nBy ELMO SCOTT WATSON
ACK In 1844 when the Democrats at
their national convention In Balti
more nominated James Knox Polk of
Tennessee for the Presidency, their
opponents, the Whigs, asked some
what scornfully “Who is Polk?” They
soon had their answer, for, as it
turned out, he was the next President
of the United States.
Mention of him today would prob
ably result in a similar question. For
Polk is one of our Presidents who is little more
than a name to the average American. Yet the
historians who in recent years have been res
cuing him from the obscurity Into which his
name had lapsed assure us that he was more
important In the history of the nation than many
another Chief Executive who is much better
known. Here are some of the elements In his
career which make him outstanding:
He was the first “dark horse” In American
political history.
He was the first and, thus far, the only speaker
of the national house of representatives who
went on to the White House.
He was one of two Presidents who made
and kept a promise not to seek a second term.
• He wras the only President who accomplished
virtually everything he set out to accomplish
when he took office.
He was truly an “empire builder,” for during
his one administration he added more territory
to the United States than did any other Presi
dent, with the, exception of Thomas Jefferson.
(Under Polk we acquired 529,189 square miles in
rthe Mexican cession and 286,541 square miles in
«Oregon by treaty with England, a total of 815,730
square miles as compared to the 827,987 square
i^Siles in Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. How
ever, If the 389,166 square miles acquired by the
annexation of Texas, which was formally com
pleted during Polk’s administration, is counted
In, It brings his total up to 1,204,896 square
miles.)
Although Tennessee claims Polk as one of the
Ithree men whom It has sent to the White House,
jhe was, like the other two, Jackson and Johnson,
ja “Tennesseean from North Carolina.” He was
born in Mecklenburg county Just 140 years ago
—on November 2, 1795. The original family name
was Pollock but among the frontiersmen this
was slurred into Poll'k und eventually became
Polk.
When Janies K. Polk was eleven years old
the family moved to Tennessee and settled In
the town of Columbia. After his first schooling
there he entered the Murfreesboro academy from
which he was graduated in 1815 and immediately
enrolled in the University of North Carolina as
a sophomore. Graduated from the university
with the highest honors In the class of 1818,
Polk began rending law with Felix Grundy of
Nashville and from this attorney’s office the next
step into politics was a natural one.
In 1823 Polk was elected to the general as
sembly of the state of Tennessee and began the
career of public service which during the next
quarter of a century would take him to the high
est office in the land. In 1825 he was elected
to congress and during the next 14 years, first
as one of the leaders in the Jackson administra
tion, and from 1835 to 1839 as speaker of the
house, he was an important factor in the party
battles of that stormy period. From 1839 to
1841 he wns governor of Tennessee and three
years later he became President.
For an understanding of the forces which re
sulted in Polk’s election to the Presidency, a
brief review of political history preceding it is
necessary. When Andrew Jackson was ready to
lay down the reigns of power which he had held
for eight years, he decided that Martin Van
Buren of New York, who had helped manage his
second campaign and who was later his secretary
of state, should be his successor. Although the
Whigs, under the leadership of Gen. William
Henry Harrison, had put up a valiant fight In
the campaign of 1836, Van Buren was elected and
the Jucksonian Democracy was destined to rule
for four years more in the White House.
But the campaign of 1840 was a different mat
ter. With their shouts of “Tippecanoe and Tyler,
To4," the Whigs swung into their famous “Log
CaJBUn and Hard Cider’’ campaign with an en
thusiasm that had rarely before been displayed.
And the popular appeal of this military hero,
something of the same sort of appeal that had
helped elect Jackson, enabled Harrison to defeat
the “Little Magician,” Van Buren, and put the
Whigs in power for the first time in history.
Then Harrison died, soon after taking office,
and John Tyler, the vice president who had been
elected as a Whig but who soon proved that he
was not a dyed in-the-wool Whig In principle, be
came President. As the campaign of 1844 ap
p^bached, it was apparent that Tyler would not
be the Whig candidate but that that mantle
would fall upon Henry Clay, Jackson’s old enemy
who had cast envious eyes at the White House
since 1824. Van Buren was the logical Demo
cratic candidate, although his opposition to the
annexation of Texas bad lessened his popularity
in the party.
When the Democratic convention met in Balti
more it was apparent that Van Buren would have
a majority of the delegates. And then the second
t— - —
ATribule from'The First Lady of the Land”
©
morning of the meeting the celebrated “two
thirds majority” rule was passed. After what
seemed a hopeless deadlock between Van Buren
and Lewis Cass, Van Buren’s name was with
drawn. Then followed the first convention
stampede In American history and James K. Polk
of Tennessee, who had been a prominent candi
date for vice president, was nominated as the
first “dark horse” in our political history.
Back of his nomination was a little-known fig
ure in American political history, one of those
real "history-makers” whom the school history
books so often overlook. He was Senator Rob
ert J. Walker of Mississippi who, a month before
the convention, had resolved to defeat Van Buren.
When both Clay and Van Buren sidestepped the
question of the annexation of Texas, Walker
boldly demanded not only the annexation of
Texas but also the re-occupation of Oregon. It
was Walker who put through the two-thirds
majority rule, thus depriving Van Buren of the
leadership of the party; it was Walker who gave
the convention Its slogan of “All of Texas; all of
Oregon” and it was Walker who engineered the
deadlock which resulted in Polk’s nomination.
Thus the cnmpaign opened with the Democrats
committed to an expansionist policy. James C.
Calhoun supported Polk. Daniel Webster, Clay’s
great rival for the leadership of the Whigs,
said little during the campaign. The contest
centered about territorial expansion and slavery.
Polk, whose platform supported both proposi
tions, found himself In a highly favorable posi
tion. Clay, whose prestige and personal popu
larity were vastly grenter than that of his op
ponent, was put on the defensive at the outset.
So Polk won by an electoral vote of 170 to
103. Upon assuming office he found one of the
main planks of his platform already adopted.
President Tyler had persuaded the short session
of congress In December, 1844, to oiTer the Inde
pendent republic of Texas satisfactory terms for
entering the Union. These were accepted so all
that there remained for Polk to do was to carry
out the formalities of receiving the Lone Star
eommonw’ealth Into the sisterhood of states.
He next turned to the question of Oregon
which for the past 50 years had been claimed by
both Great Britain and the United States. Polk’s
offer to England to divide this country by ex
tending the forty-ninth parallel, already the
boundary as far west as the Rockies, was re
jected. At once the expansionists raised a cry
that had already been heard during the campaign.
It was “34-40 or Fight!” meaning that Americn
demanded the whole coast as far north ns the
Russian possessions.
But Polk had no intention of embroiling the
country in two wars, for be foresaw that con
llict with Mexico was Inevitable. So lip persisted
in his negotiations with England until In June,
1840, a treaty with her was signed establishing
the forty-ninth parallel boundary line. For the
first time America now had an undisputed foot
hold on the Pacific coast, given to her by the
diplomacy of James K. Polk.
The dispute with Mexico was not so easily set
tled, however. That country had refused to recog
nize the independence of Texas and had protested
against its annexation by the United States.
Moreover, it rejected the southern boundary
claimed by the Texans and had been very slow
in settling the claims against it for outrages
against the person and property of Americans.
These matters, however, might have been set
tled amicably had it not been for the ambitious
extent of the expansionist policy under Polk’s
administration. Polk wanted California to add
to Oregon and extend to our holdings on the Pa
cific coast and he was willing to buy it. But
when he sent John Slidell to Mexico to open ne
gotiations for Its purchase, the Mexicans refused
even to receive Slidell.
Relations on the border became strained and
Mexico began mobilizing for war. At the same
time Polk ordered Gen. Zachary Taylor, who was
stationed at Corpus Christl on the Nueces river,
to advance with bis troops to the Rio Grande.
-James K.Polk
Taylor did so and closed the trade of the river
with his guns. The Inevitable collision between
the armed forces came on April 24, 1846, when
the Mexicans attacked a body of American cav
alrymen on the northern side of the IUo Grande.
Thereupon Polk, on May 11, 1846, sent a message
to congress recommending that war be declared,;
since "War exists, and notwithstanding all our
efforts to avoid It."
Among the Abolitionists of the North Polk was
denounced as “the mendacious tool of a grasping
slavocracy" and some historians have criticized
severely his Mexican adventure and declared that
the war with Mexico was unjustifiable. He has
been accused of trying to foment revolution
among the Californians as a preliminary to Itsi
annexation and he Is snld to have been deter
mined to acquire not only California, but New
Mexico and other northern provinces of the
southern republic by fair means or foul.
But other historians, especially since the pub
lication of his diary, have token a more kindly
view of his actions. One of them declares that
It “leaves little question as to Polk’s honest deal
ing with England In Oregon or of equal effort
to deal fairly with Mexico on the southern bor
der." Another says "His own perception of the
objects of the war was never clouded by doubt
or hypocrisy. He would have been glad to buy
the northern provinces from Mexico If that had
been possible."
As the war progressed the American forces,
despite the blundering of their general officers,
won victory after victory, and an early end to the
conflict became a certainty. Some of the greedier
expansionists began shouting for the annexation
of the whole of Mexico. But Polk was content
with the cession In March, 1848, of more than
500,000 square miles of territory In California
and the Southwest for which Mej&o was paid
$15,000,000. Just as the states which were carved
out of the Louisiana Purchase are a perpetual
monument to Thomas Jefferson, so are the states
of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada,
Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of
Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma a
similar memorial to James K. Polk, the “empire
builder.”
tie left the White House In March, 1819, a sick
and exhausted man, the first victim of the ter
rific strain which we put upon the men whom we
elect President Says a historian: “Polk was
plainly murdered by an office which the prevailing
notions of ‘democracy’ joined with his own in
ability to delegate details, had rendered beyond
any man’s powers. He felt It his duty to be ac
cessible* to everyone. He was annoyed and Irri
tated beyond belief by a swarm of office-seekers
who kept aftpr him until almost the final day of
his term—all manner of people of no Importance
rambling into the Presidential presence at will
to demand petty offices and giving him a piece
of their minds on being refused; common drunk
ards waylaying the President on his walks with
pleas for money; wanderers from home calling
at the White House for loans of $5 and $10.
“Polk’s election to the Presidency was a sen
tence to confinement at hard labor. In his diaries
he speaks again and again of his excessive fa
tigues,’ nor did they end in March 18-19. On his
way home to Nashville by way of Richmond,
Charleston, Mobile and New Orlenns. he was al
most ns literally assassinated by his friends as
though he had been shot; he was suffering from
a digestive disorder requiring plain food and ab
solute rest, and he was. In plain fact, feted and
banqueted to death. He reached Nashville on
April 2 and he died on June 15.”
His wife, Sarah Childress Knox, Is described
as “a very handsome woman, whose black hair
and dark eyes and complexion were reminiscent
of a Spanish donna, a woman who was n sincere
and understanding student of political nffalrs In
a day when women were not supposed to know
unything about politics and who had a better
grasp of public questions than most of the ’states
men’ who thronged the Washington of her day."
She was devoted to her husband and as long as
she lived she kept his study in their home just
as lie left It.
On the grounds of what is now the statehouse
yard In Nashville she had erected a small marble
temple and there his body was placed. On three
sides of a monument inside the structure she set
down In orderly array the record of his life: “The
mortal remains of James Knox Polk are resting
in the vault beneath. He was born In Mecklen
burg county, North Carolina, ami emigrated with
his father, Samuel Polk, to Tennessee In 180(1.
The beauty of virtue was illustrated in his life.
The excellence of Christianity was exemplified
In his death. Ills life was devoted to the public
service. He was elevated successively to the first
places In the state and federal governments. A
member of the general assembly. A member of
congress and chairman of the most Important
congressional committees. Speaker of the house
of representatives; governor of Tennessee and
President of the United States. IJy his public
policy he defined, established and extended the
boundaries of his country. He planted the luws
of the American union on the shores of the Pa
cific. His influence and his counsels tended to
organize the national treasury on the principles
of the Constitution and to apply the rule of Free
dom to Navigation, Trade and Industry."
© Western Newspaper Union.
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