Late 18th century Kinderhook, New York in Columbia County is a small village with a smattering of houses, a dry good store, and of course a tavern.

It is run by a man named Abraham Van Buren, born of Dutch parents, immigrants from Burlmansen in the Netherlands.

This evening, Abraham, who speaks Dutch with his wife and children, has rushed into town from his farm

to tend to a gathering of customers,

politicians en route from New York City to Albany,

the newly named State Capitol.

With these men, he speaks English. His son Martin, 14 years old, works the

bar. For Martin, English might as well be his native tongue, learning to read and write it

fluently at the village schoolhouse.

And he will go on to develop formidable communication skills in his future career as a law clerk,

a state national politician, and remarkably for this tavern owner's son as eighth president of the

United States. The Oh, All communities are apt to look to government for too much.

Even in our own country, where its powers and duties are so strictly limited we are prone to do so especially

at periods of sudden embarrassment and distress but its real duty, that duty, the performance of which makes a good government the most precious of human blessings, is to enact and enforce a system of general laws commensurate with, but not exceeding, the

objects of its establishment.

And to leave every citizen and every interest to reap under its benign protection the rewards of virtue, industry, and prudence.

This is American History Hit. I'm your host Don Wildman. We're lucky you're listening.

Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, was, well, you'd be hard-pressed to find an average American who could fill in the rest of that

sentence. But in fact, Martin Van Buren from New York State's Hudson Valley, who lived from 1782 to

1862, died at 79 years of age, was a political

titan of his time. But he now falls into the category of less than

remembered presidents, where astonishing resumes and

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