Martin Van Buren Trivia Quiz

Answer: Netherlands

Van Buren's great great grandfather, Cornelius Maesen, hailed from Buurmalsen in the Netherlands.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

Truman is a distant relative of John Tyler. Nixon is a distant relative of both William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover. Cleveland was a 6th cousin, once removed of Ulysses S. Grant.

Answer: four boys

The names of Van Buren's children were: Abraham, John, Martin Jr., and Smith.

Answer: William Crawford

Crawford was considered the likely winner of the 1824 election until he suffered a stroke. Even after suffering the stroke, Van Buren still supported him for the office.

Answer: 3 months

Van Buren only ran for Governor of New York to improve Andrew Jackson's chances of winning the state in the election of 1828. Van Buren was sworn in as governor in January 1829 and resigned the office in March to become Jackson's secretary of state.

Answer: Great Britain

This was during a period when Jackson was fighting with the Congress on a regular basis.

Answer: Henry Clay

Harrison was the nominee of the Whig Party of the West. Webster was the nominee of the Whig Party of the Northeast and White was the nominee of the Whig Party of the South.

Answer: Willie Magnum

Willie Magnum was the US senator from North Carolina. Hugh White had originally won the electorial votes of South Carolina but the electors refused to support him because of his stand during the nullification crisis.

Answer: Virginia

Johnson was a controversial man at this period in history. He claimed that he was the one that killed Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames and Johnson had taken a slave as his common-law wife. The senate elected Johnson vice-president by a vote of 33-16 over Francis Granger.

Answer: widower

Van Buren's wife, Hannah, died February 5, 1819 from tuberculosis. He never remarried.

Answer: Joel Poinsett

Butler served in the office from 1837-1838. Grundy served from 1838 to 1839 and Gilpin served from 1839-41. Poinsett served as secretary of war in Van Buren's administration.

Answer: Aroostook War

In dispute was 12,000 square miles of land on the Aroostook River between Maine and New Brunswick. The dispute was settled as part of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

Answer: Nigel Hawthorne

Hopkins played former president John Quincy Adams in the movie. George C. Scott played fictional president Samuel Tresch in the 80's Fox series "Mr. President" and Kline played the president in "Dave".
Hawthorne received an Oscar nomination for playing another world leader, England's King George III, in "The Madness of King George" in the mid 90's.

Answer: Free Soil

Van Buren was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1844 but his opposition to the annexation of Texas eventually cost him the nomination. In 1848, the Free-Soil Party, meeting in Buffalo, nominated him and Charles Francis Adams, the son of John Qunicy Adams, for vice-president.

They won no electorial votes but drew enough votes away from Democratic nominee Lewis Cass to give the election to the Whig candidate Zachary Taylor.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Van Buren died July 24, 1862, during Lincoln's first term. Until the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, Lincoln's election in 1861 was the only time in US History that five ex-presidents were still alive. Alive at the time of Lincoln's first election were Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan. Alive at the time of Clinton's first election were Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush.