Polk, James K(nox) 1795-1849
11th President of the USA

Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the son of a prosperous farmer, he was admitted to the Bar in 1820. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1825, becoming Speaker of the House in 1835 and advancing Andrew Jackson's legislative aims, including the attack on the Bank of the United States. He served as Governor of Tennessee (1839-41), and in 1844 he gained the Democratic nomination as a compromise candidate and was elected President, defeating the Whig candidate Henry Clay, mainly because of his advocacy of the annexation of Texas. Congress voted to annex Texas just before Polk's inauguration in 1845, and when an effort to buy California from Mexico was rebuffed, the President forced hostilities by advancing the US army to the Rio Grande, thus beginning the Mexican War. The capital was taken in 1847, and by the terms of peace the USA acquired California and New Mexico. A strong leader who set himself major objectives and achieved them, Polk succeeded in reducing the tariff, restoring the independent treasury system and settling the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain. By the end of his term, however, he was exhausted and in poor health, and he died a few months after leaving office.

Bibliography: E I McCormac, James K Polk: A Political Biography (1922)