James K. Polk
James Knox Polk (1795–1845) was the eleventh President of the United States, serving from 1845 until 1849. He also served as Speaker of the House from 1835 until 1839,[1] making him the only person in United States history to have both positions.
Andrew's Friend[edit]
Polk was rather similar to Andrew Jackson, at least in terms of political positions. He even earned the nickname "Young Hickory," a play on Jackson's nickname of "Old Hickory."[2] Sarah Polk, James's wife, even called President Jackson "Uncle Andrew" and is widely believed to be the person who got the two of them together.[3] Polk "became a friend of Andrew Jackson," early on during his time as a lawyer, and is commonly cited as "the last of the Jacksonians to sit in the White House."[4]
In Congress, where Thomas Leonard once called him "at the center of Jacksonian Democracy on the House floor,"[5]:23 Polk quickly proved himself to be a Jackson loyalist, blasting the entire Electoral College system in response to Jackson's defeat because of it in 1824[6]:15 and helping Jackson fight the national bank during his famous Bank Wars through keeping Congress from overriding Jackson's veto.[7]
The 1844 Convention[edit]
Polk is notable for marking "the first heavily contested Democratic presidential nomination."[8] Former President Martin Van Buren was once again running for President despite his loss in 1840, at a time when "the Democrats were bitterly divided over the question of the annexation of Texas," of which Van Buren was a vocal critic.[9] Originally, Polk was only interested in running for Vice President, however when those who supported Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass,[note 1] and James Buchanan[note 2] could not find a compromise, they decided they needed to pick a new candidate, and Polk was their answer.[10]
Polk was a supporter of "the immediate annexation of Texas because he argued it was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase but was unjustly lost with the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819."[11] Polk's aforementioned friendship with Andrew Jackson also paid off quite a bit, as it was Jackson who "helped start the movement to jettison him in favor of" Polk at the convention.[12]
Ultimately, this was quite possibly the best move the Democratic Party could have engaged in. Polk was able to frame himself as the candidate of manifest destiny through the annexation of Texas, and although his opponent Henry Clay did manage to campaign on a position held in both the North and the South[note 3] it was simply impossible to compare with the massive support for what Polk was believed to stand for.[13]
Roorbacking[edit]
On August 21, 1844, the newspaper Ithaca Chronicle published an excerpt supposedly from the book Roorback's Tour Through the Western and Southern States in 1836 written by "Baron Roorback". The story contained a passage about how Roorback had supposedly met with forty of Polk's slaves who had been branded with his initials.[14] While it is true that Polk did own slaves (although his opponent Clay was also a slaveowner)[15] and he was not above tearing apart his slaves' families,[16] such mass branding was not super common at that time, as branding was mostly used on recaptured runaway slaves to identify them if they escaped again.[17] However, it turned out that "Baron Roorback" was not a real person and that the passage, which had been edited to include a reference to Polk where none had existed in the original text, had been plagiarized from Excursion Through the Slave States, a travel memoir written by George William Featherstonhaugh.
[14] This led to the coining of the term "roorbacking", which refers to malicious lies spread about candidates for political gain, and the incident can be considered one of the first "October surprises" in American history.[18]
Presidency[edit]
Mexican-American War[edit]
Polk is most known for the Mexican-American War, which was fought from 1846 until 1848.[19] It was incredibly controversial at the time, largely due to it "stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas,"[20] which was already incredibly controversial at the time. Abraham Lincoln even managed to start his political career through opposition to the conflict.[21]
The action that finally caused a war to be declared was the Thornton Affair, where "Mexicans routed the Americans, and took nearly 50 men as prisoners, including Captain William J. Hardee."[22] Shortly thereafter, President Polk would say Mexico "has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil," and asked Congress to declare war on the nation.[23] Many Americans were skeptical of this, including Lincoln, who attempted to create what became known as the Spot Resolutions as they were dedicated to figuring out where this fighting took place, and with that if it was territory of the United States or Mexico, although these ultimately ended up going nowhere.[24]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Who was later the nominee in 1848
- ↑ Who would later become the Democratic nominee in 1856 and even get to serve a term as President himself later on
- ↑ The North was worried adding Texas would spread slavery while the South feared doing such would cause their land to lose value and their slaves to become more expensive
References[edit]
- ↑ James K. Polk Britannica
- ↑ James K. Polk The White House Historical Association
- ↑ ‘Lady First’ Review: The Inside Game The Wall Street Journal
- ↑ James K. Polk White House
- ↑ James K. Polk: A Clear and Unquestionable Destiny by Thomas M. Leonard
- ↑ James K. Polk: A Political Biography by Eugene McCormac
- ↑ James K. Polk SparkNotes
- ↑ Democratic National Convention Britannica
- ↑ Martin Van Buren Britannica
- ↑ James K. Polk Britannica
- ↑ James Polk
- ↑ ANDREW JACKSON: LIFE AFTER THE PRESIDENCY Miller Center
- ↑ The American Presidential Election of 1844 YouTube
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Roorback Hoax, Museum of Hoaxes
- ↑ The Day Henry Clay Refused to Compromise, Gilbert King, Smithsonian 6 December 2012
- ↑ The Enslaved Households of President James K. Polk, Lina Mann, White House Historical Association 3 January 2020
- ↑ Branding iron, Understanding Slavery Initiative
- ↑ Roorback, Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary
- ↑ Mexican-American War Britannica
- ↑ Mexican-American War
- ↑ RISE OF THE RAIL SPLITTER Harvard's Lincoln
- ↑ The Thornton Affair — The First Bloodshed of the Mexican-American War American History Central
- ↑ The Mexican American War PBS
- ↑ The Mexican War Dove The New Republic