ispense public offices and political bounty in the manner best calculated to ensure votes (WhiteHouse.gov). Nonetheless, Van Buren faithfully fulfilled the duties of his elected office, demonstrated by his election to the United States Senate in 1821, which launched his career in national politics.
Van Buren regarded himself as a disciple of Thomas Jefferson. And, initially, as a member of the Jeffersonian faction of the Republican Party, he strongly supported the doctrine of states' rights and thus opposed a strong federal government. Still, after John Quincy Adams was elected president in 1824 due to what many perceived as a questionable "backroom bargain" with Henry Clay, Van Buren established a diverse coalition of Jeffersonian Republicans, including followers of Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and John C. Calhoun, to found a new political party, which would come to be known as the Democratic Party (Encyclopedia Americana).
In 1828 Van Buren resigned his Senate seat and successfully ran for governor of New York. However, he resigned the governorship after only 12 weeks to become President Andrew Jackson's secretary o
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