Often referred to as the first
"dark horse" President, James K. Polk was the last of the Jacksonians to sit in
the White House, and the last strong President until the Civil War.
He was born in Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina, in 1795. Studious and industrious, Polk was graduated
with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. As a young lawyer he
entered politics, served in the Tennessee legislature, and became a friend of
Andrew Jackson.
In the House of Representatives,
Polk was a chief lieutenant of Jackson in his Bank war. He served as Speaker
between 1835 and 1839, leaving to become Governor of Tennessee.
Until circumstances raised
Polk's ambitions, he was a leading contender for the Democratic nomination for
Vice President in 1844. Both Martin Van Buren, who had been expected to win the
Democratic nomination for President, and Henry Clay, who was to be the Whig
nominee, tried to take the expansionist issue out of the campaign by declaring
themselves opposed to the annexation of Texas. Polk, however, publicly asserted
that Texas should be "re-annexed" and all of Oregon "re-occupied."
The aged Jackson, correctly
sensing that the people favored expansion, urged the choice of a candidate
committed to the Nation's "Manifest Destiny." This view prevailed at the
Democratic Convention, where Polk was nominated on the ninth ballot.
"Who is James K. Polk?" Whigs
jeered. Democrats replied Polk was the candidate who stood for expansion. He
linked the Texas issue, popular in the South, with the Oregon question,
attractive to the North. Polk also favored acquiring California.
Even before he could take
office, Congress passed a joint resolution offering annexation to Texas. In so
doing they bequeathed Polk the possibility of war with Mexico, which soon
severed diplomatic relations.
In his stand on Oregon, the
President seemed to be risking war with Great Britain also. The 1844 Democratic
platform claimed the entire Oregon area, from the California boundary northward
to a latitude of 54'40', the southern boundary of Russian Alaska. Extremists
proclaimed "Fifty-four forty or fight," but Polk, aware of diplomatic realities,
knew that no course short of war was likely to get all of Oregon. Happily,
neither he nor the British wanted a war.
He offered to settle by
extending the Canadian boundary, along the 49th parallel, from the Rockies to
the Pacific. When the British minister declined, Polk reasserted the American
claim to the entire area. Finally, the British settled for the 49th parallel,
except for the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The treaty was signed in 1846.
Acquisition of California proved
far more difficult. Polk sent an envoy to offer Mexico up to $20,000,000, plus
settlement of damage claims owed to Americans, in return for California and the
New Mexico country. Since no Mexican leader could cede half his country and
still stay in power, Polk's envoy was not received. To bring pressure, Polk sent
Gen. Zachary Taylor to the disputed area on the Rio Grande.
To Mexican troops this was
aggression, and they attacked Taylor's forces.
Congress declared war and,
despite much Northern opposition, supported the military operations. American
forces won repeated victories and occupied Mexico City. Finally, in 1848, Mexico
ceded New Mexico and California in return for $15,000,000 and American
assumption of the damage claims.
President Polk added a vast area
to the United States, but its acquisition precipitated a bitter quarrel between
the North and the South over expansion of slavery.
Polk, leaving office with his
health undermined from hard work, died in June 1849.