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U.S Presidents — James K. Polk

OVERVIEW Name: James K. Polk President: # 11 Term Number(s): 15 Term Length: 4 Took Office: March 4, 1845 Left Office: March 4, 1849 Age when Elected: 49 Party: Democratic Also Known As: ""Young Hickory","The Napoleon of the Stump"" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Occupation: Lawyer, Farmer (Planter) Other Governmental Position: 17th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 11th Governor of Tennessee, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th district, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th District, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from Maury County. Military Service: None Religion: Methodist Spouse(s): Sarah Childress Polk (January 1, 1824) Children: Marshall Tate Polk (nephew) Birthdate: November 2, 1795 Birthplace: Pineville, North Carolina Deathdate: June 15, 1849 Deathplace: Nashville, Tennessee Age at Death: 53 Cause of Death: cholera morbus Place of Internment: Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee Signature FIRST ELECTION Election Year: 1844 Main Opponent: Henry Clay Voter Participation: N/A   Electoral Popular States Click for larger image Winner 170 (62.00%) 1,339,494 (49.50%) 15 Main Opponent 105 (38.18%) 1,300,004 (48.10%) 11 total 275 2,703,659 26 CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: George M. Dallas Secretary of State: James Buchanan (1845–1849) Secretary of the Treasury: Robert J. Walker (1845–1849) Secretary of War: William L. Marcy (1845–1849) Secretary of the Navy: George Bancroft (1845–1846), John Y. Mason (1846–1849) Attorney General: John Y. Mason (1845–1846), Nathan Clifford (1846–1848), Isaac Toucey (1848–1849) Postmaster General: Cave Johnson (1845–1849) Supreme Court Assignments: Levi Woodbury (1845), Robert Cooper Grier (1846) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY Often referred to as the first "dark horse" president, James K. Polk was the last of the Jacksonians to sit in the White House, and the last strong president until the Civil War. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1795. Studious and industrious, he was graduated with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. As a young lawyer he entered politics, served in the Tennessee legislature, and became a friend of Andrew Jackson. In the House of Representatives, Polk was a chief lieutenant of Jackson in his Bank war. He served as Speaker between 1835 and 1839, leaving to become Governor of Tennessee. Until circumstances raised Polk's ambitions, he was a leading contender for the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 1844. Both Martin Van Buren, who had been expected to win the Democratic nomination for president, and Henry Clay, who was to be the Whig nominee, tried to take the expansionist issue out of the campaign by declaring themselves opposed to the annexation of Texas. Polk, however, publicly asserted that Texas should be "re-annexed" and all of Oregon "re-occupied." The aged Jackson, correctly sensing that the people favored expansion, urged the choice of a candidate committed to the nation's "Manifest Destiny." This view prevailed at the Democratic Convention, where Polk was nominated on the ninth ballot. "Who is James K. Polk?" Whigs jeered. Democrats replied Polk was the candidate who stood for expansion. He linked the Texas issue, popular in the South, with the Oregon question, attractive to the North. Polk also favored acquiring California. Even before he could take office, Congress passed a joint resolution offering annexation to Texas. In so doing, they bequeathed Polk the possibility of war with Mexico, which soon severed diplomatic relations. In his stand on Oregon, the President seemed to be risking war with Great Britain also. The 1844 Democratic platform claimed the entire Oregon area, from the California boundary northward to a latitude of 54'40", the southern boundary of Russian Alaska. Extremists proclaimed "Fifty-four forty or fight," but Polk, aware of diplomatic realities, knew that no course short of war was likely to get all of Oregon. Happily, neither he nor the British wanted a war. He offered to settle by extending the Canadian boundary, along the 49th parallel, from the Rockies to the Pacific. When the British minister declined, Polk reasserted the American claim to the entire area. Finally, the British settled for the 49th parallel, except for the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The treaty was signed in 1846. Acquisition of California proved far more difficult. Polk sent an envoy to offer Mexico up to $20,000,000, plus settlement of damage claims owed to Americans, in return for California and the New Mexico country. Since no Mexican leader could cede half his country and still stay in power, Polk's envoy was not received. To bring pressure, Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to the disputed area on the Rio Grande. To Mexican troops this was aggression, and they attacked Taylor's forces. Congress declared war and, despite much Northern opposition, supported the military operations. American forces won repeated victories and occupied Mexico City. Finally, in 1848, Mexico ceded New Mexico and California in return for $15,000,000 and American assumption of the damage claims. President Polk added a vast area to the United States, but its acquisition precipitated a bitter quarrel between the North and the South over expansion of slavery. Polk, leaving office with his health undermined from hard work, died in June 1849. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Sarah Childress Polk Silks and satins little Sarah took for granted, growing up on a plantation near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Elder daughter of Captain Joel and Elizabeth Childress, she gained something rarer from her father's wealth. He sent her and her sister away to school, first to Nashville, then to the Moravians' "female academy" at Salem, North Carolina, one of the very few institutions of higher learning available to women in the early 19th century. So she acquired an education that made her especially fitted to assist a man with a political career. James K. Polk was laying the foundation for that career when he met Sarah. He had begun his first year's service in the Tennessee legislature when they were married on New Year's Day, 1824; he was 28, she 20. The story goes that Andrew Jackson had encouraged their romance; he certainly made Polk a political protege, and as such, Polk represented a district in Congress for 14 sessions. In an age when motherhood gave a woman her only acknowledged career, Sarah Polk had to resign herself to childlessness. Moreover, no lady would admit to a political role of her own, but Mrs. Polk found scope for her astute mind as well as her social skills. She accompanied her husband to Washington whenever she could, and they soon won a place in its most select social circles. Constantly, but privately, Mrs. Polk was helping her husband with his speeches, copying his correspondence, giving him advice. Much as she enjoyed politics, she would warn him against overwork. He would hand her a newspaper—"Sarah, here is something I wish you to read."—and she would set to work as well. A devout Presbyterian, Mrs. Polk refused to attend horse races or the theater; but she always maintained social contacts of value to James. When he returned to Washington as president in 1845, she stepped to her high position with ease and evident pleasure. She appeared at the inaugural ball, but did not dance. Contrasted with Julia Tyler's waltzes, Sarah Polk's entertainments have become famous for sedateness and sobriety. Some later accounts say that the Polks never served wine, but in December 1845 a Congressman's wife recorded in her diary details of a four-hour dinner for forty at the White House—glasses for six different wines, from pink champagne to ruby port and sauterne, "formed a rainbow around each plate." Skilled in tactful conversation, Mrs. Polk enjoyed wide popularity as well as deep respect. Only three months after retirement to their fine new home, Polk Place in Nashville, President Polk died, worn out by years of public service. Clad always in black, Sarah Polk lived on in that home for 42 years, guarding the memory of her husband and accepting honors paid to her as honors due to him. The house became a place of pilgrimage. During the Civil War, Mrs. Polk held herself above sectional strife and received with dignity leaders of both Confederate and Union armies; all respected Polk Place as neutral ground. She presided over her house until her death in her 88th year. Buried beside her husband, Mrs. Polk was mourned by a nation that had come to regard her as a precious link to the past. MAJOR EVENTS 1845: Texas joins the Union. 1845–1856: The Irish potato famine forces many starving immigrants to the U.S., inciting anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiment. 1846: Mexican-American War. Polk requests and Congress agrees to declare war on Mexico after a diplomat is rebuffed in Mexico City and 16 U.S. soldiers are killed by Mexican forces near the Rio Grande in Texas. 1846: Iowa joins the Union. 1847: General Winfield Scott occupies Mexico City and puts pressure on the Mexican government to sign Polk's treaty of peace. 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Mexican-American War is ended and the U.S. is granted all of present-day California, Nevada, and Utah, and large parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, and confirms U.S. control of Texas. 1848: Wisconsin is admitted as a free state. 1848: Wisconsin joins the Union. 1849: Gold is discovered in the hills of California setting off a worldwide rush of immigrants and leading to the establishment of California as a state. TRIVIA 1. James Polk was the first president to oversee the U.S. coast to coast. 2. Polk fulfilled all his campaign promises. During his administration, Polk acquired California from Mexico, settled the Oregon dispute, lowered tariffs, established a sub-treasury, and retired from office after one term. 3. He was the first president to have his inauguration reported by telegraph.