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POLK, James Knox
(1795–1849), 11th president of the U.S. (1845–49),
under whose leadership the country fought a victorious war with
Mexico and greatly increased its territory by annexing Texas and
all the land west of the Rocky Mountains.
Polk was born on Nov. 2, 1795, to a comparatively wealthy
and influential family in Mecklenburg Co., N.C. His mother was a
descendant of the famous Scottish religious reformer John Knox.
When he was 11 years old, Polk and his family moved to Tennessee,
the state in which he achieved prominence. After graduating from
the University of North Carolina, he developed a lucrative law practice
in the Nashville, Tenn., area. His career received a strong boost
when he married the socially prominent Sarah Childress (1803–91).
An ardent supporter of President Andrew Jackson, Polk rose steadily
within the ranks of the Democratic party of Tennessee. He served
two years in the state legislature and then, between 1825 and 1839,
in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was Speaker of the House
during the last four years of his congressional term.
As a congressman, Polk remained unswervingly loyal to Jackson,
even when the administration’s shifting policies caused
him some embarrassment. Young Hickory, as Polk came to be called,
was not widely loved, but he was respected for his dedication to
the Democratic party and for his prowess as a speaker and politician.
In 1839 Polk retired from Congress to become governor of Tennessee.
An ambitious man, he tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic
vice-presidential nomination as Martin Van Buren’s running
mate in 1840. Four years later, however, he exceeded this ambition
when he unexpectedly became the party’s choice for the
presidency.
Polk was the nation’s first “dark horse” candidate
for the highest office. Little known outside Tennessee and the nation’s
capital, he was chosen only after the 1844 Democratic National Convention
became deadlocked. Van Buren was supported by the majority of the
delegates, but he failed to receive the two-thirds vote required
by the rules of the convention. After other, more prominent men
were rejected, the party turned to Polk. He was so obscure that
the opposing Whigs tried to score propaganda points during the campaign
by regularly asking, “Who is James K. Polk?” He
was named by the Democrats primarily because he was known to favor
the annexation of Texas. Polk’s cause was helped by the
popular belief that the U.S. had a “manifest destiny” to
occupy the whole continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Nevertheless,
the 1844 presidential election was extremely close: Polk managed
to defeat his Whig opponent, Henry Clay, but only by a few thousand
votes.
Polk’s goals as president were to achieve a lower
tariff, to separate the federal government and the U.S. Treasury
from the banking industry, and to acquire Texas, California, and
Oregon for the U.S. One of his objectives was achieved a few days
before he took office, when President John Tyler signed the bill
providing for the annexation of Texas.
If the greatness of a presidency depends on the extent to
which a president succeeds in accomplishing goals, Polk’s
administration was indeed great. He astutely won congressional support
for the measures he favored and used the veto effectively to block
those he opposed. Questions have nevertheless been asked about the
wisdom and morality of his major policies. The independent treasury
was essentially a negative policy that left private and state bankers
unregulated. The Walker Tariff Act of 1846—named after
Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker (1801–69)—pleased
the South more than it did the nation as a whole. Also, Polk’s
foreign policy created a storm of controversy. The vast territorial
acquisitions of his administration were achieved at great cost,
not only in dollars and lives but in political bitterness that helped
pave the way to the American Civil War.
Polk was a nationalist, and he reminded Europe that he would
enforce the Monroe Doctrine and permit no intervention in the western
hemisphere by non-American powers. When he demanded during the election campaign
that Great Britain cede the whole of the disputed Oregon Territory
up to the 54°40’ line, Polk may have pleased U.S.
expansionists, but his claim was of dubious legality. After assuming
office, he settled for a compromise that gave the U.S. land up to
the 49th parallel, the northern border of the present-day state
of Washington.
Polk was so intent on acquiring California, which belonged
to Mexico, that he was prepared in early May 1846 to make war on
Mexico with or without a pretext. The pretext that he did seize
occurred when Mexican troops fired on American soldiers in territory
claimed by both nations north of the Rio Grande. Although U.S. troops
may actually have been sent into the disputed area with the deliberate
aim of provoking a conflict, Congress approved Polk’s request
that it recognize that a state of war existed between the U.S. and
Mexico, raising the troops and appropriating the money and supplies
necessary to fight the war. The vote in favor of war was overwhelming,
but in reality Congress was bitterly divided. Many northerners believed
the Mexican War was a southern plot designed to expand slavery into
the new territories to be taken from Mexico. Some southerners, such
as Alexander H. Stephens, joined with northern Whigs, such as Abraham
Lincoln, to condemn what they believed were devious methods used by
Polk to provoke hostilities.
The conduct of the war was marred by political intrigue and
bickering that affected relations between Polk and his leading generals,
Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. On the other hand, U.S. forces
won a complete military victory that resulted in the annexation
of what became the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona,
and New Mexico. Although Polk’s foreign policy can be judged
a success, it also raised questions about the nation’s
honor, divided the country over the issue of slavery’s
expansion, and poisoned relations between the U.S. and Mexico.