James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the eleventh President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, but mostly 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) prior to becoming president.
A firm supporter of Andrew Jackson and his beliefs, Polk was the last "strong" pre-American Civil War president.[1] 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 even more famous for leading the successful Mexican–American War. He lowered the tariff and established a treasury system that lasted until 1913. A "dark horse" in 1844, he was the first president who retired after one term and did not seek re-election. He died three months after his term ended.
As a Democrat committed to geographic expansion (or "Manifest Destiny") he overrode Whig objections and was responsible for the largest expansion of the nation's territory (exceeding even the Louisiana Purchase). He secured the Oregon Territory (including Washington, Oregon and Idaho), then purchased 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million km²) through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War. In the end, Polk completed the acquisition of most of the current contiguous 48 states. The expansionism re-opened a furious debate over slavery in the new territories that was inadequately arbitrated by the Compromise of 1850, and only found its ultimate resolution on the battlefields of the U. S. Civil War. He signed the Walker Tariff that brought an era of near free trade to the country until 1861. He oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Smithsonian, 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 President of the United States to be extensively photographed while in office.[2] Scholars have ranked him 8th to 12th on the list of greatest presidents for his ability to set an agenda and achieve all of it.
Early life
Polk, the first of ten children, was born in a log farmhouse in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County in 1795, just outside of Charlotte. His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent, and related to Scottish nobility. His mother, Jane Polk (née Knox) was a descendant of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. In 1806, the Polk family moved to Tennessee, settling near Duck River in what is now Maury County. The family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk becoming one of the leading planters of the area. When James was 11, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
During his childhood, James suffered from poor health. In 1812, just before he turned 17, his father took him to Kentucky, where the famous surgeon Dr. Ephraim McDowell conducted an operation to remove urinary stones. The operation may have left James sterile, as Polk never had children. After his surgery, he was then able to more rigorously pursue a formal education. For the rest of his life, Polk did enjoy comparatively better health.
Polk was home schooled; his formal education began at the age of 18, when he studied at Zion Church near his home. He later attended a school in Murfreesboro, where he met his future wife, Sarah Childress. After less than three years of attending the school, Polk left Tennessee to enroll in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a sophomore; he is the only U.S. President to attend and graduate from the University of North Carolina. While there, he practiced his oratorical skills as a member of the Dialectic Society. He graduated in 1818 with top honors in mathematics and the classics and returned to Nashville to study law under renowned Nashville trial attorney Felix Grundy. While working for Grundy, he served as clerk of the Tennessee State Senate. Polk was admitted to the bar in 1820, and established his own practice in Columbia, Tennessee. He worked with Aaron V. Brown, future Governor of Tennessee and Postmaster General. The James K. Polk Ancestral Home, his only surviving home, still stands in Columbia.
Investment in slaveholding
Polk was a slaveholder for his entire adult life. His father Samuel left title to over 8,000 acres (32 km²) of land and about 53 slaves to his widow and his children. James inherited control over nine 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. Three years later he 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. He infrequently bought more slaves and sold others, although once he became President and could better afford it, he bought more slaves. Polk's will stipulated that their slaves were to be manumitted after both he and 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 some more than twenty-five years before the death of his wife in 1891.
Political career
Polk was brought up as a Jeffersonian Democrat, for his father and grandfather were strong supporters of Thomas Jefferson. The first public office he held was that of chief clerk of the Senate of Tennessee (1821–1823). He resigned the position in order to run his successful campaign for the state legislature, defeating an incumbent in 1822. Polk's oratory became popular, earning him the nickname "Napoleon of the Stump."
He courted Sarah Childress, and they married on January 1, 1824. At the time of their marriage, Polk was 28, and Childress was 20. Through their marriage, they had no children, and were married until his death in 1849. During his political career, Sarah was said to assist Polk with his speeches and give him advice on policy matters and would always be active in his campaigns. There is an old story that says Andrew Jackson had encouraged their romance when they began to date.[3]
Polk became a supporter of Andrew Jackson, then the leading politician of Tennessee. In 1824, Jackson ran for President, while Polk campaigned for the House of Representatives. Polk, at age twenty-nine succeeded, but Jackson was defeated. 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, allowing the House of Representatives to select the victor. In his first speech, Polk expressed his belief that the House's decision to choose Adams was a violation of the will of the people; he even proposed, unsuccessfully, that the Electoral College be abolished.
In Congress, Polk was a firm supporter of Jacksonian democracy; he opposed the Second Bank of the United States, favored gold and silver over paper money; distrusted banks; and preferred agricultural interests over industrial ones. This behavior earned him the nickname "Young Hickory," an allusion to Andrew Jackson's sobriquet, "Old Hickory." After Jackson defeated Adams in the presidential election of 1828, Polk rose in prominence, becoming the leader of the pro-Administration faction in Congress. As chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, he was a chief lieutenant to President Jackson to abolish the National Bank.
Speaker of the House
Polk became speaker in 1835. Jackson left office two years later, to be succeeded by fellow Democrat Martin Van Buren. Van Buren's term was a period of heated political rivalry between the Democrats and the Whigs, with the latter often subjecting Polk to insults, invectives, and challenges to duels.
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—convinced Polk to return to help the party at home. Leaving Congress in 1839, Polk became a candidate in the Tennessee gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Whig, Newton Cannon. Though he revitalized Democrats in Tennessee, his victory could not put a stop to the political decline of the Democratic Party elsewhere in the nation. In the presidential election of 1840, Van Buren was overwhelmingly defeated by a popular Whig, William Henry Harrison. Polk received one electoral vote for Vice President in the election. Polk lost his own gubernatorial re-election bid to a Whig, James C. Jones, in 1841. He challenged Jones in 1843 but was defeated once again. Throughout all three of these campaigns, he focused on the policy differences on the economy between the Whigs and the Democrats. He attacked the Whig platform on economic policies during these campaigns. These three campaigns of attacking the Whigs largely helped him gain national spotlight within the Democratic Party, which helped him win the nomination for president in 1844.
Election of 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 (a moderate) and General Lewis Cass (an expansionist). 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. Despite having served as speaker of the House of Representatives, he was relatively unknown, leading many Whigs to snipe, "Who is James K. Polk?"
Prior 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 deadlock 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.[4]
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.[5]
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, once again dominated the campaign. Polk was a strong proponent of immediate annexation, while Clay seemed more equivocal and vacillating.
Another campaign issue, also relating 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 anti-slavery. 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 38,000 out of 2.6 million, and took the Electoral College with 170 votes to Clay's 105.[citation needed] Polk won 15 states, while Clay won 11.[citation needed]
Polk is still the only Speaker of the House of Representatives ever to be elected President of the United States.
Presidency
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 re-establishment of the Independent Treasury System, the reduction of tariffs, acquisition of some or all the Oregon boundary dispute, and the purchase of California from Mexico. Resolved to serve only one term, he accomplished all these objectives in just four years. By linking new lands in Oregon (with no slavery) and Texas (with slavery) he hoped to satisfy both North and South.
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 contempt 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
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.[citation needed] Polk stated in his diary[citation needed] that he believed slavery could not exist in the territories won from Mexico, 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.
Foreign policy
Polk was committed to expansion—Democrats believed that opening up more farms for yeoman farmers was critical for the success of republican virtue. (See Manifest Destiny.) To balance the interests of North and South he sought the Oregon territory (comprised of present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia), as well as Texas. He sought to purchase California, which Mexico had neglected.
Texas
President Tyler had interpreted Polk's victory as a mandate for the annexation of Texas. Acting quickly because he feared British designs on Texas, Tyler urged Congress to pass a joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union; Congress complied on February 28, 1845. Texas promptly accepted the offer and officially became a state on December 29, 1845. The annexation angered Mexico, however, which had succumbed to heavy British pressure and had lost Texas at the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Mexican politicians had repeatedly warned that annexation would lead to war.
Oregon territory
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 the British, who had commercial interests along the Columbia River. Although the Democratic platform had 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, often associated with Polk, was in fact 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. 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 would later form the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of the states of Montana and Wyoming.
War with Mexico
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 US dollars. 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",[6] and he prepared to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Coincidentally, 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 troops. 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." Several congressmen, including a young Abraham Lincoln, expressed doubts about Polk's version of events,[7] but Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration of war, many Whigs fearing that opposition would cost them politically by casting themselves as unpatriotic for not supporting the war effort.[8] In the House, anti-slavery 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. 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 Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott destroyed all resistance. Scott captured Mexico City in September of 1847, and Taylor won a series of victories in Northern Mexico. Even after these battles, Mexico did not surrender until 1848, when they 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 km²) of territory to the United States; Mexico's size was halved, whilst that of the United States increased by a third. California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of 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 less than 20,000 American casualties but over 50,000 Mexican casualties.[citation needed] It had cost the United States nearly $100 million.[citation needed] Finally, the Wilmot Proviso injected the issue of slavery in the new territories, even though Polk had insisted to other congressmen 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. One was that the war had given the Whig Party a unifying message of denouncing the war as a whole (even though they did vote for the funding of it) as an immoral abuse of power by the President by taking land from Mexico. In 1848, the House of Representatives voted to censure Polk for starting the war.[9] The second was that the war had taken a toll on Polk's health. As a result of Polk managing the war effort directly, and by paying attention to every detail very closely, 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. (For comparison, the President's salary was only $25,000 a year in 1848; today, it is $400,000.)[citation needed] Cuba was close to the United States and had slavery, so the idea appealed to Southerners but was unwelcome in the North. The Spanish government rejected Saunders' overtures.
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