Chapter 37: Jackson’s protégé, Martin Van Buren, is hampered throughout his term.

Van Buren, the creator and master over the Tammany Hall patronage system, manages to hold onto the White House in the 1836 election. But from there he is plagued by multiple headwinds.

He fails to win approval for an Independent Treasury to cope with the Bank Panic; the cause of slavery is set back when the Amistad slaves are set free; and his support erodes when he fails to support annexation of the Republic of Texas for fear of a war with Mexico.

Taken together the Democrats are now vulnerable to opposition led by Jackson’s bete noir, Henry Clay.