Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841

by Ted Widmer

exercise of arbitrary power.” Accordingly, they divided the government into three allegedly equal and coordinate branches—the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. But a system based on the tripartite separation of powers has an inherent tendency toward inertia and stalemate.

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cholera in 1833, but Johnson found a new consort, described in a remarkable letter from Amos Kendall to President Van Buren in 1839, recounting a visit to Johnson’s “watering establishment” in Kentucky. Kendall was amazed not only

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