"Plain Catholics of the North": Martin Van Buren and the Politics of Religion, 1807–1836

Abstract

Historians generally agree that by 1850 Catholics were strongly aligned with the Democratic Party, significantly impacting American politics. Martin Van Buren's role in this story is lacking in the historical literature on Jacksonian America. Catholicism had been outlawed in New York during the colonial era but liberated by the American Revolution. Political barriers were erected against Catholics in the 1780s but overturned by Republicans in the early nineteenth century, led by DeWitt Clinton. Martin Van Buren, Clinton's primary rival in New York, built on his legacy, forging an alliance with Catholics from their common support for the U.S. effort in the War of 1812. As Van Buren sought to renew the Republican Party, he and his "Albany Regency" promoted support for Catholic political equality in the United States and in Ireland. In 1836, Van Buren was charged with being pro-Catholic and even Catholic himself; but with support of Catholics in the key state of New York and elsewhere, he was nonetheless elected president.