Basic Facts:
Birth: November 2, 1795 at Pineville, North Carolina
Death: June 15, 1849 at Nashville, Tennessee
Married: Sarah Childress (1803-1891) on Jan 1, 1824
Children: None
President: One term beginning March 4, 1845
Family:
James and Sarah Polk never had children. This is often attributed to the bladder stone surgery Polk had as a young man, which is thought to have made him sterile. They were the only presidential couple to never have children while together, biologically, adopted or from previous marriage.
They raised a nephew, Marshall Tate Polk (1831–1884), as their ward for a few years before James sent him to a school in Washington, D.C. and later Georgetown University. After her husband’s death, Sarah would foster her great-niece, Sarah Polk Fall (1847–1924).
Other
James Knox Polk was the 11th President. He was born in North Carolina but grew up in Tennessee. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1839-1841.
(Andrew Johnson, the 17th President, was also born in North Carolina and grew up in Tennessee. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1853-1857.)
Polk was the oldest of ten children.
Polk survived a kidney stone operation at age 17 without anethesia or antiseptics, medical practices which were not used at the time. It is assumed this procedure resulted in sterility as he and Sarah had no children.
Sarah Polk was a devout Presbyterian. She banned dancing, card-playing and alcoholic beverages in the White House. It was said that President Polk was straight-laced, somber, and humorless.
His roommate at the University of North Carolina, William Dunn Moseley, became the first governor of Florida.
Polk was 5′ 8″.
News of Polk’s nomination was widely disseminated using the telegraph. The first time this had been done.
Polk was the first “dark horse” candidate. The Democrats were deadlocked between Martin VanBuren and Lewis Cass. His opponent in the Whig party, Henry Clay lamented that Democrats had failed to choose someone “more worthy of a contest.” Despite the doubts, Polk won the popular vote by nearly 40,000 and the Electoral College 170-105. Both VanBuren and Clay had opposed the annexation of Texas.
Polk became the Democratic nominee for president in 1844 partially because of his tolerance of slavery, in contrast to VanBuren. Polk was one of twelve presidents who owned slaves. As president he generally supported the rights of slave owners. His will provided for the freeing of his slaves after the death of his wife, though the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended up freeing them long before her death in 1891.
On March 4, 1845, Polk, age 49, became the youngest President to be inaugurated. (Eight later Presidents were younger – the youngest being Theodore Roosevelt at 42 years.)
Polk was president from 1845-1849. During the era known as the “Fabulous Forties”, easterners migrated west and gold was discovered in California.
Polk was nicknamed “Young Hickory” because of his friendship and shared opinions of Andrew Jackson.
Polk was the first president to have his photograph taken while in office.
Gaslights were installed in the White House while Polk was a resident.
The tradition of the playing the song “Hail to the Chief” started while Polk was president. Julia Tyler, second wife of John Tyler, requested its use to announce the arrival of the President. Her successor as First Lady, Sarah Childress Polk, encouraged its regular use in this manner after it was used at James Polk’s inauguration; She was worried no one would notice him when he entered a room because of his modest height.
The first annual White House Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by Sarah Polk.
Polk was more interested in issues than people. He did everything himself rather than rely on others. He customarily rose at daybreak and worked until midnight.
He is quoted as saying: “No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.”
James K. Polk’s administration introduced Americans to the postage stamp.
One of Polk’s unofficial campaign managers was Cave Johnson, who Polk rewarded with a job as Postmaster General. The post office’s budget was swimming in red ink. (At the time, mail recipients paid postage: If a mail carrier failed to find a recipient, no money was made. This happened a lot.) Johnson fixed the financial problem by introducing the prepaid postage stamp, which flipped the responsibility of paying to senders. According to historian C. L. Grant, in 1845, Johnson estimated that the department would have a deficit of over a million dollars. By the time he left that was down to $30,000.
One of Polk’s campaign pledges was to put an end to the boundary disputes in the Oregon territory between the US and Great Britain. His supporters took up the rallying cry “Fifty-four Forty or Fight,” referring to the northern-most latitude of all of the Oregon Territory. However, once Polk became president he negotiated with the British to set the boundary at the 49th parallel, which gave America the areas that would become Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.
Polk acquired the most property (800,000 square miles) for the United States since the Louisiana Purchase.
Many Americans believed it was their right to expand westward. This was called Manifest Destiny. Polk added 1.2 million square miles of land to the United States.
Polk’s annexation of Texas led to the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), and the U.S. victory thereby led to the acquisition of large territories in the Southwest and along the Pacific coast, which in turn led to the establishment of the Department of the Interior. The northern border of the United States was also established under Polk, as were the Naval Academy and the Smithsonian.
He owned a plantation near Yalobusha, Mississippi. He used profits from his Mississippi plantation to purchase an additional nineteen slaves during his time in the White House. These enslaved people were purchased through several agents in Tennessee and shipped to Polk’s Mississippi plantation.
Polk’s will, dated February 28, 1849, a few days before the end of his presidency, contained the nonbinding expectation that his slaves were to be freed when both he and Sarah Polk were dead. The Mississippi plantation was expected to be the support of Sarah Polk during her widowhood. Sarah Polk lived until 1891, but the slaves were freed in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States.
He died of cholera on June 15, 1849, in Nashville, Tennessee. According to traditional accounts, his last words before he died were “I love you, Sarah, for all eternity, I love you”, spoken to Sarah Polk.
A week before he died, Polk was baptized a Methodist.
James Buchanan was Secretary of State in the Polk administration. He said regarding James Polk “He was the most laborious man I have ever known; and in a brief period of four years had assumed the appearance of an old man.”
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Sources:
Internet Public Library
MentalFloss.com
Biography.com
history of Yesterday.com
Ducksters.com
Greenman, Barbara. The Timeline History of U. S. Presidents and First Ladies Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2009.
Whitney, David C. The American Presidents. Doubleday, Garden City, 1969.