James Knox Polk was born on November 2, 1795, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Dealing with health issues such as gallstones and a lengthy recovery for a surgery to have them removed, Polk received no actual form of education until 1813. He went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina in 1818 with honors and soon became a celebrated lawyer. Polk soon thereafter became fascinated with politics and quickly befriended Andrew Jackson, who was from the same area that Polk grew up in. This was so much so that Polk’s nickname derived from that of Jackson, as Polk was known as “Young Hickory.” Polk served as Jackson’s chief lieutentant in Jackson’s bank wars and as Speaker of the House of Representatives for four years until 1839, when he left to become Tennessee’s governor.
During the election of 1844, Polk, a democrat, was the dark horse candidate by Democrat Martin Van Buren and Whig Henry Clay. Both Van Buren and Clay lost some popularity by firmly maintaining that they were opposed to the annexation of Texas. Polk, with the guidance of Andrew Jackson, played this to his advantage and proclaimed to be pro Texas annexation and Oregon territory occupation. These facts appealed so much to the Manifest destined delegates that it won Polk the nomination at the Democratic Convention. Another factor contributing to Polk’s eventual election was James G. Birney, an additional candidate who ran only as an abolitionist. Birney’s presence on the ballot detracted votes that Clay desperately would have needed to beat Polk, therefore Polk ended up beating Birney and Clay to become the eleventh president of the United States.
Having promised to settle land disputes over Oregon and Texas during the election, Polk and his administration stuck to them. Polk was cautious of the “Fifty four, forty or Fight” mentality, which referred to the latitude and longitude lines that some Americans thought was rightfully theirs. Not wanting to spark conflict with the British, Polk proposed a more modest agreement which the British eventually accepted, known as the Oregon Treaty of 1846. Polk wanted the California territory for the United States, but bad relations with Mexico made this almost impossible. In a bold move, Polk sent American troops to the land disputed region along the Riop Grande. Thinking the Americans were invading Mexican territory, the Mexicans along the border attacked the Americans. Through inciting a skirmish that would ultimately become the Mexican-American War, Polk was able to eventually able to secure California and New Mexico as new states in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848.
Despite adding a huge expanse of land to the United States, Polk’s new acquisition fueled the feud between the North and the South over slavery; all new territories were added as free states much to Southern dismay. At the end of his term and with his health deteriorating, Polk bought a new home in Nashville, Tennessee and took an extensive tour of the South. He died soon afterwards, just three months after his departure from the White House. Polk accomplished all his goals he set out to accomplish and is generally accepted as being the last strong president until the Civil War.
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