11. James K. Polk

OK, where to start with James Polk…  So far in my reading about each of the presidents none has surprised me with what they accomplished  more than James Polk.  He went into the presidency with very clear objectives and a pledge to only serve one term.  He accomplished all of his goals within the 4 years and died 3 months after leaving office.  For those of you who read my blog on Jefferson you’ll recall that I stated that only one other president added more land to the United States than Thomas Jefferson; that was James Polk.  Through a war and the threat of war he rounded out the remaining territories of the lower 48 states.  He is considered the strongest president between Jackson and Lincoln and is consistently rated in top quartile of US Presidents.  Polk has been called the “least known consequential president”.

Polk was the first of the “dark horse” presidents (others included Pierce, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield and Harding).  The “dark horse” candidates were generally compromise candidates when two factions of a party have strong candidates and are unwilling to support the other.  The party conventions generally required more than a simple majority to win the nomination.  So while John Quincy Adams received a majority of the votes on the first ballot he was unable to garner the 2/3rds votes required.  On the 9th ballot Polk won the nomination of the Democratic party.

During the campaign against Henry Clay (the incumbent, Tyler, had lost the support of his party and was not re-nominated in 1844) in the regular election, Polk came out strongly for the annexation of Texas and went so far as to suggest that the US might be willing to go to war with England over the Oregon Territory.  The issue of the Oregon Territory led to the rallying cry of “54-40 or fight”.  This referred to the 54 degrees 40 minutes latitude that marks Alaska’s southern border.  Polk ended up settling for the 49th parallel.  On a side note, there is a great book called “How the States got Their Shapes” that explains all of the borders of the states and how they were decided (check out Delaware’s northern border that is a semicircle!).  Where was I…..

During the election, New York became the critical battleground state which Polk won thanks to the 19th century version of Ross Perot.  James Birney, from New York, was able to siphon off enough votes from Clay to allow Polk to take New York.  Of course I don’t think he had the ears or the charts of Perot!  During Polk’s inaugural address he outlined 4 goals for his presidency.

1. Reestablishing an independent treasury system
2. Lowering tariffs
3. Settling the Oregon issue with Great Britain
4. Acquiring California and New Mexico from Mexico

The first two objectives were met without too much trouble.  The Independent Treasury had been established in 1840 after Jackson vetoed the 2nd Bank of the United States.  It was established to store the nations funds and regulate currency.  The system was closed down by the Whigs in 1841.  The Polk administration with the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress reestablished the system in 1846 and it survived until 1913 when it was replaced by the current Federal Reserve system.  Also with the support of the Democrats in Congress, Polk was successful in lowering most tariffs.  Two down, two to go.

Polk believed in the eventual creation of a United States that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.  The phrase “Manifest Destiny” has been used to describe the policy of expansion west ward.  Both the 3rd and 4th goals were thorny at best.

The Oregon territory had been jointly administered by the US and Great Britain.  However, Americans were moving west in droves and staking claims in the territory under the assumption that it would eventually become part of the United States.  Polk put pressure on Great Britain to settle the issue at the 49th parallel.  When Great Britain refused to negotiate due to the rich lands around the Columbia River, Polk switched tactics and returned to the rallying cry of “54-40 or Fight” giving the impression that we was willing to go to war over the issue.  Eventually Great Britain agreed to set the boundary at the 49th parallel.

Now to the issue of Texas.  Texas became a hot topic for a couple of reasons; slavery and territorial disputes both with Mexico and with New Mexico.  So, Mexico fights a war for independence from Spain in the 1820’s.  Due to the low population levels of the Mexican state of Texas the government loosened the immigration laws to encourage settlers.  It didn’t take long before the Americans that were moving west (remember Manifest Destiny) vastly outnumbered the native Mexican population.  In 1835 Texas fought a war for independence against Mexico.  It was during this war that the battle at the Alamo was fought.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time here talking about that war, but it is important to have some background for what’s to come.  Texas gained it’s independence from Mexico (with at least the threat of American intervention from Andrew Jackson).

Now there are two separate but related issues going on in 1846.  Polk was very interested in buying California and New Mexico from Mexico.  At the same time, the US had annexed Texas in the closing days of the Tyler administration.  Polk sent an emissary out to negotiate the purchase of the new land from Mexico.  When the Mexican government, surprised that Polk was not offering some form of compensation for the loss of Texas, expelled the emissary Polk was more than a bit ticked off.  There had been a long standing dispute between Texas and Mexico over the southern border.  Polk decided to send some troops (under Zachary Taylor) down to test the border and to pressure Mexico to accept the offer for California and New Mexico.  What started out as a border dispute turned into the Mexican-American War.  It didn’t take long and instead of buying California and New Mexico we took it.  It has long been considered a black mark on the Polk administration because even at that time the US was a much stronger country than Mexico.  In the end Mexico lost almost 50% of its land area, while the US grew by 33% and added the area of the future states of California, Nevada, Utah and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

There was also a dispute between Texas and New Mexico about the border between those states which was ultimately settled in favor of New Mexico.  In part because Texas was viewed as already being big enough.

While the concept of Manifest Destiny was very popular it also fueled the issue of slavery.  While Polk did not believe that slavery could survive in the newly acquire territories he felt that it should be up the population of those areas to decide.  He did suggest extending the line set up in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific.  The issue of slavery continued to create problems and ultimately led to the Civil War 12 years after he left office.  You certainly can’t fault Polk for the Civil War; every time new states were added the issue of slavery popped up.

Polk lived up to his promise and did not run again in 1848.  In fact, as I mentioned he died 3 months after leaving office of cholera that it’s believed he contracted in New Orleans.  Polk is generally given high marks for having set the objectives of administration and achieving them. 

Now for the trivia to impress your friends!

• Polk is the only US President to have served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives
• At the time he was the youngest elected president at the age of 49
• He had the shortest retirement of any US President, 103 days
• He was the youngest president to die in retirement at the age of 53
• He is the first president to have surviving pictures of him when he was president
• Polk was the last of what are considered the Jacksonian presidents
• Polk oversaw the opening of the Naval Academy, the Smithsonian Institution, the ground breaking of the Washington Monument and the first issuance of US Postage stamps
• He sported what was probably the most famous mullet until Billy Ray Cyrus came along
• Graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Served as a US Congressmen from Tennessee from 1825 – 1839. He was 29 when he was elected to his first term
• Served one term as the Governor of Tennessee (1839 – 1841).  In the early years, many states Governors served 2 years terms.
• So, he was the 11th Governor of Tennessee and the 11th President of the United States, coincidence (yeah probably).
• He and his wife are buried on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capital in Nashville

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Sarah Childress 
• Children: None (ironic that Sarah Childress was Childless!) 
• Party affiliation: Democratic Party 
• Presidency: 1844-1848
• Born: November 2nd, 1795 (Pineville, North Carolina)
• Died: June 15th, 1845 (Nashville, Tennessee)