The nation’s eighth president, Martin van Buren, a Democrat who served from 1837 to 1841, was the first commander-in-chief not born a British subject. The seven men who held the country’s highest political office prior to him all were born before 1776, when the 13 American colonies declared their independence from Britain. Van Buren arrived in the world six years later, in 1782.
Raised in the Dutch community of Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren spoke Dutch as his first language; to date, he’s the…
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