Polk, James K.

▪ president of United States

Introduction

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 (Mexican-American 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, see 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 (Jackson, Andrew) 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 (Polk, Sarah) (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 (Adams, Abigail). 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 (Pierce, Franklin), Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (Story, Joseph), and Floride Calhoun, the wife of John C. Calhoun (Calhoun, John C), 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 (Van Buren, Martin), Lewis Cass (Cass, Lewis), and James Buchanan (Buchanan, James). 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 (Clay, Henry), 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. (See primary source document: Inaugural Address (James K. Polk: 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.

Presidency

      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 (Mexican-American War)—a war that Ulysses S. Grant (Grant, Ulysses S.), 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 (see primary source document: Reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine (James K. Polk: 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.

      (For an additional speech by Polk, see California and Mexico.)

George Clarence Robinson Ed.

Cabinet of President James K. Polk

       Cabinet of President James K. Polk Cabinet of President James K. PolkThe table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President James K. Polk.

Additional Reading

Milo Milton Quaife (ed.), The Diary of James K. Polk During His Presidency, 1845 to 1849, 4 vol. (1910, reprinted 1970), is a reliable, almost complete printing of the manuscript and a revelation of a president's mind. A useful compressed version is Allan Nevins (ed.), The Diary of a President, 1845–1849 (1952). James D. Richardson (compiler), A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897, vol. 4 (1897), includes a noteworthy biographical sketch in its Polk section. Biographers came late to Polk, but their work is substantial: Eugene Irving McCormac, James K. Polk: A Political Biography (1922, reissued in 2 vol., 1995); Charles Allan McCoy, Polk and the Presidency (1960, reprinted 1973); Charles Sellers, James K. Polk, 2 vol. (1957–66, reprinted 1987); and Paul H. Bergeron, The Presidency of James K. Polk (1987). William R. Polk, Polk's Folly: An American Family History (2000), details the Polk family's long involvement in public service.George Clarence Robinson Ed.

* * *