The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Polk, James Knox
POLK, James Knox, 11th President of the
United States; b. Mecklenburg County, N. C.,
2 Nov. 1795; d. Nashville, Tenn., 15 June
1849. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry and
was reared near the North Carolina frontier
amid the hard, simple surroundings of plain
farmers. He was graduated at the University
of North Carolina in 1818 and settled in
Tennessee, where be studied law under Felix
Grundy, then one of the foremost public men
of the West. He was admitted to the bar in
1820 and he began the practice of his profession
at Columbia in middle Tennessee. Becoming a
member of Congress in 1823, he at once took
sides against Henry Clay and became a leader
of great force. He remained in the House of
Representatives 14 years, serving two terms as
speaker at a time when the bitterness of the
sections, as displayed in Congress, made the
office one of the greatest difficulty. He was
recognized as an able Jacksonian Democrat in
1840, when he was occasionally discussed as a
probable candidate for the Vice-Presidency.
But the evenly balanced state of politics in
Tennessee and the importance of the State in
national affairs caused him to become a candidate
for the governorship of the State in 1839.
He was elected and served two years, but was
defeated in spite of all Jackson could do for
him in 1841 and again in 1843. Under these
rather adverse circumstances, his candidacy for
the Vice-Presidency with Van Buren in 1844
was widely pressed.  But the one issue which
determined the nominations of that year was
the proposed annexation of Texas. A group
of ardent Southerners and Democrats, led by
Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, was bent upon
compelling Van Buren to agree to annex Texas
in case he were elected. Van Buren had never
been willing to make an explicit declaration of
his views on the subject. He had been badly
defeated for a second term in 1840, in a way
which caused him and his friends to think he
was entitled to a renomination in 1844. As
the time for the assembling of the Democratic
convention approached Senator Walker and
other Southerners pressed for a declaration.
Van Buren visited Jackson in April and on his
return called upon Henry Clay at Lexington.
On his return home late in April he gave out a
public statement opposing the annexation of
Texas. What made this announcement so
extraordinary was the fact that on the same day
Clay, then at Raleigh, N. C., made a similar
public announcement. The excitement all over
the South was intense. Walker and others
secured the release of Southern delegates to the

convention which was to meet in May from
their instructions to vote for the nomination of
Van Buren. In the Northwest a similar desertion
of the New York leader took place. When
the convention met there was great turmoil.
Van Buren was, however, promptly defeated.
After some manœeuvring Polk was chosen as
the party candidate. He was an ardent Texas
man. Calhoun who was then, as always, a
powerful leader in the South, supported Polk
with enthusiasm and he was elected. It was one
of the few cases in American history when the
issue was perfectly clear and when the people
understood what was to be done in the event
of the success of Polk. The Democratic platform
declared pointedly for the reannexation
of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon, a
vast region then little known to the country
but held jointly by the United States and
England. Polk favored the seizure of all of
Oregon, upon the giving of a year's notice of his
intention to Great Britain, and it was his known
opinion on this subject that secured him the
hearty support of Northwestern leaders like
Cass and Douglas. It was what has been called
the bargain of the Baltimore convention, that is,
that Southern men would support the demand
for all Oregon to the southern boundary of
Alaska on condition that Northwestern men
would support the plan for the annexation of
Texas. Polk was an avowed expansionist and
he was elected upon the issue, Clay being
defeated for the third and last time. George M.
Dallas of Pennsylvania, a popular protectionist,
was the candidate for the Vice-Presidency,
notwithstanding the fact that Polk had always
been known as an opponent of the principle as
well as the practice of a protective tariff. In
spite of the difference of opinion Polk and
Dallas made an able and successful administration.
James Buchanan was Secretary of State
and Robert J. Walker Secretary of the Treasury.
George Bancroft was also a member of
this Cabinet. Clay opposed the administration
most bitterly and both Webster and Calhoun, in
spite of the recent friendliness of the latter,
were leaders of the opposition in the Senate.
Few Presidents have met with such powerful
opposition in Congress, and Van Buren, with
his friends, held aloof, refusing their support at
critical times. Yet Polk completed the annexation
of Texas, solved the Oregon problem, but
without securing all of the disputed territory,
settled the long standing tariff dispute between
the South and the North and established a new
treasury system which continued till the
outbreak of the Civil War. No other President
with the exception of Wilson has placed upon
the Federal statute books so many and such
vital general laws. Nor was this all. Polk
sought to procure by treaty certain lands
claimed by Texas in the autumn of 1845 and
he hoped to purchase New Mexico and
California, where only a few thousand Spanish-Mexicans
lived. John Slidell was sent to
negotiate these delicate matters. He failed and at the
same time irritated the already angry Mexicans.
Meanwhile a small American army under the
command of Gen. Zachary Taylor had already
occupied part of the area claimed by both
countries. The Mexicans attacked Taylor and
war ensued. Upon the receipt of the news of
victories in northern Mexico great excitement
was aroused in the United States. Westerners

and Southerners volunteered in great numbers.
Polk pressed the war with vigor but he did not
restrain army and navy men or the land hungry
elements of the country from crying for the
annexation of the whole of Mexico.  At one
time Polk himself, urged by two or three members
of the Cabinet, contemplated the dismemberment
of the unfortunate country. At the
close of the war, not only the Texan claims
but New Mexico, Arizona and California were
demanded and received by the American
commissioners. Polk and his group of followers
were undoubtedly the most imperialistic of
American leaders. The result of their policy
was the annexation of about 1,000,000 square
miles of fresh and valuable territory. But in
the imperialistic campaign, supported by the
West and the South, a part of Oregon was lost
to the United States. That created ill feeling in
the North toward Polk. About the same tune
that Polk agreed to yield to Great Britain the
northern half of Oregon, he angered
Northwesterners by vetoing a bill which proposed
large appropriations for the improvement of
harbors on the Great Lakes and for the dredging
certain rivers in the same region. This was
the beginning of the schism in the Democratic
party for which the defeat of Van Buren in
the Baltimore convention had prepared the way;
Lewis Cass, a friend of Polk, could not hold
his followers in line. The Wilmot proviso, a
direct attack upon the President's annexationist
program, was attached to important legislation
and became the cause of a most bitter conflict
among those who had elevated Polk to the
Presidency. As the Mexican War drew to a
close, Polk saw that a renomination was out of
the question. He recommended the nomination
of Cass by his party, but Van Buren and his
friends united with the Liberty Party men and
the malcontents of the Northwest to form a
new party which took the name of Free Soilers.
They polled votes enough to defeat Cass and
the Democratic party and Polk retired chagrined
if not directly defeated to his home in the
spring of 1849. But his work remained.
He died the following June at the capital
of his State. (See
).
Consult Jenkins,
J. S., ‘Life of James K. Polk’ (Auburn, N. Y.,
1850); Tyler, L. G., ‘The Times of the Tylers’;
Smith, Justin H., ‘The Annexation of Texas’;
Reeves, Jesse S., ‘The Diplomacy of Tyler and
Polk’; Quaife, M. M., ‘The Diary of James
K. Polk’ {4 vols., Chicago 1910).