James
Polk Biography
in full James Knox Polk
(born November 2, 1795, Mecklenburg county,
North Carolina, U.S.—died June 15, 1849, Nashville, Tennessee) 11th
president of the United States (1845–49). Under his leadership
the United States fought the Mexican War (1846–48) and acquired
vast territories along the Pacific coast and in the Southwest. (For
a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, presidency
of the United States of America.)
Early
life and career
Polk was the eldest child of Samuel and Jane Knox Polk. At age 11
he moved with his family to Tennessee, where his father operated a
prosperous farm in Maury county. Although ill health during his childhood
made formal schooling impossible, Polk successfully passed, at age
20, the entrance requirements for the second-year class at the University
of North Carolina. He was “correct, punctual, and industrious,”
and as a graduating senior in 1818 he was the Latin salutatorian of
his class—a preeminent scholar in both the classics and mathematics.
After
graduation he returned to Tennessee and began to practice law in Nashville.
His interest in politics, which had fascinated him even as a young
boy, was encouraged by his association with leading public figures
in the state. In 1820 he was admitted to the bar. Because he was a
confirmed Democrat and an unfailing supporter of Andrew Jackson and
because his style of political oratory became so popular that he was
characterized as the “Napoleon of the stump,” his political
career was assured.
His
rapid rise to political power was furthered by his wife, Sarah Childress
Polk (1803–91), whom he married January 1, 1824, while serving
in the state House of Representatives (1823–25). She proved
to be the most politically dominant president's wife since Abigail
Adams. The social prominence of Sarah Polk's family (her father, Joel
Childress, was a planter) and her personal charm and bearing, which
was sometimes described as queenly, were distinct assets for a politically
ambitious lawyer. A high-spirited woman, she and her sister had traveled
500 miles on horseback in their determination to attend one of the
best schools in the South, the Moravian Female Academy in Salem, North
Carolina. Because she disdained housekeeping and the marriage was
childless, she was freed of most domestic chores to participate in
the public life of her husband. She monitored his health assiduously,
and, as his hostess, she won the admiration and esteem of the leading
figures of the day. Among those who became her friends, and therefore
helpful to her husband, were President Jackson, future president Franklin
Pierce, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, and Floride Calhoun, the
wife of John C. Calhoun, the powerful senator of South Carolina. Year
after year she was her husband's closest companion and his eyes and
ears in state and national politics. When her husband became president,
she was often referred to as “the Presidentress.” Her
stern Presbyterianism persuaded her to eschew dancing, the theatre,
and horse racing, and in the President's House she forbade music on
Sundays. Although a stickler for tradition, she oversaw the installation
of the first gaslights in the White House.
James K. Polk was by nature a student of government, by experience
a legislator, and by force of circumstance an administrator. He was
not an easy man to know or to like. Even close companions did not
relish his austerity, and associates tolerated but did not approve
of his inflexible living standards. Among his few close friends was
Andrew Jackson, who encouraged and advanced Polk and whose influence
carried him from the Tennessee House of Representatives to the United
States House of Representatives, where he served from 1825 to 1839.
As
speaker of the House during that time, Polk acquired a reputation
as an undeviating supporter of Jacksonian principles. In 1839 he left
the House to become governor of Tennessee. Two defeats for a second
term (1841, 1843) by small majorities convinced him that to strengthen
his party he should return to Washington.
At
the Democratic convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1844, Polk hoped
only for the vice presidential nomination, for the party had more-prominent
sons as presidential contenders in Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and
James Buchanan. But the Democrats could not reconcile their differences,
and a compromise candidate had to be found. Because the campaign was
to be run on issues and not on personalities, it was decided that
Polk would do. People in Washington could hardly believe their eyes
when Polk's name came over the nation's first telegraph line, then
only five days old, which ran between Baltimore and Washington. Although
well known in political circles, to the public Polk was the first
“dark horse” nominee in the history of the presidency.
During the campaign the Whigs, who were running Henry Clay, taunted
the Democrats with the cry: “Who is James K. Polk?” The
answer came on election day: he was president of the United States.
The new vice president was George Mifflin Dallas of Pennsylvania.
( primary source document: Inaugural Address.)
It
was thought that Polk, as a party man from what was then the West
and a former member of the House of Representatives, would bring about
legislative and executive cooperation and understanding in the functioning
of the national government. While speaker of the House, he had decided
many procedural questions and had usually been sustained by majorities
including the leaders of both parties. His party feeling was intense,
but his integrity was unquestioned; he knew the rights and privileges
of the House, and he also knew its responsibilities.
During
his campaign Polk surprised the country by taking a positive stand
on two burning issues of the day. Whereas other candidates hedged
on the question of whether to annex Texas, which had been independent
of Mexico since 1836, he demanded annexation. Whereas other candidates
evaded the problem of joint occupancy of Oregon with England, he openly
laid claim to the whole territory that extended as far north as latitude
54°40 with the campaign slogan “Fifty-four forty or fight.”
His election was close, but it was decisive—a popular plurality
of about 38,000 votes and 170 electoral votes against 105 for Clay.
Not yet 50 years of age, Polk was the youngest successful presidential
candidate up to that time. He entered the presidency full of eagerness
and with an expressed zeal to put his aims into effect. He left it
four years later exhausted and enfeebled by his efforts. In office
he demonstrated remarkable skill in the selection and control of his
official advisers, and, in his formal relations with Congress, his
legislative experience served him well. When his party was firmly
united behind a policy he himself opposed, he yielded to the wishes
of Congress. When he disagreed strongly with congressional policy
and decided to make an issue of it, he fortified his position with
recognized executive precedent and practice. His formal disapprovals
(in the form of two veto messages and one pocket veto, by which legislation
is killed by the failure of the president to sign a bill before the
adjournment of Congress) were questioned, but the two returned measures
failed to command the two-thirds majority necessary to override his
vetoes. The Polk administration was marked by large territorial gains.
The annexation of Texas as a state was concluded and resulted in a
two-year war with Mexico—a war that Ulysses S. Grant, who served
in it as an army captain, would later call the most unjust war in
history. As a consequence of that struggle, the Southwest and far
West (California), partly by conquest and partly by purchase, became
part of the United States' domain. During this period the northwestern
boundary became fixed by treaty, and the continental United States
emerged a recognized reality. Polk's accomplishments brought him immense
satisfaction. He had in his way compensated for the fact that he once
was, as he wrote, “the meager boy, with pallid cheeks, oppressed
and worn with disease.”
Additional
achievements included a treaty with New Granada (Colombia) resolving
the problem of right-of-way for U.S. citizens across the Isthmus of
Panama; establishment of a warehouse system that provided for the
temporary retention of undistributed imports; and the passage of the
Walker Tariff Act of 1846, which lowered import duties and did much
to pacify British public opinion that had been inflamed over the Oregon
compromise of 1846. As these measures helped foreign trade, so the
reenactment of the independent treasury system in 1846 helped in the
solution of domestic financial problems.
The
expansion of the country westward led to the creation of a new agency,
the Department of the Interior. The Polk administration should also
be credited with the establishment of the United States Naval Academy
at Annapolis, Maryland, and the authorization of the Smithsonian Institution,
a national foundation for all areas of science.
Assessment
Polk's influence over Congress may be gauged from the results of the
recommendations of his 4 annual messages and 10 significant special
messages to one or both houses. His control of legislative policy
in bitterly partisan Congresses must be judged in terms of results,
not oratory or parliamentary delay. He recommended with a high degree
of success settlement of a trade dispute with Great Britain, an increase
in U.S. armed forces, war with Mexico, peace with Great Britain over
Oregon, provision of finances to expedite peace conclusions, organization
of the Oregon Territory, peace with Mexico, and revision of the treasury
system. He occasionally refused to provide information requested by
Congress (on the ground that the requests were incompatible with the
public interest), recognized a new French revolutionary government,
and proclaimed the validity of the Monroe Doctrine ( primary source
document: Reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine). Succeeding presidents
recognized these pronouncements.
A diary kept by Polk during his term of office stressed the presidential
burden. Day after day, week after week, he recounted in his diary
his experiences with the hosts of office seekers who infested Washington
and who occupied so much of his public time. Again and again, there
is evident in his writings a note of despair. He knew from experience
what an evil an unlimited executive patronage can become, but he felt
powerless to change its obligations and too conscientious to avoid
its duties. At the close of his term, March 4, 1849, Polk retired
to his Nashville home, where he died three months later.
The
office of chief executive under Polk was well filled—maintained
with dignity, integrity, and an extraordinary sense of duty. His great
influence over Congress was due to the widespread popularity of his
policies and his persistence in having the members see questions not
as interests of district or section but as matters of national welfare.
History may not rate him as one of the greatest U.S. presidents, but
his successes in office made his influence considerable, and, as a
relative unknown who reached the highest office in the land and by
integrity and will won the plaudits of the people, he has been compared
to Harry Truman.
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