Major Events of Presidency:
- Supreme Court ruling in Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge promotes Jacksonian ideals of the expansion of economic opportunity
- Panic of 1837, an economic depression, caused by speculation and Distribution Act of previous years
- Caroline Affair creates tension between Britain and U.S., but tension diffused by ruling in N.Y. court acquitting a British prisoner of his alleged crimes
- Independent Treasury plan proposed by Van Buren, fails at first but passed in 1840
- "Aroostook War" in Maine and Canada
- First Whig national convention held to nominate William Henry Harrison for the presidency
- The "Log Cabin Campaign" first of its kind, focusing more on the candidates than the goals of the parties themselves. First also to use the advent of the "penny press" to spread propaganda