The Red Fox at Staatsburgh: Martin Van Buren & Morgan Lewis’s Letters

Have you ever read someone’s handwriting that’s just un-readable...looked over a note from a friend or loved one and said, “how do you expect me to read this?!”

We found ourselves in this exact situation while examining three handwritten letters in Staatsburgh’s archives. Unfortunately, we could not ask the sender what they had written, because the sender was the 8^th President of the United States, Martin van Buren (who has been dead for 162 years!). However, the researchers at the Papers of Martin Van Buren Project at Cumberland University were kind enough to stand-in for the President and transcribe his difficult handwriting for us. These three letters reveal a complicated political relationship, but a close personal friendship, between Van Buren and Staatsburgh’s founder, Morgan Lewis. 

Martin Van Buren and Morgan Lewis silhouette portraits by Auguste Edouart, c. 1841.
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Martin & Morgan

Martin Van Buren and Morgan Lewis were both born-and-bred New Yorkers. Lewis was born before the American Revolution in 1754, while Van Buren hails from the first generation born after the Declaration of Independence (for your next Jeopardy! appearance: Van Buren is the first US president not born in the British colonies). Both men rose up the ranks of New York State politics through long careers. Lewis and Van Buren both served as New York Attorney General (1791-1792 and 1816-1819, respectfully). Both men served as New York State Senators, even serving at the same time for a brief period in 1813. Finally, both men served as New York State Governor; Lewis from 1804-1807, Van Buren for just two months in 1829 before resigning to serve as Secretary of State!

As men of means in the early 19^th century, Lewis and Van Buren were tied to the institution of slavery in New York. Lewis was raised in the household of his father, Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; a household run by enslaved people. Lewis himself would enslave at least nine people of African descent at his Staatsburgh estate during the early 1800s (see our “Enslaved & In Service” series to learn more!). Martin’s father, Abraham Van Buren, enslaved six people on their small farm and inn in Kinderhook, New York during Martin’s childhood. While serving as Secretary of State, Van Buren’s home, Decatur House in Washington D.C., listed four enslaved women on the federal census – likely hired out by their enslavers to Van Buren rather than being the actual ‘property’ of the northerner. It appears Van Buren, described as "a northern man with southern principles," enslaved at least one person during his life. Several moments during his presidency point to his support of slavery in the name of national unity (and political power); from vowing to protect the institution in Washington D.C. during his inaugural address to favoring extradition of the enslaved Amistad rebels back to Africa.

“Now Induce Us to Oppose Him”

The first vote Martin Van Buren ever cast in a political election was for Morgan Lewis. In 1803, Van Buren was a young lawyer, recently admitted to the New York bar. He set up a practice in his native Kinderhook. Van Buren became a “zealous adherent” of Thomas Jefferson and supported Morgan Lewis in his run for governor the following year. The young lawyer “immersed himself in the campaign” according to biographer James M. Bradly - against the wishes of his political mentor, William P. Van Ness, an ardent supporter of Lewis’s opponent, Vice President Aaron Burr.[i] Van Buren’s open support for Lewis—outlined in a letter to Van Ness—ended their friendship. On Election Day, Burr supporters, including Van Ness’s father, approached poll inspectors and openly challenged Van Buren’s right to vote. While the officials sided with Van Buren, he was forced to take an oath – a scene the future-president called an “indignity.”

Interesting, James M. Bradly argues that if Van Buren had tied himself to the losing candidate, Aaron Burr—a political outcast following his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton later that summer—instead of Lewis, that his political career may have ended before it even started in 1804![ii]

Van Buren’s letter to Van Ness outlining his support for Morgan Lewis -
a letter that ultimately ruined their friendship.
Courtesy of The Papers of Martin Van Buren.

However, when Lewis sought re-election in 1807, Van Buren turned his back on him. The young lawyer, now making a name for himself in New York politics, believed Lewis was no longer living up to the standards of their political party. In 1807, Van Buren signed the “Address of the Columbia County Republicans” in support of Lewis’s rival, Daniel D. Tompkins, preferring the “purer, older, and less patrician [aristocratic] Democracy” of Tompkins. “Having at the last gubernatorial election supported Mr. Lewis,” the address stated,  the Republicans found it necessary to outline “some of the reasons which now induce us to oppose him,” including his flip-flopping banking policy, accusations of bribery and corruption, and debasing “the dignity of his office” by interfering in county elections.

Morgan Lewis by Henry Inman in Staatsburgh’s collection.

The Columbia County Republicans’ most critical claim—political nepotism – was one aspect of Lewis’s political career that would follow him for decades. The committee accused Lewis of “bestowing of every office on his family” adding rhetorically “Has he [Lewis] not on all occasions aided and solicited in advancing his own relatives to offices which neither their claims, their capacity, nor their merits, entitled them to fill?” Basically, the members of Lewis’s own party said the Governor’s family members  had neither merit nor credibility for the roles they  had been given in New York government. Furthermore, they note Lewis has not only “sanctioned and approved the removal of many of the most distinguished republicans in this state” for his own family, but in fact for members of the opposing Federalist party! Lewis’s son-in-law, Maturin Livingston,  was called out as one such nepotistic appointment who then sided with the opposing party,  thus “displacing republicans” much to the ire of Martin Van Buren and the Republican party. Their arguments concluded with a rather harsh characterization of the Governor as “a man who has thus prostituted the dignity of his office to personal and interested views.” Ouch.

“Staatborough, 1833”

Detail of letter from by Van Buren from ‘Staatborough.”
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

By 1833, the roles had largely reversed for Van Buren and Lewis. The former was now vice president of the United States under Andrew Jackson, while the latter had largely retired as a country gentleman to his estate, Staatsburgh. That year, Van Buren paid a visit to the former Governor, whom he once supported, then turned his back on. In a letter to President Jackson dated September 14, 1833, written from “Staatborough,”the Vice President noted “Mr. Irving and myself have been spending a couple of days here, very pleasantly, with our old friend Gen Lewis.” The “Mr. Irving” mentioned was Washington Irving, famed Hudson Valley author of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”! The two men met  in the British embassy in London earlier in the decade, and were currently engaged “on a tour which will take us four or five weeks.” Irving described “moving about almost incessantly during the summer and autumn” with Van Buren “visiting old scenes about the Hudson” adding the two made “a delightful journey … in an open carriage from Kinderhook to Poughkeepsie.”

Martin Van Buren (c. 1830) Courtesy of the White House Historical Association.

Washington Irvin (c. 1840). Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Nothing more is known about the duo’s visit to Staatsburgh. Surely, the conversation turned to national politics at some point. In the same letter to Jackson, Van Buren notes Lewis “desires me to say a word to you in [sic] behalf of the Mechanicks Bank of New York” – a political issue known as the Bank War that would define part of Jackson’s presidency. The following year, Morgan Lewis corresponded with the vice president where they discussed the infamous Tammany Hall political machine of New York City, economics and national finance, and the U.S. Bank. Lewis wrote “I am no[t] proficient in the science of political Economicks [sic], nor in that of Banking. The former came into fashion too late in the day for me, and the latter I have had no reason to feel an interest in” before concluding with the political gossip of the day.

Despite Van Buren calling out Lewis almost thirty years ago for “advancing his own relatives to offices,” the former governor added a post-script asking, “When Hasslers Assistant are appointed I pray you not to forget my grandson Alfred Livingston.” Hasslar likely refers to Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, the pioneering Swiss-born surveyor appointed by President Jackson as the Superintendent of Weights and Measures, tasked with standardizing the weights and measures in the United States. Alfred, the second son of Morgan’s daughter Margaret, was an alcoholic and was constantly worried-over by his mother. In  letters to Alfred’s sister, Gitty,  Margaret mentions how Alfred can’t keep a job and is often home and depressed.[iii] To become  an assistant to the powerful Superintendent of Weights and Measures would no doubt be a turn in fortunes for a young man like Alfred; if Van Buren ever went through with Lewis’s request remains to be discovered.

The Red Fox

President Martin Van Buren by Henry Inman, c. 1837–38.
Courtesy of The MET.

The two New Yorkers continued their correspondence when Van Buren was elected to the highest position in the land. The earliest letter written by the president in Staatsburgh’s archive is dated February 12, 1838. The president began by writing that a difference in opinion regarding public affairs could not “impair my respect or regard for you [Lewis.]” However, Lewis appears to have been up to his familiar schemes again, as Van Buren goes on to say “I cannot comply with your request in regard to your nephew.” It appears Lewis again asked for a government position from the White House, only this time in the Treasury Department (an interesting choice, as Lewis’s great-great grandson, Ogden L. Mills, would become the Treasury Secretary in 1932). In a post-script, Van Buren reassures Lewis that they both agree on the issue of public lands—in his first State of the Union address the previous year, Van Buren called for reducing the price of government-owned lands on the American frontier—and asked the former-governor “Will you not pay us a visit when the weather becomes milder? I would give me much pleasure to receive you.”

The second Van Buren letter in Staatsburgh’s collection underscores the president’s respect for his political elder. Written in 1839, Van Buren passed along a note from Secretary of War Joel Roberts Poinsett regarding “your recent application” and notes “the character of the mistake you committed.” Did Lewis’s push for government appointments for grandsons and nephews go too far? Unfortunately, the letter from Poinsett has not survived – so we may never know.[iv] In Van Buren’s letter, he reassured Lewis “No one who knows you … will, I am sure, ever doubt the integrity of your motives in the affair,” and sent his best wishes to Lewis’s daughter, Margaret, and her husband, Maturin. (Interestingly, an earlier note in Staatsburgh’s archives from Poinsett’s predecessor as Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, noted a position Lewis campaigned for for one of his grandsons “is under the control of the Treasury” – thus, Cass noted he is “unable to comply” with Lewis’s request.)

Two of Staatsburgh’s Martin Van Buren letters.

During his presidency, Van Buren was known as the Red Fox for “his political dexterity.” Despite what appears from the letters to be tense moments between the Hudson Valley politicians, Van Buren displayed both his respect as a citizen and his savviness as a politician towards Lewis and his requests.

Lindenwald, today the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
in Kinderhook, New York.

After losing re-election in 1840, Van Buren retired to his Kinderhook estate, Lindenwald. The final letter from Van Buren in our archives was written during this period. Morgan Lewis died on April 7, 1844, at the age of 89. His grandson, Mortimer Livingston, asked if the former president would serve as a pallbearer at the funeral. Van Buren wrote regretfully that he would be unable to attend the service, but added:

You do me but justice in ranking me among his most devoted friends. The feelings of veneration & respect which I entertained for him, were, not only founded on a deep sense of his many private virtues, & meritorious public services, but had been warmed into an affectionate regard by acts of personal kindness at his hands, whilst engaged with him in the public service, & which have been continued to the close of his well spent life.

Certainly, a touching letter from one powerful stateman about another, one that the family must have cherished for generations.

However, we wonder if the family could even read the letter from Van Buren, given his difficult penmanship. These three letters in our archives may have remained unread by the staff here, too, without the careful transcription of the Papers of Martin Van Buren Project. Unlocking the mystery of these letters allows us to explore this previously unknown and at times complicated political relationship and close personal friendship between Martin Van Buren and Morgan Lewis.

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[i] James M. Bradly, Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), 41.

[ii] Bradly, Martin Van Buren, 44.

[iii] In an April 22, 1837 letter, Margaret Lewis Livingston wrote “I have written to my poor boy to return home immediately … Poor Alfred, you [his sister, Gitty] encouraged me to hope for him, too. On what shall I now rest it? The prospect before him is very dark. My God give him light before the scene closes!”

[iv] Joel Roberts Poinsett’s most lasting legacy in American society is perhaps the blooming red flowers he brought back from Mexico as first United States minister to Mexico that bear his name today: poinsettias.