James K. Polk

Source

• Born: 2 November 1795
• Birthplace: Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
• Died: 15 June 1849
• Best Known As: President of the United States, 1845-49

A lawyer and former congressman from Tennessee, James Knox Polk became a "dark horse" candidate for the Democratic Party in 1844. He narrowly defeated Whig Henry Clay in the general election and succeeded John Tyler to the presidency. The major event of his administration was the Mexican War, a controversial event which fit neatly with Polk's expansionist policies. During Polk's term the Oregon question was settled (the U.S. and Britain agreeing to divide the Pacific Northwest between them at the 49th parallel) and for the first time the territory of the United States extended to the Pacific Ocean. Polk served only one term, but is considered to have been one of the more aggressively productive men ever to hold the office. He was succeeded by a popular general from the war with Mexico, Zachary Taylor.

Polk died only three months after leaving office... He was baptized six days before his death... President Polk laid the cornerstone of the Washington Monument... Gas lighting was installed in the White House during Polk's administration... Polk married Sarah Childress in 1824; they had no children.

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James K. Polk, daguerreotype by Mathew Brady, 1849. (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Nov. 2, 1795, Mecklenburg county, N.C., U.S. — died June 15, 1849, Nashville, Tenn.) 11th president of the U.S. (1845 – 49). He was a friend and supporter of Andrew Jackson, who helped Polk win election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825. He left the House in 1839 to become governor of Tennessee. At the deadlocked 1844 Democratic Party convention Polk was nominated as the compromise candidate; he is considered the first dark-horse presidential candidate. A proponent of western expansion, he openly laid claim to the whole territory that extended as far north as latitude 54° 40¢ with the slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight" (see Oregon Question). Elected at the age of 49, the youngest president to that time, he successfully concluded the Oregon border dispute with Britain (1846) and secured passage of the Walker Tariff Act (1846), which lowered import duties and helped foreign trade. He led the prosecution of the Mexican War, which resulted in large territorial gains but reopened debate over the extension of slavery. His administration also established the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Smithsonian Institution; oversaw revision of the treasury system; and proclaimed the validity of the Monroe Doctrine. Though an efficient and competent president and deft in his handling of Congress, he was exhausted by his efforts and did not seek reelection; he died three months after leaving office.

For more information on James Knox Polk, visit Britannica.com.

Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on 2 November 1795, Polk moved to Tennessee with his family in 1806, and graduated from the University of North Carolina. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1820. An active Jacksonian Democrat, he served in Congress from 1825 to 1839, was speaker of the house and later governor of Tennessee.

In 1844, Polk—known as “Young Hickory”—was elected president. He entered the White House with a clear and aggressive foreign policy agenda, and as president he employed the threat of war and war itself as instruments to achieve his territorial objective: the West Coast and especially its ports.

The United States annexed Texas in 1845, and Polk provoked the Mexican War a year later by making use of a climate of hostility, existing border disputes, and Mexican unwillingness and inability to accept U.S. offers to purchase its northern provinces. Polk proved to be a determined, tough, and successful commander in chief. Although he lacked military experience or training, he made many key military decisions and played a direct role in organizing and planning the war effort. Despite opposition from Whigs and some Democrats, Polk never wavered in his determination to use the war to acquire the territories of New Mexico and upper California.

Polk was not a popular president with his contemporaries. He was intensely partisan and had a proclivity for secrecy and evasiveness. He was constantly at odds with his two Whig generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Moreover, the Mexican War proved unpopular in the Northeast, and territorial expansion into the Southwest was a highly controversial political issue. Polk, however, is generally recognized as the first effective wartime president. Unlike James Madison during the War of 1812, Polk aggressively employed presidential power to conduct the military effort and achieve administration war goals, thus setting an example upon which Abraham Lincoln would expand during the Civil War.

[See also Commander in Chief, President as.]

Bibliography

• Paul H. Bergeron, The Presidency of James K. Polk, 1987.
• Sam W. Haynes, James K. Polk and the Expansionist Impulse, 1997

Polk, James Knox (1795-1849) 11th president of the United States, born in North Carolinia. Polk, who moved to Tennessee as a child, was admitted to the bar in 1820 and quickly became active in politics, entering the state legislature in 1823. In 1825 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he viewed slavery as an evil to be borne. He opposed high tariffs and supported only limited spending for internal improvements. Polk served as House Speaker for two terms (1835-39). To signal his opposition to the new Whig party, headed by Henry Clay, Polk ran for governor of Tennessee (1837) as a Democrat and won. Reelected in 1839, he lost his bid for a third term in 1843 and lost again in 1845. At the 1844 Democratic presidential nominating convention, Polk won the nomination on the eighth ballot, after an indiscreet comment on the risks of annexing Texas caused Martin Van Buren's candidacy to founder. Polk won the election with less than a majority of the popular vote but an Electoral College majority. Polk's goals as president were to reduce the tariff, to free the Treasury of the influence of private banks, and to annex California and Oregon; he achieved all of these. Perhaps the most important action of Polk's administration was his instigation of the Mexican War (1846-48); his combination of military threats and diplomatic initiatives made almost inevitable the clash that occurred by the Rio Grande River. As a result of the war, the United States annexed the territory that eventually would comprise the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The administration of James Knox Polk (1795-1849), eleventh president of the United States, saw America at war with Mexico. As a consequence, Polk added more territory to the United States than had any other president except Thomas Jefferson.

James K. Polk was born on Nov. 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg County, N.C. As a child, he moved to an area in Tennessee settled by his grandfather, a land speculator. After graduation from the University of North Carolina in 1818, he studied law under Congressman Felix Grundy and was admitted to the bar in 1820. Elected to the legislature in 1822, Polk became known as an opponent of the state's banks and land speculators. He supported Andrew Jackson, who was an old friend of his father, for the presidency in the election of 1824.

As a Jacksonian, Polk was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825, becoming a leader of his party. He advocated a strict states'-rights position, emphasizing the desirability of an economical government. As chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee from 1833 to 1835, he supported Jackson's banking policies, including removal of the government's deposits from the Bank of the United States. As a reward for his support, Polk was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1835 and served until 1839. He vastly increased the powers of the Speaker's office by assuming the burden of guiding administrative measures through Congress. He was governor of Tennessee from 1839 until 1841; he was defeated for reelection in 1841 and again in 1843.

Polk received the Democratic nomination for president in 1844; he was the compromise candidate among several contenders. The first "dark horse, " he defeated the better-known Whig nominee, Henry Clay, in an extremely close election. During the campaign Polk skillfully reconciled the various Democratic factions. To attract John C. Calhoun's partisans, Polk adopted an expressionistic platform, emphasizing the incorporation of all the Oregon Territory and the annexation of Texas. Clay's last-minute endorsement of Texas annexation cost him the election, as it forced 15, 000 antislavery Whigs to defect to the Liberty party.

The Presidency

Polk's cabinet, one of the most able of the antebellum period, included Secretary of State James Buchanan, Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, and Secretary of War William L. Marcy. They represented most factions of the Democratic party. Their renunciations of all presidential ambitions while in the administration, as well as Polk's decision not to run for a second term, were aimed at limiting friction within the party. This failed because of the alienation of Martin Van Buren from Polk and the commitment of antislavery Democrats to a free-soil policy in the territory acquired from Mexico after 1846.

Polk maintained a tight control over all decisions. As an administrator, he was extremely innovative. Introducing a real executive budget, he tightened up the bookkeeping operations in the various departments, which resulted in a considerable savings of money. His success as president may be determined in part by how well he achieved his goals. In his inaugural address, he set four major tasks for himself: reestablishment of the independent treasury, lowering of the tariff, settlement of the Oregon dispute with England, and acquisition of California. By his retirement in 1849 he had achieved all of these. Passage of the independent treasury completed the hard currency campaign the Democrats had begun more than a decade earlier. The basic feature of this system, in which the government received and paid its debts in specie, remained the dominant element in the American banking system until the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Polk's commitment to a low tariff resulted in the passage of the Walker Tariff, whose rates were not substantially revised until the Civil War.

Foreign Policy

The most significant events of Polk's administration occurred in foreign policy. Since 1818 the United States and Great Britain had maintained joint occupation of the Oregon Territory. This solution no longer was workable after Polk, in his presidential campaign, laid claim to the whole region up to the southern boundary of Russian-controlled Alaska. Once he became president, he sought a more amiable solution, suggesting the extension of the 49th parallel, which already divided the United States from Canada east of the Rockies. British rejection of this position led to a minor war scare, lasting until the outbreak of the Mexican War. On the eve of that conflict, the question was settled in approximately the terms suggested by Polk.

After the annexation of Texas, which occurred as a result of a joint resolution of Congress on the last day of John Tyler's administration, Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. Polk wanted to eliminate all boundary disputes with Mexico, settle claims Americans had against the Mexican government, and acquire California. He hoped that the acquisition of California and Oregon would help to reunite the nation. Polk's emissaries failed to negotiate a treaty. When Mexico expelled John Slidell, the minister to Mexico, Polk decided upon war. He was given his opportunity when Gen. Zachary Taylor was fired upon in territory under dispute with Mexico above the Rio Grande River. The war resolution passed the House of Representatives on May 11, 1846.

War with Mexico

Despite the outbreak of war, Polk hoped to secure California and New Mexico by diplomacy. He financed Antonio López de Santa Ana's return to Mexico after the former dictator promised to negotiate peace. However, Santa Ana took command of the army as soon as he returned home. Another plan to set up a $2 million fund to purchase peace with Mexico met with defeat in Congress.

The war was won on the battlefield, as Polk proved an exceptionally adept commander-in-chief. Taylor advanced south to the heart of Mexico, while Gen. Winfield Scott invaded Mexico through Veracruz. Polk, distrusting both men as potential Whig candidates for president, kept close control over the Army. Scott captured Mexico City in April 1848.

The final diplomatic negotiations were conducted by a State Department clerk who joined Gen. Scott in Mexico City and arranged the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico gave up California and New Mexico as well as all claims to Texas for $15 million. Thus, by the Oregon and Guadalupe Hidalgo treaties, Polk had rounded out the continental United States, except for a small piece in the Southwest, purchased from Mexico in 1853.

Polk's hope that the war and the acquisition of the West Coast would end the growing sectional agitation that was threatening to break up the Union proved forlorn. During the course of the conflict, considerable opposition to the war developed both inside and outside Congress. That most of this opposition came from the Whigs did not obscure the fact that the war had intensified sectional disharmony. This was especially evident when a group of radical Democrats led by Congressman David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso, which would have barred slavery from the territories acquired as a consequence of the war. Twice this measure passed the House of Representatives to be defeated in the Senate. But the controversy would spread during the next decade and eventually lead to the Civil War. On this issue, Polk sought a compromise that would eliminate sectional friction. Although he was a slaveholder, he attempted to revive the Missouri Compromise of 1820, whereby slaves were to be prohibited above the 36°30′ parallel in the new territories. By 1848 this compromise was unacceptable to both the North and the South.

True to his commitments 4 years earlier, Polk stepped aside, supporting Lewis Cass for the presidential nomination. Zachary Taylor, the Whig candidate, defeated Cass in November. In a sense, this Democratic defeat resulted directly from Polk's administration. Van Buren broke with his party and, running as the Free Soil candidate, drew votes from Cass. The Free Soil party attracted radical Democrats and some Whigs who supported the Wilmot Proviso.

Polk had taken few vacations while in office, and when he left the presidency, his health was broken. He died in Nashville, Tenn., on June 15, 1849, just 3 months after leaving office.

Historians have generally considered Polk as one of America's "Ten Greatest Presidents." During his term he strengthened the office, achieved his legislative goals, and added a great new empire. But these goals were achieved at a great cost: the destruction of the party and the increased polarization of the sections.

Further Reading

Polk's writings are in Milo Milton Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency, 1845-1849 (4 vols., 1910). The definitive biography is the first two volumes of a projected three-volume study of Polk by Charles Grier Sellers: James K. Polk, Jacksonian, 1795-1843 (1957) and James K. Polk, Continentalist, 1843-1846 (1966). A useful old biography with an emphasis on Polk's public life is Eugene Irving McCormac, James K. Polk: A Political Biography (1922; repr. 1965), which concentrates particularly on Polk's role in Tennessee politics.

Polk's presidential election is covered in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., History of American Presidential Elections (4 vols., 1971). An interesting account by a political scientist of the development of the presidency during Polk's term is Charles A. McCoy, Polk and the Presidency (1960). The standard account on the war with Mexico is Justin Smith, The War with Mexico (2 vols., 1919). Glenn W. Price, Origins of the War with Mexico: The Polk-Stockton Intrigue (1967), implicates Polk in Commodore Robert Stockton's attempt to launch an attack on Mexico.

• Born: Nov. 2, 1795, Mecklenburg County, N.C.
• Political party: Democrat
• Education: University of North Carolina, B.A., 1818
• Military service: none
• Previous government service: Tennessee House of Representatives, 1823–25; U.S. House of Representatives, 1825–39; Speaker of the House, 1835–39; governor of Tennessee, 1839–40
• Elected President, 1844; served, 1845–49
• Died: June 15, 1849, Nashville, Tenn.

James K. Polk was a Jacksonian Democrat whose expansionist policies led to the Mexican-American War and the acquisition of vast territories in the Southwest. He was the first President to decline to seek a second term.

Polk was born on a small farm on the North Carolina frontier. His father became a large landowner in Tennessee and Polk was able to attend college. Two years after graduating he began to practice law in Columbia, Tennessee. Polk began his political career by serving with Andrew Jackson in the Tennessee legislature, and later he was the leading spokesman in Congress for the Jackson administration, serving as majority leader of the Democrats and chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He was elected Speaker in 1835. He helped to secure the repeal of the Second Bank of the United States, earning the name Young Hickory because of his support for the President, Old Hickory. In 1839 he won election as governor of Tennessee but was defeated in the 1841 and 1843 elections.

Polk made a political comeback in Presidential politics in 1844. He favored the annexation of the independent nation of Texas and negotiations with Great Britain to acquire territory in the Northwest, which later became known as the Oregon Territory. He received Jackson's support over John Tyler, who opposed annexing Texas. Polk was the Democratic party's first dark horse, or unknown nominee, winning in a sectional compromise on the ninth ballot. The word was sent from Baltimore to the capital by telegraph—the first use by a political party of Samuel F. B. Morse's new invention—and the recipients thought the machine was not working because it seemed so improbable that Polk was the nominee.

In the Presidential election Polk's rival, Whig candidate Henry Clay, exclaimed, “Who is James K. Polk?” The Democrats took up the question as a defiant campaign slogan, and in a fierce campaign Polk defeated Clay, receiving 49.6 percent of the popular vote to Clay's 48.1. At age 49 he was the youngest person yet to serve as President.

Polk's Presidency was distinguished for its expansionist policies. Polk claimed it was the “manifest destiny” of the nation to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He added more territory to the Union than any President except Thomas Jefferson. His quiet diplomacy secured an 1846 boundary agreement with Great Britain that settled the northern borders of the United States along the 49th parallel; the United States and Britain each gave up about half their claims. His policy was more warlike in the Southwest. Even before Polk's inauguration, his predecessor, John Tyler, claimed that the election was a mandate to annex Texas, and he supported a joint resolution of Congress to start the procedure. Texas entered the Union in December 1845, which caused Mexico to sever diplomatic relations with the United States. Polk's attempts to buy California and disputed Texas territory from Mexico for $25 million were rebuffed: the Mexicans would not permit U.S. envoys to present their proposal. In late 1845 Polk ordered 3,000 U.S. troops under the command of Zachary Taylor into a disputed border area between the Rio Grande and Rio Nueces in the state of Texas.

On May 9, 1846, Polk laid before his cabinet a proposal for a declaration of war, on the grounds that Mexico had refused to receive his envoy and had refused to pay damage claims for losses of U.S. lives and property. Just that evening, word reached the capital that there had been a skirmish between Mexican and U.S. forces that had resulted in death or injury to 16 U.S. soldiers. Polk had Congress declare war on May 13, 1846, saying that Mexican forces had “invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.” In fact, the events occurred in disputed territory after U.S. forces trained their cannons on the town square of Matamoros.

The war was a military success: General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City on September 14, 1847, while Colonel Stephen Kearny took control of New Mexico and California. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848, ended the war. The United States took possession of the Mexican provinces of Upper California and New Mexico, and the two countries established a border at the Rio Grande in Texas. Polk agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for the territories and also to pay $3,250,000 in claims made by U.S. citizens against Mexico. Nevertheless, the treaty was unpopular with abolitionists in the North, who saw it as a way to extend slavery. Ulysses S. Grant, who served in the war, called it “one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.” Abraham Lincoln, a Whig member of Congress at the time, devoted his first speech in the House of Representatives to criticizing Polk's decision, saying that Mexico “was in no way molesting or menacing the United States.” Needless to say, the Mexicans have never forgotten Polk for taking away half their nation. In 1848 Polk's effort to buy Cuba for $100 million was rejected by Spain.

In domestic policy, Polk secured passage of the Walker Tariff Act of 1846, which reduced tariffs, or taxes on imported products, and thus fulfilled a campaign promise popular in the South and among farmers. He later blocked the Whig programs of high tariffs, federally funded internal improvements, and a national bank, which the Whigs proposed when they took control of Congress in the midterm elections of 1846. Polk also vetoed measures to use federal funds to improve rivers and harbors.

Polk alienated the antislavery faction of his party with his Mexican policy. He opposed the Wilmot Proviso, a congressional measure intended to bar slavery from the territories newly conquered from Mexico but that failed to pass. His own idea to extend the Missouri Compromise line west and bar slavery below the 36th parallel was ignored. Congress was unable to pass laws governing the new territories because of the slavery issue. Polk was exhausted from his efforts to hold his party together and fend off the Whig majority in Congress, and decided not to seek a second term. His last message to Congress spoke of an “abundance of gold” in California, setting off the gold rush of 1849. Polk died during a cholera epidemic shortly after leaving office.

See also Jackson, Andrew; Tyler, John; Van Buren, Martin

Sources

• Paul H. Bergeron, The Presidency of James K. Polk (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987).
• Charles Greer Sellers, James K. Polk, Continentalist, 1843–1846 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966)

(1795-1849), eleventh president of the United States. Polk was the son of a prosperous Tennessee farmer. His mother, a devout Presbyterian, made an indelible impression on his character, instilling Calvinistic virtues of hard work, self-discipline, individualism, and a belief in the imperfection of human nature.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he took up the practice of law. In 1825 he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where as a Jacksonian Democrat he distinguished himself as an advocate of states' rights. He served as Speaker of the House (1835- 1839) and governor of Tennessee (1839-1841).

Subsequently twice defeated for reelection to the governorship, he seemed in eclipse until a deadlocked Democratic convention in 1844 unexpectedly nominated him for president. He prevailed over Henry Clay, the Whig nominee, and James G. Birney, the Liberty nominee, becoming a minority president but enjoying majorities in both houses of Congress. The election marked the beginnings of party realignment, and Polk's administration denoted factionalism.

Describing himself as "the hardest working man in this country," Polk displayed a quality of leadership that has won for him a high rating by historians. His success is attributable to a well-formulated set of goals, the dexterous use of his cabinet, frequent consultation with congressmen, the establishment of an administration press, and his conception of himself as representative of the whole people.

The election of 1844 was virtually a referendum on westward expansion, the Democrats championing "the reannexation of Texas" and "the reoccupation of Oregon." Combining belligerency and tact, Polk arrived at a compromise with Great Britain that set the forty-ninth parallel as the northern boundary of the Oregon Territory, thus securing an excellent harbor on the northwest coast.

Texas had been annexed before Polk's inauguration. Wishing to acquire California and New Mexico also, Polk seized on a skirmish between Mexican and U.S. troops as a pretext and in 1846 asked Congress to declare war. His handling of the dispute, his message blaming Mexico for the war, and his zeal for adding territory in the Southwest badly divided the nation. But the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the war gained for the United States the southwestern territory Polk coveted. Polk's negotiations regarding Oregon and military actions in Mexico added 522 million acres to the public domain.

Jacksonian principles marked Polk's economic policy. The Walker Tariff of 1846 lowered duties, and the Independent Treasury law restored a federal depository designed to keep public money out of private banks. But the Democrats lost control of the House in 1846, and his aggressive war policy provoked the Wilmot Proviso aimed at excluding slavery from the territories taken from Mexico. Although the proviso was not passed by the Senate, the principle that Congress could exclude slavery from the territories became the focus of the Republican party.

By 1848 Polk, myopic about the immorality of slavery and the modernization of the nation, was cursing "southern agitators and northern fanatics." His policies led eventually to disintegration of both major parties and the sectional crisis of 1849-1850, although his achievements in adding territory and securing the tariff and banking laws were considerable.

Bibliography:

Paul H. Bergeron, The Presidency of James K. Polk (1987); Milo Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency, 1845 to 1849, 4 vols. (1910; abridged edition, 1 vol., ed. Allan Nevins, 1929).

Author:

James A. Rawley

See also Expansion, Continental and Overseas; Independent Treasury; Mexican War; Wilmot Proviso.

A political leader of the nineteenth century; Polk, a Democrat, was president from 1845 to 1849. An ardent believer in manifest destiny, he led the United States into the Mexican War. In his presidency, the United States acquired Texas and California and large territories in between.

James Knox Polk, eleventh president of the United States, served just one term in office, but in that time he was extremely influential in shaping the United States' evolution into a large and politically formidable nation. Polk's primary achievements came in the area of foreign affairs, where he completed the annexation of Texas; directed the Mexican War (1846-48); and negotiated with Great Britain for the acquisition of the Oregon territory. In domestic policy, Polk was a strong advocate for lowering tariffs and establishing an independent treasury for the United States. Historians and presidential scholars consistently rate Polk among the most effective and important presidents of the United States.

James Polk was born on November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to study law, establishing a successful practice in Columbia, Tennessee.

Polk soon embarked on a political career, being elected to the Tennessee legislature in 1823 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825. In Congress, Polk fought to defend individual freedoms, the rights of the states against the centralizing tendencies of the national government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. In 1839 Polk was elected governor of Tennessee. However, his two-year term in office was undistinguished, and he was defeated in the 1841 and 1843 gubernatorial races.

After his second defeat, Polk's political career appeared to be over, but events took a surprising turn. Martin Van Buren, who had served as Andrew Jackson's vice president from 1833 to 1837 and as president from 1837 to 1841, was expected to be the Democratic party's presidential nominee for the 1844 election, but Van Buren's candidacy was derailed when he announced in April 1844 that he was opposed to the annexation of Texas on the grounds that it would constitute aggression against Mexico. Van Buren's support immediately eroded, because the annexation of Texas was a controversial political item widely supported by Andrew Jackson and his followers. By the time the Democrats held their nominating convention in late May, the party was in turmoil. Van Buren's supporters failed to generate the support needed for their candidate and Polk was nominated to be the presidential candidate instead.

The Whig presidential candidate in 1844 was the powerful and influential Henry Clay of Kentucky, who had held important positions in both the House and the Senate in addition to serving as secretary of state under John Quincy Adams. The campaign was hard fought and bitter. Polk eventually won with 170 electoral votes compared with Clay's 105; in the popular vote, Polk received just 38,000 more votes than Clay, out of the almost 2,700,000 votes cast.

The Polk administration added approximately 1.2 million square miles to the United States, increasing its size by fifty percent. The addition resulted from the three major foreign policy matters Polk oversaw: the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and negotiations with Great Britain over the Oregon territory.

Polk inherited the Texas issue from the administration of John Tyler. Tyler had wrestled with Congress over methods for annexing Texas, which had existed as the independent Lone Star Republic since winning its independence from Mexico in 1836. Tyler and Congress had agreed that Texas would be given the opportunity to vote for annexation, and Polk continued this approach. The Texas congress eventually approved annexation and wrote a state constitution, which the voters approved in a general referendum. In December 1845 the U.S. Congress completed the transaction by admitting Texas as the twenty-eighth state.

The annexation led to territorial disputes that resulted in war between the United States and Mexico. For several years relations between the United States and Mexico had been rocky, primarily because the United States had made financial claims against the Mexican government. Since winning its independence from Spain in the early 1820s, Mexico had had a series of unstable governments, and foreign nationals often had lost property during the resulting revolutions. Those individuals and their governments lodged claims against the Mexican government, and by the mid-1840s, these claims amounted to millions of dollars. This dispute over claims had soured relations between the United States and Mexico, and the annexation of Texas brought matters to a crisis. As part of the annexation agreement, the United States government had consented to recognize Texas's claim to the Rio Grande boundary and to provide military protection to defend that boundary. For its part, Mexico had never given up hope of winning back Texas, and the United States' annexation, together with the assertion of the Rio Grande boundary, the placement of U.S. troops along the border, and the longstanding claims disagreement, led Mexico to break off diplomatic relations with Washington and accuse the United States of initiating war.

In response, Polk sent a representative to negotiate with the Mexican government, offering to buy California and New Mexico and relinquish U.S. claims against Mexico in return for a recognition of the Rio Grande boundary. The Mexican government refused to negotiate, and by spring of 1846, skirmishes were beginning to break out along the border. Polk requested that Congress declare war, which it did by an overwhelming margin. Though the United States lacked a powerful professional army, volunteers signed up in droves. The war lasted until September 1847, when the Mexican government agreed to enter into peace negotiations. In the resulting agreement, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico agreed to recognize the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas and to cede New Mexico and upper California to the United States; for its part, the United States agreed to relinquish all claims against Mexico and to pay the Mexican government $15 million.

The third major foreign policy issue requiring Polk's attention was the dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the Oregon territory, which stretched from the northern boundary of California to the Alaska panhandle, including what is now Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Both countries claimed the area but had agreed in 1818 to occupy it jointly, with the provision that either party could terminate the agreement with a year's notice. The United States had repeatedly requested to resolve the issue by extending the forty-ninth parallel boundary that existed between the two countries east of the Rocky Mountains, but Britain had refused, insisting on the Columbia River as the boundary.

The situation had remained unresolved, and British fur traders had continued to dominate the area into the 1830s. At that time, however, increasing numbers of U.S. settlers migrated into Oregon and pressed the United States to address their needs and defend their interests. After the 1844 presidential election, the issue became heated. As U.S. statements on the issue became more angry and aggressive, the British government grew concerned that war might break out, and it entered into earnest negotiations with the United States. In July 1845 Polk once again offered to draw the boundary at the forty-ninth parallel, but the British minister in Washington rejected the offer. Furious, Polk withdrew the offer, instead reasserting the U.S. claim to the entire territory.

In his first message to Congress in December 1845, Polk continued this hard line on Oregon, asking Congress to provide the one year's notice that the United States was terminating its joint occupancy agreement with Great Britain. In addition, he asked that jurisdiction be extended to Americans living in Oregon and that military protection be provided to emigrants along the route to Oregon. Finally, Polk reasserted the Monroe Doctrine, which held that North America was not open to any further colonization by European powers. Polk's tough stance apparently spurred Great Britain to renew negotiations, and this time it agreed to the forty-ninth parallel boundary. The treaty was signed on June 15, 1846.

A principal goal of Polk's domestic agenda was to eliminate the high tariffs that had been imposed in 1842 under the Tyler administration. Polk believed that low tariffs were crucial for the success of the agricultural sector, and after strong and sustained lobbying, he was able to persuade Congress to reduce tariffs in July 1846.

A second focus of Polk's domestic efforts was the establishment of an independent treasury for the United States. Previously, the government's funds had been held in national banks or in various state banks, but Polk argued that the government's money should not be deposited in banks at all, but should be held in its own independent treasury.

Despite Polk's many successes, presidential scholars agree that he utterly failed in his ability to foresee the catastrophic consequences that the slavery issue would have for the nation. A slaveholder with plantations in Tennessee and Mississippi, Polk never actively defended slavery, but he failed to see the importance that it would have, instead believing that it was an aggravating side issue that hampered the resolution of more important problems.

Polk left office when his term ended in 1849, remaining faithful to his election promise that he would serve only one term as president. Polk returned to Tennessee exhausted and in ill health. Just three months after leaving office, Polk died unexpectedly on June 15, 1849. He was fifty-four years old.

This article is about the U.S. president. For other individuals and entities named James Polk, see James Polk (disambiguation).

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James K. Polk
President Polk, 1848 portrait, by George Healy
11th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849
Vice President	George M. Dallas
Preceded by	John Tyler
Succeeded by	Zachary Taylor
17th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office December 7, 1835 – March 4, 1839
President	Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren
Preceded by	John Bell
Succeeded by	Robert M. T. Hunter
11th Governor of Tennessee
In office October 14, 1839 – October 15, 1841
Preceded by	Newton Cannon
Succeeded by	James Chamberlain Jones
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th district
In office March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1833
Preceded by	John A. Cocke
Succeeded by	Balie Peyton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district
In office March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1839
Preceded by	William Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Harvey M. Watterson
Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means
In office 1833–1835
Preceded by	Gulian C. Verplanck
Succeeded by	Churchill C. Cambreleng
Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from Maury County
In office 1823 – 1825
Born	November 2, 1795(1795-11-02) Pineville, North Carolina
Died	June 15, 1849 (aged 53) Nashville, Tennessee
Nationality	American (US)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Sarah Childress Polk
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Occupation	Lawyer, Farmer (Planter)
Religion	Methodist
Signature

James Knox Polk (pronounced /ˈpoʊk/ POKE) (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th President of the United States (1845–1849). Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.^[1] He later lived in and represented the state of Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as Speaker of the House (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841) before becoming president.

A firm supporter of Andrew Jackson, Polk was the last strong pre-Civil War president. Polk is noted for his foreign policy successes. He threatened war with Britain then backed away and split the ownership of the Northwest with Britain. He is more famous for leading the nation into the Mexican–American War, in which the US was victorious. He lowered the tariff and established a treasury system that lasted until 1913. A little-known candidate in 1844, he was the first president to retire after a single term without seeking reelection. He died of cholera three months after his term ended.

As a Democrat committed to geographic expansion (or Manifest Destiny), he overrode Whig objections and achieved the second-largest expansion of the nation's territory. Polk secured the Oregon Territory (including Washington, Oregon and Idaho), amounting to about 285,000 square miles (738,000 km²). Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican–American War in 1848, the US purchased 525,000 square miles (1,360,000 km²) of territory in the Southwest and California.

The expansion reopened a furious national debate over allowing slavery in the new territories. The controversy was inadequately arbitrated by the Compromise of 1850, and finally found its ultimate resolution on the battlefields of the U.S. Civil War. Polk signed the Walker Tariff that brought an era of nearly free trade to the country until 1861. He oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Smithsonian Institution, the groundbreaking for the Washington Monument, and the issuance of the first postage stamps in the United States, introduced by his Postmaster General Cave Johnson. He was the first US President to be photographed frequently while in office. Scholars have ranked him eighth to twelfth on the list of greatest presidents for his ability to set an agenda and achieve all of it.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early political career 2.1 Speaker of the House 2.2 Governor of Tennessee 3 Election of 1844 4 Presidency (1845–1849) 4.1 Fiscal policy 4.2 Slavery 4.3 Foreign policy 4.3.1 Texas 4.3.2 Oregon territory 4.3.3 War with Mexico 4.3.4 Cuba 4.4 Department of the Interior 4.5 Administration and cabinet 4.6 Judicial appointments 4.6.1 Supreme Court 4.6.2 Other courts 4.7 Congress 4.8 States admitted to the Union 5 Post-presidency 6 Reputation 7 Cultural References 8 See also 9 References 9.1 Cited texts 9.2 Primary sources 10 External links

Early life

Polk, the first of ten children, was born in a farmhouse (possibly a "log" cabin)^[2] in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County on November 2, 1795, just outside of Charlotte.^[3] His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent. His mother, Jane Polk (née Knox), was a descendant of a brother of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. She named her firstborn after her father James Knox.^[4] Like most early Scots-Irish settlers in the North Carolina mountains, the Knox and Polk families were Presbyterian. While Jane remained a devout Presbyterian her entire life, Samuel (whose father, Ezekial Polk, was a deist) rejected dogmatic Presbyterianism. When the parents took James to church to be baptized, the father Samuel refused to declare his belief in Christianity, and the minister refused to baptize the child.^[4][5] In 1803, the majority of Polk's relatives moved to the Duck River area in what is now Maury County, Middle Tennessee; Polk's family waited until 1806 to follow.^[6] The family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk turning to land speculation and becoming a county judge.^[6]

During his childhood, James suffered from poor health, which negatively affected his early schooling.^[6] In 1812, just before he turned 17, his father tried to take him to Philadelphia in the back of a covered wagon to see Dr. Philip Syng Physick. However, his pain became so unbearable that he was taken instead to the nearer Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, who conducted an operation to remove urinary stones.^[7] The operation was conducted while Polk was awake, with nothing but brandy then available for anesthetic, but it was successful. The surgery may have left Polk sterile, as he did not sire any children.^[8]

The house where Polk spent his adult life before his presidency, in Columbia, Tennessee, is his only residence still standing.

When Polk recovered, his father offered to bring him into the mercantile business, but Polk refused.^[7] In July 1813, Polk enrolled at the Zion Church near his home. A year later he attended an academy in Murfreesboro, where he may have met his future wife, Sarah Childress. This has not been proven.^[9] At Murfreesboro, Polk was regarded as a promising student. In January 1816, he transferred and was admitted into the University of North Carolina as a second-semester sophomore.^[7] The Polks had connections with the university, then a small school of about eighty students: Sam Polk was their land agent for Tennessee, and his cousin, William Polk, was a trustee.^[10] While there, Polk joined the Dialectic Society, in which he regularly took part in debates and learned the art of oratory.^[7] He also became the first person to be reelected president of the society. Among the people Polk met at the university was his roommate William Dunn Moseley, who later became the first governor of Florida.^[11] Polk graduated with honors in May 1818.^[11]

After graduation, Polk traveled to Nashville to study law under renowned Nashville trial attorney Felix Grundy.^[12] Grundy became Polk's first mentor. On September 20, 1819, Polk was elected to be the clerk for the Tennessee State Senate with Grundy's endorsement.^[13] Polk was reelected as clerk in 1821 without opposition, and would continue to serve until 1822. Polk was admitted to the bar in June 1820 and his first case was to defend his father against a public fighting charge, a case which he was able to get his father's release for a fine of one dollar.^[13] Polk's practice was successful as there were many cases regarding the settlement of debts following the Panic of 1819.^[14]

Presidential Coin of Polk

Early political career

In 1822 Polk resigned his position as clerk to run his successful campaign for the Tennessee state legislature in 1823, in which he defeated incumbent William Yancey, becoming the new representative of Maury County.^[15][16] In 1821 Polk joined the local militia with the rank of Captain, and was soon promoted to Colonel.^[16] Polk's oratory became popular, earning him the nickname "Napoleon of the Stump." In October 1823 Polk voted for Andrew Jackson to become the next United States Senator from Tennessee.^[17] Jackson won and from then on Polk was a firm supporter of Jackson.^[18]

Polk courted Sarah Childress, and they married on January 1, 1824.^[15] Polk was then 28, and Sarah was 20 years old. Through their marriage they had no children. They were married until his death in 1849. During Polk's political career, Sarah was said to assist her husband with his speeches, give him advice on policy matters and was always active in his campaigns. An old story told that Andrew Jackson had encouraged their romance when they began to court.^[19]

In 1824, Jackson ran for President but was defeated.^[20] Though Jackson had won the popular vote, neither he nor any of the other candidates (John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford) had obtained a majority of the electoral vote. The House of Representatives then had to select the verdict; Clay, who had received the least amount of electoral votes and therefore was dropped from the ballot, supported Adams.^[20] Clay's support proved to be the deciding factor in the House and Adams was elected President.^[20] Adams then offered Clay a position in the Cabinet as Secretary of State.^[20]

In 1825, Polk ran for the United States House of Representatives for the Tennessee's 6th congressional district.^[21] Polk rigorously campaigned in the district. Polk was so active that Sarah began to worry about his health.^[21] During the campaign, Polk's opponents said that at the age of 29 Polk was too young for a spot in the House. However, Polk won the election and took his seat in Congress.^[21] When Polk arrived in Washington D.C he roomed in a boarding house with some other Tennessee representatives, including Benjamin Burch. Polk made his first major speech on March 13, 1826, in which he said that the Electoral College should be abolished and that the President should be elected by the popular vote.^[22] After Congress went into recess in the summer of 1826, Polk returned to Tennessee to see Sarah, and when Congress met again in the autumn, Polk returned to Washington with Sarah. In 1827 Polk was reelected to Congress.^[23] In 1828, Jackson ran for President again and during the campaign Polk and Jackson corresponded, with Polk giving Jackson advice on his campaign. With Jackson's victory in the election Polk began to support the administration's position in Congress.^[24] During this time, Polk continued to be reelected in the House. In August 1833, after being elected to this fifth term, Polk became the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.^[25]

Speaker of the House

In June 1834, Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson resigned, leaving the spot for speaker open.^[26] Polk ran against fellow Tennessean John Bell for Speaker, and after ten ballots, Bell won. However, in 1835 Polk ran against Bell for Speaker again and this time Polk won.^[27]

Polk worked for Jackson's policies as speaker, and Van Buren's when he succeeded Jackson in 1837; he appointed committees with Democratic chairs and majorities, including the New York radical C. C. Cambreleng as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, although he maintained the facade of traditional bipartisanship.^[28] The two major issues during Polk's speakership were slavery and the economy, following the Panic of 1837. Van Buren and Polk faced pressure to rescind the Specie Circular, an act that had been passed by Jackson, in an attempt to help the economy. The act required that payment for government lands be in gold and silver. However, with support from Polk and his cabinet, Van Buren chose to stick with the Specie Circular.^[29]

Polk attempted to make a more orderly house. He never challenged anyone to a duel no matter how much they insulted his honor as was customary at the time.^[30] Polk also issued the gag rule on petitions from abolitionists.^[30]

Governor of Tennessee

In 1838, the political situation in Tennessee—where, in 1835, Democrats had lost the governorship for the first time in their party's history—persuaded Polk to return to help the party at home.^[31] Leaving Congress in 1839, Polk became a candidate in the Tennessee gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Whig, Newton Cannon by about 2,500 votes, out of about 105,000.^[32]

Polk's three major programs during his governorship; regulating state banks, implementing state internal improvements, and improving education all did not get approval by the legislature.^[33] In the presidential election of 1840, Van Buren was overwhelmingly defeated by a popular Whig, William Henry Harrison. Polk received one electoral vote from Tennessee for Vice President in the election.^[34] Polk lost his own reelection bid to a Whig, James C. Jones, in 1841, by 3,243 votes.^[35] He challenged Jones in 1843, campaigning across the state and publicly debating against Jones, but was defeated again, this time by a slightly greater margin of 3,833 votes.^[36][37]

Election of 1844

result of the 1844 Presidential election

Main article: United States presidential election, 1844

Polk initially hoped to be nominated for vice-president at the Democratic convention, which began on May 27, 1844. The leading contender for the presidential nomination was former President Martin Van Buren, who wanted to stop the expansion of slavery. Other candidates included James Buchanan, General Lewis Cass, Cave Johnson, John C. Calhoun, and Levi Woodbury. The primary point of political contention involved the Republic of Texas, which, after declaring independence from Mexico in 1836, had asked to join the United States. Van Buren opposed the annexation but in doing so lost the support of many Democrats, including former President Andrew Jackson, who still had much influence. Van Buren won a simple majority on the convention's first ballot but did not attain the two-thirds supermajority required for nomination. After six more ballots, when it became clear that Van Buren would not win the required majority, Polk was put forth as a "dark horse" candidate. The eighth ballot was also indecisive, but on the ninth, the convention unanimously nominated Polk, supported by Jackson.

Before the convention, Polk was called to the home of Andrew Jackson, by Jackson himself. Jackson told Polk that he was his favorite for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Even with this support, Polk still instructed his managers at the convention to support Van Buren, but only if it was certain that Van Buren had a chance to win the nomination. This assured that if a deadlocked convention occurred, initial supporters of Van Buren would pick Polk as a compromise candidate for the Democrats. In the end, this is exactly what happened as a result for Polk's support of westward expansion.^[38]

When advised of his nomination, Polk replied: "It has been well observed that the office of President of the United States should neither be sought nor declined. I have never sought it, nor should I feel at liberty to decline it, if conferred upon me by the voluntary suffrages of my fellow citizens." Because the Democratic Party was splintered into bitter factions, Polk promised to serve only one term if elected, hoping that his disappointed rival Democrats would unite behind him with the knowledge that another candidate would be chosen in four years.^[39]

1844 campaign banner

Polk's Whig opponent in the 1844 presidential election was Henry Clay of Kentucky. (Incumbent Whig President John Tyler—a former Democrat—had become estranged from the Whigs and was not nominated for a second term.) The question of the annexation of Texas, which was at the forefront during the Democratic Convention, again dominated the campaign. Polk was a strong proponent of immediate annexation, while Clay seemed more equivocal and vacillating.

Another campaign issue, also related to westward expansion, involved the Oregon Country, then under the joint occupation of the United States and Great Britain. The Democrats had championed the cause of expansion, informally linking the controversial Texas annexation issue with a claim to the entire Oregon Country, thus appealing to both Northern and Southern expansionists. (The slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight," often incorrectly attributed to the 1844 election, did not appear until later; see Oregon boundary dispute.) Polk's consistent support for westward expansion—what Democrats would later call "Manifest Destiny"—likely played an important role in his victory, as opponent Henry Clay hedged his position.

In the election, Polk and his running mate, George M. Dallas, won in the South and West, while Clay drew support in the Northeast. Polk lost his home state of Tennessee as well as North Carolina, his alma mater. However, Polk won the crucial state of New York (with the support of many Van Buren supporters, since it was his home state), where Clay lost supporters to the third-party candidate James G. Birney of the Liberty Party, who was antislavery. Also contributing to Polk's victory was the support of new immigrant voters, who were angered at the Whigs' policies. Polk won the popular vote by a margin of about 39,000 out of 2.6 million, and took the Electoral College with 170 votes to Clay's 105.^[40] Polk won 15 states, while Clay won 11.^[41]

Polk is the only Speaker of the House of Representatives to be elected President of the United States.

Presidency (1845–1849)

Polk's presidential proclamation

When he took office on March 4, 1845, Polk, at 49, became the youngest man at the time to assume the presidency. According to a story told decades later by George Bancroft, Polk set four clearly defined goals for his administration:

• The reestablishment of the Independent Treasury System.
• The reduction of tariffs.
• Acquisition of some or all the Oregon Country.
• The acquisition of California and New Mexico from Mexico.

Pledged to serve only one term, he accomplished all these objectives in just four years. By linking acquisition of new lands in Oregon (with no slavery) and Texas (with slavery), he hoped to satisfy both North and South. During his presidency James K. Polk was known as "Young Hickory" and "The Napoleon of the Stump" for his speaking skills.

Fiscal policy

In 1846, Congress approved the Walker Tariff (named after Robert J. Walker, the Secretary of the Treasury), which represented a substantial reduction of the high Whig-backed Tariff of 1842. The new law abandoned ad valorem tariffs; instead, rates were made independent of the monetary value of the product. Polk's actions were popular in the South and West; however, they earned him the enmity of many protectionists in Pennsylvania.

In 1846, Polk approved a law restoring the Independent Treasury System, under which government funds were held in the Treasury rather than in banks or other financial institutions. This established independent treasury deposit offices, separate from private or state banks, to receive all government funds.

Slavery

Daguerreotype of President Polk

Polk's views on slavery made his presidency bitterly unpopular between proponents of slavery, opponents of slavery, and advocates of compromise. During his presidency, many abolitionists harshly criticized him as an instrument of the "Slave Power," and claimed that the expansion of slavery lay behind his support for the annexation of Texas and later war with Mexico.^[42] Polk stated in his diary that he believed slavery could not exist in the territories won from Mexico,^[43] but refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso that would forbid it there. Polk argued instead for extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, which would prohibit the expansion of slavery above 36° 30' west of Missouri, but allow it below that line if approved by eligible voters in the territory. William Dusinberre has argued that Polk's diary, which he kept during his presidency, was written for later publication, and does not represent Polk's real policy; most historians accept it.^[who?]

Polk was a slaveholder for his entire life. His father, Samuel Polk, had left Polk more than 8,000 acres (32 km²) of land, and divided about 53 slaves to his widow and children after Samuel died. James inherited twenty of his father's slaves, either directly or from deceased brothers. In 1831, he became an absentee cotton planter, sending slaves to clear plantation land that his father had left him near Somerville, Tennessee. Forty years later Polk sold his Somerville plantation and, together with his brother-in-law, bought 920 acres (3.7 km²) of land, a cotton plantation near Coffeeville, Mississippi. He ran this plantation for the rest of his life, eventually taking it over completely from his brother-in-law. Polk rarely sold slaves, although once he became President and could better afford it, he bought more. Polk's will stipulated that their slaves were to be freed after his wife Sarah had died. However, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution freed all remaining slaves in rebel states long before the death of his wife in 1891.^[44]

Foreign policy

Polk was committed to expansion: Democrats believed that opening up more land for yeoman farmers was critical for the success of republican virtue. (See Manifest Destiny.) Like most Southerners, he supported the annexation of Texas. To balance the interests of North and South, he wanted to acquire the Oregon Country (present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia) as well. He sought to purchase California, which Mexico had neglected.

Texas

Main article: Texas Annexation

President Tyler despised Polk, both as a person and politician. Upon hearing of Polk's election to office, Tyler urged Congress to pass a joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union; Congress complied on February 28, 1845. This was a backhanded slap at Polk; it took away Polk's most desired presidential action.^{[citation needed]} Polk's whole campaign was based upon the tenet of annexing Texas. Now, Polk could not. Texas promptly accepted the offer and officially became a state on December 29, 1845. The annexation angered Mexico, which had lost Texas in 1836. Mexican politicians had repeatedly warned that annexation would lead to war.

Oregon territory

Main article: Oregon boundary dispute

The Oregon Territory, established by the Oregon Treaty

Polk put heavy pressure on Britain to resolve the Oregon boundary dispute. Since 1818, the territory had been under the joint occupation and control of Great Britain and the United States. Previous U.S. administrations had offered to divide the region along the 49th parallel, which was not acceptable to Britain, as they had commercial interests along the Columbia River. Although the Democratic platform asserted a claim to the entire region, Polk was prepared to quietly compromise. When the British again refused to accept the 49th parallel boundary proposal, Polk broke off negotiations and returned to the "All Oregon" position of the Democratic platform, which escalated tensions along the border.

Expansionists after the 1844 election shouted "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" This slogan, although often associated with Polk, was the position of his rivals in the Democratic Party, who wanted Polk to be as uncompromising in acquiring the Oregon territory as he had been in annexing Texas. This slogan is inappropriately tagged to the Election of 1844, although it didn't come until the year after ^[45] Polk wanted territory, not war, and compromised with the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 divided the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel, the original American proposal. Although there were many who still clamored for the whole of the territory, the treaty was approved by the Senate. By settling for the 49th parallel, Polk angered many midwestern Democrats. Many of these Democrats believed that Polk had always wanted the boundary at the 49th, and that he had fooled them into believing he wanted it at the 54th parallel. The portion of Oregon territory acquired by the United States later formed the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of the states of Montana and Wyoming.

War with Mexico

Main article: Mexican–American War

After the Texas annexation, Polk turned his attention to California, hoping to acquire the territory from Mexico before any European nation did so. The main interest was San Francisco Bay as an access point for trade with Asia. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for $20–30 million. Slidell's arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after word leaked out that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive Slidell, citing a technical problem with his credentials. In January 1846, to increase pressure on Mexico to negotiate, Polk sent troops under General Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the U.S. and Mexico.

Slidell returned to Washington in May 1846, having been rebuffed by the Mexican government. Polk regarded this treatment of his diplomat as an insult and an "ample cause of war",^[46] and he prepared to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Meanwhile Taylor crossed the Rio Grande River and briefly occupied Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Taylor continued to blockade ships from entering the port of Matamoros. Mere days before Polk intended to make his request to Congress, he received word that Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande area and killed eleven American soldiers. Polk then made this the casus belli, and in a message to Congress on May 11, 1846, he stated that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil."

The Mexican Cession (in red) was acquired through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Gadsden Purchase (in orange) was acquired through purchase after Polk left office.

Some in Congress expressed doubts about Polk's version of events,^[47] but Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration of war. Many Whigs feared that opposition would cost them politically by casting themselves as unpatriotic for not supporting the war effort.^[48]

In the House, antislavery Whigs led by John Quincy Adams voted against the war; among Democrats, Senator John C. Calhoun was the most notable opponent of the declaration.

By the summer of 1846, American forces under General Stephen W. Kearny had captured New Mexico. Meanwhile, Army captain John C. Frémont led settlers in northern California to overthrow the Mexican garrison in Sonoma (in the Bear Flag Revolt). General Zachary Taylor, at the same time, was having success on the Rio Grande, although Polk did not reinforce his troops there. The United States also negotiated a secret arrangement with Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican general and dictator who had been overthrown in 1844. Santa Anna agreed that, if given safe passage into Mexico, he would attempt to persuade those in power to sell California and New Mexico to the United States. Once he reached Mexico, however, he reneged on his agreement, declared himself President, and tried to drive the American invaders back. Santa Anna's efforts, however, were in vain, as Generals Taylor and Winfield Scott destroyed all resistance. Scott captured Mexico City in September 1847, and Taylor won a series of victories in northern Mexico. Even after these battles, Mexico did not surrender until 1848, when it agreed to peace terms set out by Polk.

Polk sent diplomat Nicholas Trist to negotiate with the Mexicans. Lack of progress prompted the President to order Trist to return to the United States, but the diplomat ignored the instructions and stayed in Mexico to continue bargaining. Trist successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which Polk agreed to ratify, ignoring calls from Democrats who demanded the annexation of the whole of Mexico. The treaty added 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers) of territory to the United States; Mexico's size was halved, while that of the United States increased by a third. California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming were all included in the Mexican Cession. The treaty also recognized the annexation of Texas and acknowledged American control over the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Mexico, in turn, received the sum of $15 million. The war claimed fewer than 20,000 American lives but over 50,000 Mexican ones.^[49] It may have cost the United States $100 million.^[50] Finally, the Wilmot Proviso injected the issue of slavery in the new territories, even though Polk had insisted to Congress and in his diary that this had never been a war goal.

The treaty, however, needed ratification by the Senate. In March 1848, the Whigs, who had been so opposed to Polk's policy, suddenly changed position. Two-thirds of the Whigs voted for Polk's treaty. This ended the war and legalized the acquisition of the territories. Later in 1848, the Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, the hero of the war, for President. Taylor said there would be no future wars, but he refused to criticize Polk, who kept his promise not to run for reelection.

The war had serious consequences for Polk and the Democrats. It gave the Whig Party a unifying message of denouncing the war as an immoral act of aggression carried out through abuse of power by the President (even though they did vote for the funding of it). In 1848, the House of Representatives voted to censure Polk for starting the war.^[51] Another consequence was the toll on Polk's health. As a result of the strain of managing the war effort directly and in close detail, his health markedly declined toward the end of his presidency.

Cuba

In the summer of 1848, President Polk authorized his ambassador to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to negotiate the purchase of Cuba and offer Spain up to $100 million, an astounding sum of money at the time for one territory, equivalent to $2.45 billion in present day terms.^[52] Cuba was close to the United States and had slavery, so the idea appealed to Southerners but was unwelcome in the North. But Spain was still making great profits in Cuba (notably in sugar, molasses, and tobacco), and the Spanish government rejected Saunders' overtures.

Department of the Interior

One of Polk's last acts as President was to sign the bill creating the Department of the Interior (March 3, 1849). This was the first new cabinet position created since the early days of the Republic.

Administration and cabinet

The Polk Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	James K. Polk	1845–1849
Vice President	George M. Dallas	1845–1849
Secretary of State	James Buchanan	1845–1849
Secretary of Treasury	Robert J. Walker	1845–1849
Secretary of War	William L. Marcy	1845–1849
Attorney General	John Y. Mason	1845–1846
	Nathan Clifford	1846–1848
	Isaac Toucey	1848–1849
Postmaster General	Cave Johnson	1845–1849
Secretary of the Navy	George Bancroft	1845–1846
	John Y. Mason	1846–1849

Judicial appointments

Main article: List of federal judges appointed by James K. Polk

Supreme Court

Polk appointed the following Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court:

Justice	Position	Began active service	Ended active service
Robert Cooper Grier	Seat 1	18460804August 4, 1846	18700131January 31, 1870
Levi Woodbury	Seat 2	18450920September 20, 1845[53]	18510904September 4, 1851

Woodbury was from New Hampshire, and Grier from Pennsylvania. Polk also nominated George W. Woodward of Pennsylvania in 1846, but the nomination was rejected by the United States Senate.

Other courts

Polk was able to appoint eight other federal judges, one to the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, and seven to various United States district courts.

Congress

29th Congress (March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1847)

• Senate: 31 Democrats, 31 Whigs, 1 Other (President Pro Tempore - Willie P. Mangum (Whig-NC), Ambrose H. Servier (D-AR), and David R. Atchison (D-MO))
• House: 143 Democrats, 77 Whigs, 6 Others (Speaker - John W. Davis of Indiana)

30th Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 4, 1849)

• Senate: 36 Democrats, 21 Whigs, 1 Other (President Pro Tempore - David R. Atchison (D-MO))
• House: 115 Whigs, 108 Democrats, 4 Others (Speaker - Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts)

States admitted to the Union

• Texas – December 29, 1845
• Iowa – December 28, 1846
• Wisconsin – May 29, 1848

Post-presidency

Daguerreotype of President Polk taken by Mathew Brady on February 14, 1849, towards the end of his presidency.

James K. Polk's tomb lies on the grounds of the state capitol in Nashville, Tennessee.

Polk's time in the White House took its toll on his health. Full of enthusiasm and vigor when he entered office, Polk left on March 4, 1849, exhausted by his years of public service. He lost weight and had deep lines on his face and dark circles under his eyes. He is believed to have contracted cholera in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a goodwill tour of the South.^[54] He died at his new home, Polk Place, in Nashville, Tennessee, at 3:15 p.m. on June 15, 1849, three months after leaving office. He was buried on the grounds of Polk Place. Polk's devotion to his wife is illustrated by his last words: "I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you."^[55] She lived at Polk Place for over forty years after his death. She died on August 14, 1891. Polk was also survived by his mother, Jane Knox Polk.^[56]

Polk had the shortest retirement of all Presidents at 103 days. He was the youngest former president to die in retirement at the age of 53. He and his wife are buried in a tomb on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee. The tomb was moved to this location in 1893 after his home at Polk Place was demolished.

Reputation

Polk's historic reputation was largely formed by the attacks made on him in his own time; the Whigs claimed that he was drawn from a well-deserved obscurity; Senator Tom Corwin of Ohio remarked "James K. Polk, of Tennessee? After that, who is safe?" The Republican historians of the nineteenth century inherited this view. Polk was a compromise between the Democrats of the North, like David Wilmot and Silas Wright, and the plantation owners who were led by John C. Calhoun; the northern Democrats thought that when they did not get their way, it was because he was the tool of the slaveholders, and the conservatives of the South insisted that he was the tool of the northern Democrats. These views were long reflected in the historical literature, until Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr and Bernard De Voto argued that Polk was nobody's tool, but set his own goals and achieved them.^[57]

Polk is now recognized, not only as the strongest president between Jackson and Lincoln, but the president who made the United States a coast-to-coast nation. When historians began ranking the presidents in 1948, Polk ranked 10th in Arthur M. Schlesinger’s poll. and has subsequently ranked 8th in Schlesinger’s 1962 poll, 11th in the Riders-McIver Poll (1996), 11th in the most recent Siena Poll (2002), 9th in the most recent Wall Street Journal Poll (2005), and 12th in the latest C-Span Poll (2009).^[58].

Polk biographers over the years have sized up the magnitude of Polk’s achievements and his legacy, particularly his two most recent. “There are three key reasons why James K. Polk deserves recognition as a significant and influential American president,” Walter Borneman wrote. “First, Polk accomplished the objectives of his presidential term as he defined them; second, he was the most decisive chief executive prior to the Civil War; and third, he greatly expanded the executive power of the presidency, particularly its war powers, its role as commander in chief, and its oversight of the executive branch."^[59]

While Polk’s legacy thus takes many forms, the most outstanding is the map of the continental United States, whose landmass he increased by a third. “To look at that map,” Robert Merry concluded, “and to take in the western and southwestern expanse included in it, is to see the magnitude of Polk’s presidential accomplishments.”^[60]

President Harry S. Truman said it simply and best, calling Polk "a great president. Said what he intended to do and did it." ^[61]

Cultural References

The American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants wrote a song called "James K. Polk", which describes Polk's policies and actions during his presidency.

See also

Wikipedia:Books has a book on: Presidents of the United States (1789 - 1860)

• James K. Polk Ancestral Home

References

1. ^ http://www.presidentialavenue.com/jp.cfm#1
2. ^ http://www.presidentialavenue.com/jp.cfm
3. ^ Borneman, Walter R., ‘’Polk, The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America’’ (Random House, 2008), p. 6
4. ^ ^{a b} Borneman, p. 6
5. ^ Haynes, pp. 4–6.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Borneman p. 7
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Borneman p. 8
8. ^ Seigenthaler p. 19
9. ^ Borneman p. 13
10. ^ Haynes p.11.
11. ^ ^{a b} Borneman p. 9
12. ^ Borneman p. 10
13. ^ ^{a b} Borneman p. 11
14. ^ Seigenthaler p.24
15. ^ ^{a b} Borneman p. 14
16. ^ ^{a b} Seigenthaler p.25
17. ^ Borneman p. 17
18. ^ Borneman p. 18
19. ^ Sarah Childress Polk. The White House. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
20. ^ ^{a b c d} Borneman p. 22
21. ^ ^{a b c} Borneman p. 23
22. ^ Borneman p. 24
23. ^ Borneman p. 26
24. ^ Borneman p. 32
25. ^ Borneman p. 33
26. ^ Borneman p. 34
27. ^ Borneman p. 35
28. ^ Seigenthaler p. 57
29. ^ Seigenthaler p. 60
30. ^ ^{a b} Seigenthaler p. 62
31. ^ Seigenthaler p. 64
32. ^ Seigenthaler p.65: 54,012 to 51,396
33. ^ Seigenthaler p. 66
34. ^ Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).
35. ^ Seigenthaler p. 67
36. ^ Borneman p.64
37. ^ Seigenthaler p. 68
38. ^ Brinkley, Alan and Davis Dyer, (ed). The American Presidency. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. ISBN 0-618-38273-9 pp. 129–138
39. ^ Haynes, pp. 61–2
40. ^ "The American Presidency Project - Election of 1844." Retrieved: March 27, 2008.
41. ^ "National Atlas - Presidential Elections Maps 1844-1856." Retrieved: March 27, 2008.
42. ^ Haynes, p. 154
43. ^ Schlesinger, p. 453, citing Polk's Diary II, 289
44. ^ Dusinberre, passim
45. ^ Borneman, p. 164, 173.
46. ^ Haynes, p. 129
47. ^ In 1847, then-Representative Abraham Lincoln challenged Polk's claims of Mexican invasion with his Spot Resolutions, demanding that Polk identify the spot where Mexicans had "shed American blood upon the American soil." This highlighted the dubious basis of Polk's assertions about the boundary, since the fighting was in a disputed area. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875. Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 30th Congress, pp. 93–95. Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
48. ^ In January 1848, the Whigs won a House vote attacking Polk in an amendment to a resolution praising Major General Taylor for his service in a "war unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States". House Journal, 30th Session (1848) pp.183–184 The resolution, however, died in committee.
49. ^ Smith II, 51–8 "about 12,850" deaths out of 90,000 American troops.
50. ^ Rough estimate of total cost, Smith, II 266–7; this includes the payments to Mexico in exchange for the ceded territories. The excess military appropriations during the war itself were $63,605,621.
51. ^ DeConde, A. (2002). Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, p. 6.
52. ^ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/teacher/calc/hist1800.cfm. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 
53. ^ Recess appointment; formally nominated on December 23, 1845, confirmed by the United States Senate on January 3, 1846, and received commission on January 3, 1846.
54. ^ Haynes, p. 191
55. ^ "First Lady Biography: Sarah Polk". The National First Ladies Library. 2005. http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=12. Retrieved 2008-04-13. 
56. ^ Dusinberre, p. xii. Mrs Polk died in 1852.
57. ^ Schlesinger, pp.439–455; quote from Corwin (who became a Republican) on p. 439
58. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranking_presidents
59. ^ Borneman, p. 353.
60. ^ Merry, Robert W., A Country of Vast Designs, James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent (Simon & Schuster, 2009), p. 477.
61. ^ Truman, Harry S., and Robert H. Ferrell, Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman, Letter to Dean Acheson (unsent), August 26, 1960 (University of Missouri Press, 1997), p. 390.

Cited texts

• Borneman, Walter R. (2008). Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America. Random House, Inc.. ISBN 9781400065608. 
• Bergeron, Paul H. The Presidency of James K. Polk. 1986. ISBN 0-7006-0319-0.
• De Voto, Bernard The Year of Decision: 1846 Houghton Mifflin, 1943.
• Dusinberre, William. Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk 2003. ISBN 0195157354
• Dusinberre, William. "President Polk and the Politics of Slavery". American Nineteenth Century History 3.1 (2002): 1–16. ISSN 1466-4658. Argues he misrepresented strength of abolitionism, grossly exaggerated likelihood of slaves' massacring white families and seemed to condone secession.
• Eisenhower, John S. D. "The Election of James K. Polk, 1844". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 53.2 (1994): 74–87. ISSN 0040-3261.
• Haynes, Sam W.; Oscar Handlin (ed.) (1997). James K. Polk and the Expansionist Impulse. New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0-673-99001-3. 
• Kornblith, Gary J. "Rethinking the Coming of the Civil War: a Counterfactual Exercise". Journal of American History 90.1 (2003): 76–105. ISSN 0021-8723. Asks what if Polk had not gone to war?
• Leonard, Thomas M. James K. Polk: A Clear and Unquestionable Destiny. 2000. ISBN 0-8420-2647-9.
• McCormac, Eugene Irving. James K. Polk: A Political Biography to the End of a Career, 1845–1849. Univ. of California Press, 1922. (1995 reprint has ISBN 0-945707-10-X.) Extreme anti-Jacksonian views.
• McCoy, Charles A. Polk and the Presidency. 1960.
• Morrison, Michael A. "Martin Van Buren, the Democracy, and the Partisan Politics of Texas Annexation". Journal of Southern History 61.4 (1995): 695–724. ISSN 0022-4642. Discusses the election of 1844. online edition
• Paul; James C. N. Rift in the Democracy. 1951. on 1844 election
• Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. Age of Jackson Little Brown, 1945. Pp. 439ff on Polk
• Schouler, James. Democrats and Whigs, 1831–1847. Vol. 4 of History of the United States of America: Under the Constitution. 1917.
• Sellers, Charles. James K. Polk, Jacksonian, 1795–1843. 1957.
• Sellers, Charles. James K. Polk, Continentalist, 1843–1846. 1966.
• Seigenthaler, John. James K. Polk: 1845–1849. 2003. ISBN 0-8050-6942-9.
• Smith, Justin H. The War with Mexico, Macmillan, 1919. Still the standard source, used, for example, Dusinberre.

Primary sources

• Cutler, Wayne, et al. Correspondence of James K. Polk. 1972–2004. ISBN 1-57233-304-9. 10 vol. scholarly edition of the complete correspondence to and from Polk.
• Polk, James K. The Diary of James K. Polk During His Presidency, 1845–1849 edited by Milo Milton Quaife, 4 vols. 1910. Abridged version by Allan Nevins. 1929, online

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James K. Polk

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: James K. Polk

Wikisource has original works written by or about: James K. Polk

• James K. Polk: A Resource Guide, from the Library of Congress
• Extensive essay on James K. Polk and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• Inaugural Address of James K. Polk.
• Biography of James K. Polk. The White House (Official Site).
• First Message to Congress (1845).
• Second Message to Congress (1846).
• Third Message to Congress (1847).
• Fourth Message to Congress (1848).
• POTUS - James Knox Polk
• Works by James K. Polk at Project Gutenberg
• Obituary of President Polk in The Liberator (June 22, 1849)
• Smithsonian's "Establishing Borders: The Expansion of the United States, 1846-48" with essay and lesson plans
• President James K. Polk State Historic Site, Pineville, North Carolina.

Political offices
Preceded by John Tyler	President of the United States March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849	Succeeded by Zachary Taylor
Preceded by Newton Cannon	Governor of Tennessee 1839 – 1841	Succeeded by James C. Jones
Preceded by John Bell	Speaker of the United States House of Representatives December 7, 1835 – March 4, 1837; September 4, 1837 – March 4, 1839	Succeeded by Robert M.T. Hunter
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by William Fitzgerald	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th congressional district 1833 – 1839	Succeeded by Harvey Magee Watterson
Preceded by John Alexander Cocke	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th congressional district 1825 – 1833	Succeeded by Balie Peyton
Preceded by Gulian C. Verplanck	Chairman of the United States House Ways and Means Committee 1833 – 1835	Succeeded by Churchill C. Cambreleng
Party political offices
Preceded by Martin Van Buren	Democratic Party presidential candidate 1844	Succeeded by Lewis Cass
Notes and references
1. The Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee was split this year between two candidates. 2. The Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee split this year between Polk and Richard M. Johnson and Littleton W. Tazewell

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v • d • e Cabinet of President James K. Polk (1845-1849) Vice President George M. Dallas (1845-1849) Secretary of State James Buchanan (1845-1849) Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker (1845-1849) Secretary of War William L. Marcy (1845-1849) Attorney General John Y. Mason (1845-1846) • Nathan Clifford (1846-1848) • Isaac Toucey (1848-1849) Postmaster General Cave Johnson (1845-1849) Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft (1845-1846) • John Y. Mason (1846-1849)

Persondata
NAME	Polk, James Knox
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Eleventh president of the United States
DATE OF BIRTH	November 2, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH	June 15, 1849
PLACE OF DEATH	Nashville, Tennessee

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