James K. Polk (1795-1849) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the eleventh president of the United States. A protégé of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), he was the dark-horse candidate of the Democratic Party in the US Presidential Election of 1844, running on a platform of expansionism and 'Manifest Destiny'. During his single term, Polk settled a boundary dispute with Britain over the Oregon Territory and oversaw the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), which resulted in Mexico's cession of 529,000 square miles (1,370,103 km²) of land to the US. Polk, whose health was fragile to begin with, often overworked himself, likely contributing to his death only three months after leaving office in 1849.
Early Life
James Knox Polk was born on 2 November 1795 in a log cabin in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He was the first of ten children born to Samuel Polk, a farmer and slaveholder of Scotch-Irish descent, and his wife Jane Knox Polk. While Jane was a devout Presbyterian, Samuel was the son of a deist who had been raised to be skeptical of the dogmas of Christianity. When it came time for their newborn son to be baptized, Samuel Polk could not bring himself to acknowledge the existence of God. Incensed, the minister refused to baptize the boy, much to his mother's horror. As historian Amy S. Greenberg puts it, "On the southern frontier, a husband's authority over his family was close to absolute; and if a man wanted to keep his son from God's grace, there wasn't much a mother could do about it" (27). Still, Jane Polk did her best to instill her son with Presbyterian teachings, and indeed, young James would become imbued with the Calvinist virtues of individualism, self-discipline, and hard work.
When James was about 11 years old, his family moved out to Maury County, Tennessee, where his father became a judge and one of the wealthiest men in the county. As his influence grew, Judge Polk began to host prominent officials at his dinner table, including Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), then a rising star in Tennessee politics. James would have been present for these dinners, absorbing the political conversation. A small, delicate child, he turned to politics because his sickly constitution prevented him from doing much else; he would watch with jealousy as his more robust younger brothers performed the physical tasks vital for survival on the frontier. Throughout his teenage years, he was in constant pain from urinary bladder stones. Though he tried losing himself in his studies – particularly mathematics and Latin – the discomfort became too much to bear. At the age of 17, he underwent an agonizing surgery without anesthesia. The stones were removed, but the operation likely rendered him sterile, as he would never sire children.
In January 1816, Polk enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a second-semester sophomore. A "correct, punctual, and industrious" student (quoted in Britannica), he graduated first in his class two years later, after which he went to Nashville, Tennessee, to study law under the celebrated trial attorney Felix Grundy. He was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1820, though his true passions rested in the realm of politics rather than law. To be sure, the young Polk did not look like a promising politician. In Greenberg's estimation:
Polk was no natural at the game of politics…Five foot eight and painfully skinny, Polk had excellent posture, but he was almost always sick or recovering from illness. He lacked charisma, couldn't tell a joke to save his life, and was an uninspired speaker. Where [Sam] Houston and [Davy] Crockett were warm, Polk was cool. He had chilly gray eyes and a stern mouth, and he wore his dark, unruly hair brushed straight back. Closemouthed, even sullen, formal in his words and calculating in his thought, he lacked a politician's deft touch. Polk was not a man that people liked.
(28)
Nevertheless, Polk worked hard to overcome his shortcomings. He consistently worked 12-to-14-hour days, meticulously teaching himself how to deliver a good speech and interact with constituents. No less important to his political career was his choice of wife. In 1822, he was encouraged by Jackson to court Sarah Childress (1803-1891). Hailing from an influential, slave-owning, Presbyterian family not unlike Polk's own, Sarah possessed a remarkable intelligence and an insatiable political thirst; indeed, she told Polk that she would only marry him if he won a seat in the state legislature, which he did. Sociable where Polk was awkward and always conscientious of his fragile health, Sarah complemented James perfectly. After their marriage on 1 January 1824, Sarah Childress Polk became her husband's closest confidante, giving him valuable advice throughout his political career.
Young Hickory
With the help of his new bride, Polk campaigned so energetically that he was nicknamed 'Napoleon of the Stump'. He won election to the Tennessee Legislature in 1823 and, two years later, was elected to the US House of Representatives. Polk arrived in Washington, D.C., in December 1825 as a staunch supporter of Andrew Jackson. Now a national war hero renowned for the Battle of New Orleans (8 January 1815), Jackson had run for president in 1824 but lost to John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). Many Jacksonians, including Polk, accused Adams of having struck a 'corrupt bargain' with the new secretary of state, Henry Clay (1777-1852), to deny the presidency to Jackson. As such, Polk spent the next four years opposing the Adams administration. When Jackson ran against Adams again in the election of 1828, Polk worked as an advisor for his campaign. This time, Jackson won and was inaugurated on 4 March 1829.
Over the next few years, Polk emerged as one of the most loyal Jacksonians in Congress; indeed, he was starting to become known as 'Young Hickory', a reference to Jackson's nickname 'Old Hickory'. He supported President Jackson's efforts to kill the Second Bank of the United States – an episode referred to as the Bank War – believing it to be a corrupt institution that benefited the industrial Eastern elite at the country's expense. He continued to back Jackson during the Nullification Crisis (1832-33) when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union after it was denied the authority to nullify federal laws. Polk supported the Force Bill, which would allow Jackson to use military force to restore federal authority in South Carolina; however, the crisis was averted before such a drastic measure became necessary. In December 1835, Polk was elected Speaker of the House – Jackson called in political debts to ensure that his protégé won. As historian Thomas M. Leonard writes, Polk was now at the "zenith of his congressional career. He was at the center of Jacksonian Democracy on the House floor and, with the help of his wife, he ingratiated himself into Washington's social circles" (23).
As House Speaker, Polk continued to defend the agenda of Jackson's new political party – the Democratic Party – even after Old Hickory left office in 1837. He filled committees with Democratic majorities and defended the Democratic administration of President Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), Jackson's handpicked successor, who received much of the blame for the Panic of 1837. Polk also did his best to enforce the 'gag rule,' which prohibited the House of Representatives from receiving anti-slavery petitions. In this, he was opposed by Adams – after his single presidential term, Adams had won election to Congress, where he became a champion of abolition. The arguments between Polk and Adams often devolved into bitter shouting matches.
In 1839, Polk resigned from Congress to run for Governor of Tennessee – though he won election, much of his agenda was frustrated by the state legislature, and he lost re-election in 1841. That same year, the Democrats lost control of both the White House and Congress to the rival Whig Party, which had been founded a few years earlier in opposition to Jackson and his policies. Luckily for Democrats, the Whigs were a fractured party. After Whig President William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) died only a month into his term, his successor John Tyler (1790-1862) refused to tow the party line – the powerful Whig leader Henry Clay punished Tyler's insolence by orchestrating his expulsion from the party. This disunity gave Democrats hope that they could return to power in 1844. The only question was who would take up Old Hickory's banner and lead them back to the White House.
Election of 1844
As the US presidential election of 1844 loomed, very few people would have considered Polk a serious candidate. After his failed gubernatorial re-election campaign, it seemed as though he was destined to fade into political obscurity. But neither Polk nor his ambitious wife was about to let that happen – by early 1844, Polk had begun to subtly campaign for the Democratic nomination as vice president. At the time, Van Buren was the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, though his candidacy was tainted by his opposition to the annexation of Texas. Having won its independence from Mexico in the Texas Revolution (1835-36), the Republic of Texas now sought admission into the United States. Many Democrats supported annexation, both to extend the institution of slavery and to realize the nation's 'Manifest Destiny' to spread its influence across the continent. Both Van Buren and Clay, the presumptive Whig candidate, opposed annexation because they believed it would spark a needless war with Mexico.
Unfortunately for Van Buren, his opposition to annexation lost him the support of Jackson – though retired and slowly dying of tuberculosis, Old Hickory still commanded much influence within the Democratic Party. In May 1844, Jackson summoned James and Sarah Polk to The Hermitage, his estate outside Nashville, and offered to support a Polk candidacy. On 27 May, the Democratic National Convention opened in Baltimore; even with Jackson's support, Polk was unsure he could win, as he had little name recognition. The first round of ballots led to a deadlock – while Van Buren won the majority, he did not get the two-thirds of votes needed to cinch the nomination, losing support to other high-profile candidates such as Lewis Cass (1782-1866) and John C. Calhoun (1782-1850). The next six rounds of voting also resulted in deadlocks, but Van Buren gradually lost support. After the seventh ballot, Polk's supporters put his name forward as a compromise. Hoping to win the support of figures like Calhoun, who were nursing presidential ambitions, Polk promised to serve only a single term. After the eighth ballot, Van Buren's name was officially withdrawn, and Polk won on the ninth ballot. George M. Dallas (1792-1864) of Pennsylvania was chosen as his vice president.
As Polk headed into the general election, the Whigs did not take his candidacy seriously, often chanting "Who is James K. Polk?" at their rallies. Their own candidate, Clay, was one of the most recognizable names in the country – but the decades in politics left Clay with serious political baggage. Most recently, his letter denouncing Texas' annexation had led to controversy, and his two subsequent letters clarifying his position only lost him more support, as he was accused of being hypocritical. By contrast, Polk's platform of expansionism – annexing Texas and settling the Oregon boundary dispute with the United Kingdom – resonated with many voters, at a time when support for 'Manifest Destiny' was reaching its fever pitch. Polk won the election in November 1844 and was inaugurated as the eleventh president on 4 March 1845.
Presidency: 1845-1849
With the advice of Jackson – who had only a few months to live – Polk put together his cabinet, selecting James Buchanan (1791-1868) as Secretary of State and New England historian George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy, among others. Polk was a famously secretive man who kept his cards close to his chest and often only spoke about his plans with Sarah. However, he did reveal the four major goals of his presidency to Bancroft, who recounted them as follows:
- Reduce tariffs.
- Re-establish the Independent Treasury System, which had been created by Van Buren but abolished by the Whigs.
- Settle the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain.
- Acquire California and its harbors from Mexico.
The first two objectives were swiftly achieved. In July 1846, Congress narrowly voted to implement a lower tariff, and, a month later, Polk signed the Independent Treasury Act, which stipulated that public funds would henceforth be kept in the Treasury building rather than in banks. Territorial acquisitions would be much harder to accomplish. For decades, both the US and the UK had laid claim to the Oregon Territory, the chunk of land along the Pacific Coast between the Mexican province of Alta California and the southern boundary of Russian America at 54°40′ parallel north. Since 1818, the region had been jointly occupied by the US and UK, but as more American settlers streamed into the territory, Democrats started to call for the annexation of all Oregon even if it meant war with Britain – the slogan 'Fifty-four Forty or Fight!' had been popular during the 1844 election. Polk, who was already planning his war with Mexico, knew he could not fight a two-front war; while he publicly demanded the entirety of Oregon, he quietly expressed his willingness to compromise. Thus, in June 1846, the Oregon Treaty fixed the boundary between the Oregon Territory and Canada at the 49th parallel.
This left Mexico. In December 1845, Texas had officially joined the US as the 28th state – Mexico, which had never recognized Texas' independence, viewed this as a hostile act. Nor did Mexico recognize Texas' assertion that its southern boundary lay on the banks of the Rio Grande, since historically, the border of Mexican Texas was at the Nueces River, 150 miles (240 km) north of the border Texas now claimed. In June 1845, Polk sent 4,000 soldiers under Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) to assert the United States' claim to the Rio Grande border, ordering Taylor to "approach as near the boundary line…as prudence will dictate" (quoted in Howe, 734). At the same time, he ordered Commodore John D. Sloat of the Pacific Squadron to prepare to seize San Francisco as soon as he heard that hostilities had broken out.
In November 1845, Polk sent a diplomat to Mexico City with instructions to purchase the Rio Grande border, New Mexico, and Alta California, all for $20 million; when the Mexicans balked at this ridiculous offer, as Polk expected, tensions only increased. In April 1846, a detachment of US dragoons was attacked by Mexican cavalry while patrolling the Rio Grande border. Polk seized on this opportunity to claim that 'American blood has been spilled on American soil' and asked Congress for a declaration of war, which was granted on 13 May 1846. Only 14 congressmen voted against it, including John Quincy Adams.
The Americans quickly won significant victories; by early 1847, US forces had seized control of both Alta California and New Mexico, and Taylor had beaten back a superior Mexican army at the Battle of Buena Vista (22-23 February 1847). But as the death toll climbed and news of atrocities committed by US troops leaked back home, support for the war rapidly dwindled. Whigs proclaimed that this was an unjust war of conquest, one that contradicted all that the US stood for, while abolitionists accused Polk of waging the war for the purpose of expanding slavery. While Polk retained the support of most 'Manifest Destiny' Democrats – indeed, some Democrats pushed for the annexation of all Mexico – his party lost control of Congress to the Whigs in the 1846 midterm elections, convincing him that he had to end the war soon. On 14 September 1847, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott (1786-1866) captured Mexico City, and on 2 February 1848, US diplomat Nicholas Trist signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with the Mexican commissioners. The treaty gave Polk all he initially wanted – the so-called 'Mexican Cession' gave 529,000 square miles of land to the US that included the Rio Grande border, Alta California, and New Mexico.
Death & Legacy
Polk kept his promise not to run for a second term in 1848. He was exhausted from four years in the White House; during all that time, he had not spent more than six weeks away from his desk, and overwork had taken its toll on his physical health. After the inauguration of his successor, Zachary Taylor, on 4 March 1849, Polk left Washington and embarked on a prearranged triumphal tour of the American South – the whirlwind of banquets, balls, and social visits that followed did nothing to restore his health. On 2 April, the Polks arrived in Nashville and settled into their new home, Polk Place. By this point, the former president had fallen ill, and his health continued to deteriorate until he died on 15 June 1849 at the age of 53. His last words were spoken to his wife: "I love you, Sarah, for all eternity, I love you". Sarah Polk would never remarry and wore only mourning black until her own death 42 years later.
Polk left behind a legacy as one of the United States' most effective presidents, having accomplished all his goals in a single term; indeed, if one were to judge presidents solely on their ability to keep their promises, then Polk was perhaps the most successful in US history. However, his provocation and prosecution of an unjust war with Mexico has left a large stain on his legacy, as has the Mexican Cession itself; debate over whether slavery should be allowed into these newly conquered lands would inflame sectional division between the North and South and help lead to the American Civil War (1861-1865).
