In 1828, Martin Van Buren discontinued his profession as a lawyer to become a full-time politician, yet his formative years as an attorney provided the critical ideological basis for his later political success. Dynamic and evolving, Van Buren's ideology emerges in this study as a malleable body of thought exemplifying the complexities of republicanism itself.Drawing on extensive sources in legal history, this intellectual biography shows how Van Buren's early experience as a lawyer played a lasting role in shaping the republican ideology that characterized his presidency. It offers new insights into Van Buren's place in American legal history and explores the connections between law, politics, and Jacksonian ideals.