Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Because he was Jackson's chosen successor, Van Buren's presidency has been dubbed Jackson's third term. . . . In combining political shrewdness with gracious living, Van Buren resembled the Republican patriarch Thomas Jefferson, whom he admired perhaps even more than he did Jackson. . . . The Magician's election as president put the final nail in the coffin of Monroe's Era of Good Feelings, which John Quincy Adams had tried to perpetuate, and buried the Founders' aspiration to nonpartisanship." [Howe: What Hath God Wrought, p. 483-5] "However, his presidency is considered to be average, at best, by historians. He was blamed for the economic troubles and was defeated for reelection. His tenure was dominated by the economic disaster of the Panic of 1837, and historians have split on the adequacy of the Independent Treasury as a response to that issue. Several writers have portrayed Van Buren as among the nation's most obscure presidents. As noted in a 2014 Time magazine article on the 'Top 10 Forgettable Presidents':
'Making himself nearly disappear completely from the history books was probably not the trick the "Little Magician" Martin Van Buren had in mind, but his was the first truly forgettable American presidency.'" [Wikipedia]