Inauguration of Martin Van Buren

{{short description|13th United States presidential inauguration}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}

{{For|his inaugurations as vice president under Andrew Jackson|First inauguration of Andrew Jackson{{!}}first|second inauguration of Andrew Jackson}}

{{Infobox historical event

| Event_Name = Presidential inauguration of
Martin Van Buren

| Image_Name = VAN BUREN, Martin-President (BEP engraved portrait).jpg

| Image_Caption = Martin Van Buren

| Participants = Martin Van Buren
8th president of the United States
— Assuming office

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Roger B. Taney
Chief Justice of the United States
— Administering oath

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Richard Mentor Johnson
9th vice president of the United States
— Assuming office

---

William R. King
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
— Administering oath

| Location = United States Capitol,
Washington, D.C.

| Date = {{Start date and age|1837|03|04}}

| notes = {{Succession links|left=1833|right=1841}}

}}

The inauguration of Martin Van Buren as the eighth president of the United States took place on Saturday, March 4, 1837, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 13th inauguration and marked the commencement of the only four-year term of both Martin Van Buren as president and Richard Mentor Johnson as vice president.{{cite web|url=https://www.inaugural.senate.gov/about/past-inaugural-ceremonies/13th-inaugural-ceremonies/|title=The 13th Presidential Inauguration: Martin Van Buren, March 04, 1837|publisher=United States Senate|access-date=May 21, 2020|archive-date=May 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180512121801/https://www.inaugural.senate.gov/about/past-inaugural-ceremonies/13th-inaugural-ceremonies/|url-status=dead}} Vice President and President-elect Van Buren rode with his predecessor Andrew Jackson in a small phaeton built from the wood of {{USS|Constitution}} drawn by four gray horses.{{cite book | last = Morison | first = Samuel Eliot | author-link = Samuel Eliot Morison | title = The Oxford History of the American People | url = https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryof00mori | url-access = registration | year = 1965 | page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryof00mori/page/452 452] | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = New York }} This was the first time that the outgoing and incoming president rode together to the Capitol. Van Buren would become the last sitting vice president to be inaugurated as president through an election until George H. W. Bush in 1989.

The event proved less a celebration of the incoming president than a tribute to the outgoing one. Van Buren's inaugural address took wistful note of it:

{{quote|In receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided to my illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success. But ... I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be found to attend upon my path.{{cite web | url=https://millercenter.org/president/vanburen/domestic-affairs | title=Martin Van Buren: Domestic affairs| date=October 4, 2016|publisher=Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia|access-date=March 6, 2017}}}}

With a single exception, the new administration retained Jackson's entire cabinet, and Van Buren pledged to "tread generally in the footsteps of President Jackson."