In office March 4, 1845 — March 4, 1849 · Democratic
Elected on a platform of expansion, Polk is best remembered for his successful prosecution of the war with Mexico and the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain — adding more territory to the nation than any president but Jefferson. Elected 1844 →
James Polk was born on the family farm in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. At the age of ten, he moved with his family to Tennessee. Although Polk helped his father clear new land, he was a sickly youngster; at seventeen he underwent experimental surgery to remove gallstones. In 1816, at the age of twenty-one, he entered the University of North Carolina as a sophomore, and went on to study law under Felix Grundy. He was admitted to the bar in 1820, and the following year was commissioned a captain in a militia cavalry regiment.
From 1823 to 1825 Polk served in the Tennessee House of Representatives, and from 1825 to 1839 as a member of the US House of Representatives, where he was a staunch supporter of President Andrew Jackson — earning the nickname "Young Hickory." In 1835 he was elected Speaker of the House, and from 1839 to 1841 he served as governor of Tennessee.
Polk entered office with four stated objectives: a reduction in the tariff, an independent treasury, settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute, and the acquisition of California. Remarkably, he achieved all four — and announced at the outset that he would serve only a single term.
The first two came relatively easily. In 1846 the Walker Tariff Act and the Independent Treasury Act both passed Congress and became law. The other two were far harder: to achieve them Polk had to go to war with Mexico and threaten to do the same with Great Britain. Knowing whom to fight, and when, is one of the hardest lessons for any world leader — and though Mexico fired the first shot, it was Polk who provoked it. With Britain, by contrast, he was willing to compromise, dividing the Oregon Country at the 49th parallel and avoiding a second war.
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