James Polk (U.S. president)

James Polk

Democratic Party

Education

Bachelor's

University of North Carolina, 1818

Personal

Religion

Christian: Presbyterian

Profession

Attorney

James Knox Polk (b. on November 2, 1795, in Pineville, North Carolina) was the 11th president of the United States. He served from 1845 to 1849 and died on June 15, 1849, three months after leaving office at the age of 53.

Polk was a member of the Democratic Party. His vice president was George M. Dallas.

Polk was president during the acquisition of the Oregon territory in 1846 and the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848.

Prior to becoming president, Polk served as the governor of Tennessee, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (including four years as speaker of the House), and a Tennessee state legislator.

Biography

Timeline of life events

Below is an abbreviated outline of Polk's professional and political career:^[1][2]

• November 2, 1795: Born in Pineville, North Carolina
• 1806: Moved to Tennessee
• 1818: Graduated from the University of North Carolina
• 1818-1823: Studied and practiced law in Nashville, Tennessee
• 1823: Elected to the Tennessee State Legislature
• 1824: Married Sarah Childress
• 1825-1839: Served in the U.S. House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party
• 1835-1839: Served as speaker of the House of Representatives
• 1839: Elected governor of Tennessee
• 1841: Lost re-election bid for governor of Tennessee
• 1843: Lost election for governor of Tennessee
• 1844: Elected president of the United States as a member of the Democratic Party
• 1846: The U.S. Senate ratified the Oregon Treaty with Britain
• 1846-1848: Mexican-American War
• February 2, 1848: United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico, which increased the United States' territory in the southwest.
• 1848: Did not run for re-election to the presidency
• June 15, 1849: Died in Nashville, Tennessee

Before the presidency

Polk was born in Pineville, North Carolina on November 2, 1795, to Samuel Polk and Jane Knox Polk. The family moved to Tennessee in 1806, when Polk was 10. Polk attended the University of North Carolina and graduated in 1818. He returned to Tennessee to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1820, at the age of 24.^[1][2]

Polk was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1823 and served one term before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825. While in Congress, Polk was a supporter and ally of President Andrew Jackson (D). With Jackson's support, Polk was elected speaker of the House in 1835, a position he held until he left Congress in 1839. Polk was elected governor of Tennessee in 1839 but lost his re-election bid in 1841. Polk also ran for governor of Tennessee in 1843, but he lost.^[1][2]

Polk was selected as the Democratic nominee for president in 1844 after former President Martin Van Buren failed to secure enough votes to win the nomination. Polk faced Kentucky Senator Henry Clay (Whig) in the general election, with a central issue being territorial expansion. Clay opposed the annexation of Texas while Polk supported it, as well as efforts to gain territory from the British in the Pacific northwest. Polk won the Electoral College 170 to 105 despite winning the popular vote by fewer than 2 percentage points, 49.5 percent to Clay's 48.1 percent.^[1][2][3][4]

Presidency

Polk was most known for expanding the territory of the United States during his administration. He shared Andrew Jackson's philosophy of Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined by God to expand throughout North America.^[2]

The United States concluded negotiations for possession of the Oregon territory from Britain in 1846, resulting in the acquisition of what is now Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The Oregon Treaty, which established the 49 degree latitude line to be the boundary between what is now the northwestern United States and Canada, was ratified by the Senate on June 18, 1846.^[5]

During Polk's administration, the United States also fought and won the Mexican-American War, which resulted in a large expansion of the country's territory in the southwest. Just before Polk took office, the United States annexed Texas from Mexico, and began the process of admitting the area as the country's 28th state. Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico broke off as a result, and Polk sent troops to the Rio Grande region when a border dispute arose between the two nations. Polk obtained a declaration of war from Congress to settle the matter, and the United States fought the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the war and was signed on February 2, 1848. Under it, Mexico abandoned its claims to Texas, accepted the Rio Grande river as the southern border of the United States, and enabled the U.S. to purchase what is now Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Wyoming.^[1][2][6]

Post-presidency

When Polk first ran for the presidency in 1844, he pledged to serve only one term. He kept that pledge and did not run for re-election in 1848. After his term ended in 1849, he returned to Nashville and passed away three months later, possibly of cholera.^[2]

Personal

Polk underwent major surgery for urinary tract stones when he was 16 years old, which at the time was done without anesthesia.^[1]

Elections

1844 presidential election

In 1844, Polk defeated Henry Clay (Whig) in the general election for the United States presidency.

U.S. presidential election, 1844
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Democratic	James Polk/George M. Dallas	49.5%	1,339,570	170
	Whig	Henry Clay/Theodore Frelinghuysen	48.1%	1,300,157	105
	Liberty	James Birney/Thomas Morris	2.3%	62,054	0
	various	Others	0.1%	2,083	0
Total Votes				2,703,864	275
Election results via: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

State of the Union addresses

Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs as well as the administration's goals for the coming year.^[7] Following are transcripts from Polk's State of the Union addresses.

• December 8, 1845
• December 8, 1846
• December 7, 1847
• December 5, 1848

See also

• John Tyler
• Zachary Taylor
• Tennessee
• Federal judges nominated by James Polk

External links

• The James K. Polk Home and Museum website
• Official White House biography
• C-Span video on the Polk presidency

Footnotes

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