pres-i-dent of whom it
has been said that he was bet-ter liked when he went out of of-fice
than when he went in.

The last years of his life were spent at "The Her-mit-age," where he
died on June 8th, 1845.

THE LIFE OF MAR-TIN VAN BU-REN.

The place in which Mar-tin Van Bu-ren was born was far from the homes
of the oth-er boys who be-came our pres-i-dents; and his life, as a boy,
was not one bit like theirs. His fa-ther and moth-er were Dutch; Hoes
was his moth-er's queer name; and the name of the small town, in which,
on De-cem-ber 5th, 1782, he was born, was Dutch too--Kin-der-hook; the
lit-tle town was on the Hud-son Riv-er, way up in New York state. His
fa-ther kept a good inn, and had a small farm; so he could send Mar-tin
to good schools; Mar-tin was so quick and bright at his books that he
took up the study of law when he was four-teen; and at twen-ty-one he
was a law-yer and at work in Kin-der-hook. He was a man who made friends
with great ease; and as he was a good law-yer as well, his state soon
saw that he was the man to speak for it at Wash-ing-ton. So in 1821 he
was sent to Con-gress; then in 1828 he was made gov-ern-or of New York
state; and this was a big step toward the pres-i-dent's chair; he was
sec-re-tary of state when Jack-son was pres-i-dent; and in 1837 he took
the oath of of-fice, and be-came pres-i-dent.

He was in of-fice on-ly one term; and those four years were hard ones
for him.

Just at this time the men in Can-a-da tried to be free from Eng-land,
and have home-rule; and some of our men took sides with them; this made
Eng-land an-gry of course; and if Van Bu-ren had not put a stop to such
things, we should have had war once more; but he said all who tried to
give aid to Can-a-da should be sent to jail; and so the fear of war was
put down.

At the end of Van Bu-ren's first term some want-ed him to take the chair
a-gain; but more want-ed Gen-er-al Har-ri-son, who had made a great name
in the In-di-an wars. Van Bu-ren was rich, and Har-ri-son was poor;
and this race for the pres-i-dent's chair was called the "Log Cab-in
a-gainst the White House." Af-ter Har-ri-son took the chair, Van Bu-ren
went back to his home at Kin-der-hook, where he lived in qui-et, until,
in 1848, he was once more put up for pres-i-dent; but James K. Polk had
more votes than he, and so won the e-lec-tion.

In 1853 Van Bu-ren and his son went to Eu-rope, where they stayed two
years. He spent the rest of