James K. Polk: Expansion that Causes Division

James K. Polk

President from: Mar. 4, 1845–Mar. 3, 1849

Age at inauguration: 49

Political Party: Democratic

What I read:

A Country of Vast Design by Robert W. Merry

Age at death: 53

Cause of Death: Cholera

Health & Appearance: Polk stood 5’8” tall and had grey eyes and brown hair.  He was a sickly child who suffered from gallstones several times.  He had a relatively healthy adult life. When he left office he was exhausted due to the rigorous work schedule he kept as president. He was by far the most involved in the daily running of the government than any president before him.

Pre-Presidency: Polk served in the Tennessee house for a term, and then went to the U.S. House of Representatives, winning reelection five times. In 1835 he was elected Speaker of the House with the support of President Jackson. Polk was a vocal supporter of President Jackson and campaigned heavily for him. He supported everything Jackson supported, and Jackson treated him like a son which earned Polk the nickname “Young Hickory.”

Polk then left the House and won the Governorship of Tennessee, but Jackson's economic policies lead to a country wide economic collapse, and since he supported those policies, Polk lost reelection. He then tried to unseat the man who replaced him, but lost again.

Polk's wife Sarah possessed all the charm he lacked, and hosted many a party that helped Polk gather the strong support network who made him the dark horse candidate for president.

Major accomplishments: 

Polk pledged to only serve one term and though he was so popular enough to win a second term easily he stayed true to his word and did not run. He died shortly after leaving office. For a one term president, a lot happened in his four years.

Under Polk, Texas became a state and the United States expanded a million square miles. This expansion encompassed the states of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, much of New Mexico, and portions of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. The expansion brought slavery to the forefront and Polk advocated extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific.

Using a tactic that would be repeated often by other presidents, he sent an army unit commanded by Gen. Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande under the guise of protecting Texans. In reality, he wanted to bait the Mexican army into attacking so he could use it as an excuse to start a war. He wanted California and all the other land that makes up the current southwestern states. The U.S. paid 5 million dollars for Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico. He could've taken all of Mexico and turned it into U.S. territory, but wisely decided against it.

Polk went toe to toe with Britain over the boundary line of the Pacific Northwest, acquiring Oregon and Washington State. 

The Wilmot Proviso amendment, which aimed to outlaw slavery in the new U.S. territories, passed the House but was rejected by the Senate. This infuriated the South and the Senate removed it from the appropriations bill it was attached to, but it became the hot button issue of the day and the ground from which both sides argued.

Polk fanned the embers of the coming Civil War into a flame and the choices made by the next few presidents would add the oxygen that almost burned down our country, both literally and figuratively.

Are you kidding me? 

Polk was a compromise candidate. He did not run for office but was chosen when the other candidates could not get a majority of state electors.  No one disliked Polk in the Democratic party so the opposing sides came together to support him. No worse than the rest?

He banned booze, card playing, and dancing from the White House.

Polk is one of the few presidents, if not the only, to accomplish every goal he set for his presidency. He was the last to serve a full term until Lincoln. 

Of the presidents between Jackson and Lincoln, only Polk gets ranked in the upper half of historians' presidential surveys. The others except Harrison are all part of the bottom ten.

What I learned: 

Polk's expansion of U.S. territory brought the debate over slavery to an impassioned state. Polk wanted to expand the Missouri Compromise line and although no decision was made during his presidency, the dye was cast and the Civil War became a matter of when, not if. The Democratic party split between North and South and the Whig party supported slavery expansion.

On one hand Polk worked his ass off.  On the other, he was a slave owner and completely misjudged the damaging and lasting impact of slavery expansion: a bloody Civil War, another century of Civil Rights activism with slow progress, and racial inequities that remain a struggle to this day.

PRECEEDED BY: John Tyler

SUCCEEDED BY: Zachary Taylor