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