Editing Martin Van Buren (section)

===Retirement===
[[File:Martin Van Buren by Mathew Brady c1855-58-(4).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=Half-length photographic portrait of an elderly, balding man dressed in a dark coat, vest and cravat|Photograph of Van Buren by [[Mathew Brady]], circa 1855–1858]]
Van Buren never sought public office again after the 1848 election, but he continued to closely follow national politics. He was deeply troubled by the stirrings of secessionism in the South and welcomed the [[Compromise of 1850]] as a necessary conciliatory measure despite his opposition to the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]].{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=592}} Van Buren also worked on a history of American political parties and embarked on a tour of Europe, becoming the first former U.S. president to visit Britain.{{sfn|Niven|1983|pp=598–602}} Though still concerned about slavery, Van Buren and his followers returned to the Democratic fold, partly out of the fear that a continuing Democratic split would help the Whig Party.{{sfn|Silbey|2002|p=203}} He also attempted to reconcile the Barnburners and the Hunkers, with mixed results.{{sfn|Silbey|2002|p=204}}

Van Buren supported [[Franklin Pierce]] for president in [[1852 United States presidential election|1852]],{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=596}} James Buchanan in [[1856 United States presidential election|1856]],{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=605}} and [[Stephen A. Douglas]] in [[1860 United States presidential election|1860]].{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=610}} Van Buren viewed the fledgling [[Know Nothing]] movement with contempt and felt that the anti-slavery [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] exacerbated sectional tensions.{{sfn|Niven|1983|pp=604–605}} He considered Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]]'s ruling in the 1857 case of ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'' to be a "grievous mistake" since it overturned the [[Missouri Compromise]].{{sfn|Niven|1983|pp=605–606}} He assessed that the Buchanan administration handled the issue of [[Bleeding Kansas]] poorly, and saw the [[Lecompton Constitution]] as a sop to Southern extremists.{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=607}}

[[File:Mvanburen.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=A three-quarters length painted portrait of a balding man with gray hair, standing with his right hand grasping a bundle of papers lying on a table|1858 portrait by [[George Peter Alexander Healy|GPA Healy]], on display at the [[White House]]]]
After the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] and the secession of several Southern states in 1860, Van Buren unsuccessfully sought to call a constitutional convention.{{sfn|Niven|1983|p=610}} In April&nbsp;1861, former president Pierce wrote to the other living former presidents and asked them to consider meeting to use their stature and influence to propose a negotiated end to the war. Pierce asked the 78-year-old Van Buren to use his role as the senior living ex-president to issue a formal call. Van Buren's reply suggested that Buchanan should be the one to call the meeting, since he was the former president who had served most recently, or that Pierce should issue the call himself if he strongly believed in the merit of his proposal. Neither Buchanan nor Pierce was willing to make Pierce's proposal public, and nothing more resulted from it.{{sfn|Cole|1984|p=425}} Once the [[American Civil War]] began, Van Buren made public his support for the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] cause.{{sfn|Widmer|2005|p=164}}