1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Polk, James Knox
POLK, JAMES KNOX (1795-1849), eleventh president of the
United States, was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina,
on the 2nd of November 1795. In 1806 he crossed the mountains
with his parents and settled in what is now Maury county,
Tennessee. He graduated from the university of North Carolina
in 1818, studied law in the office of Felix Grundy (1777-1840) at
Nashville in 1819-1820, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and
began to practise in Columbia, the county-seat of Maury county.
After two years of service (1823-1825) in the state House of
Representatives, he represented the sixth Tennessee district
in the National House of Representatives from 1825 to 1839.
In the party conflicts which succeeded the presidential election
of 1824 he sided with the Jackson-Van Buren faction, and soon
became recognized as leader of the Democratic forces. He was
speaker from 1835 until 1839, when he retired from Congress
to become governor of Tennessee. His administration (1839-1841)
was successful, but he was unable to overcome the popular Whig
movement of that period, and was defeated in 1841 and again in
1843. When the Democratic national convention met in Baltimore
in 1844 he was mentioned as a possible candidate for the
vice-presidency, but was suddenly brought forward as a “dark
horse” and selected to head the ticket. Finding it impossible
under the two-thirds rule to nominate their candidate, the
followers of Van Buren brought forward Polk, who was popular

in the South, in order to defeat Lewis Cass and James Buchanan.
George Bancroft, the historian, has asserted that this suggestion
came originally from him, and Gideon J. Pillow, Folk's intimate
friend, did much to bring about the nomination.

The unequivocal stand of Polk and his party in favour of the
immediate annexation of Texas and the adoption of a vigorous
policy in Oregon contrasted favourably with the timid vacillations
of Henry Clay and the Whigs. Polk was elected, receiving
170 electoral votes to 105 for his opponent Clay. In forming
his cabinet he secured the services of James Buchanan of
Pennsylvania, as secretary of state, Robert J. Walker of Mississippi,
as secretary of the treasury, William L. Marcy of New York,
as secretary of war, and George Bancroft, then of Massachusetts,
as secretary of the navy. There is no doubt that each of these
men, and Bancroft in particular, influenced the policy of the
administration, yet the historian James Schouler, who has made
a careful study of the Polk papers, is doubtless correct in saying
that the president himself was “the framer of the public policy
which he carried into so successful execution, and that instead
of being led (as many might have imagined) by the more famous
statesmen of his administration and party who surrounded him,
he in reality led and shaped his own executive course.”
Bancroft's opinion is that Polk was “prudent, far-sighted, bold,
exceeding any Democrat of his day in his undeviatingly correct
exposition of Democratic principles.”

The four chief events of President Polk's administration were
the final establishment of the independent treasury system, the
reduction of the tariff by the Walker Bill of 1846, the adjustment
of the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain by the treaty
concluded on the 15th of June 1846, and the war with Mexico
and the consequent acquisition of territory in the south-west and
west. The first three of these were recommended in his first
annual message, and he privately announced to Bancroft his
determination to seize California. The independent treasury
plan originated during Van Buren's administration as a
Democratic measure; it had been repealed by the Whigs in 1841, and
was now re-enacted. Protectionists contend that the tariff
legislation of 1846 was in direct violation of a pledge given to
the Democrats of Pennsylvania in a letter written by Polk
during the campaign to John K. Kane of Philadelphia. Briefly
summarized, this letter approves of a tariff for revenue with
incidental protection, whereas the annual message of the 2nd
of December 1845 criticizes the whole theory of protection and
urges the adoption of a revenue tariff just sufficient to meet
the needs of the government conducted on an economical basis.
It is difficult to determine whether this was always his idea
of incidental protection, or whether his views were changed
after 1844 through the influence of Walker and the example
set by Sir Robert Peel in Great Britain, or whether he was
simply “playing politics” to secure the protectionist vote
in Pennsylvania.

The one overshadowing issue of the time, however, was
territorial expansion. Polk was an ardent expansionist, but
the old idea that his policy was determined entirely by a desire
to advance the interests of slavery is no longer accepted. As a
matter of fact, he was personally in favour of insisting upon
54º 40' as the boundary in Oregon, and threw upon Congress the
responsibility for accepting 49º as the boundary, and he approved
the acquisition of California, Utah and New Mexico, territory
from which slavery was excluded by geographical and climatic
conditions. Furthermore a study of his manuscript diary now
shows that he opposed the efforts of Walker and Buchanan in
the Cabinet, and of Daniel S. Dickinson (1800-1866) of New
York and Edward A. Hannegan (d. 1859) of Indiana, in the
Senate, to retain the whole of Mexico, territory in which slavery
might have thrived. At the close of his term (March 4, 1849)
Polk retired to his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died
on the 15th of the following June.

(W. R. S.*)

EB1911:People:Individuals:North America:USA