POLK 



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POLK 



Governor of Tennessee. In 1S39 Polk refund 

 renomination for Congress to become t lie Demo- 

 crat ic candidate for governor of Tennessee. 

 The Democratic piny had ncmtly been de- 

 serted by John Bell and other leaders, and the 



JAMES KNOX POLK 



election of the Democratic candidate seemed 

 hopeless. Polk, however, was chosen by a ma- 

 jority of 2,500. His inaugural address included 

 references to many national problems which 

 were then disturbing the public mind. Polk 

 believed that the Federal government had no 

 right to tax the people, through customs duties 

 or any other means, for a greater amount than 

 was necessary to the maintenance of the gov- 

 ernment. Hi- also remarked that the "agita- 

 tion of the Abolitionists can by no possibility 

 produce good to any portion of the Union, but 



must, if persisted in. lead to incalculable mis- 

 chief." In 1841 and 1843 Polk was again a 

 candidate for governor, but was defeated both 

 tunes by James C. Jones, a Whig, and one of 

 the most popular men in the state. 



Presidential Candidate. Polk was the choice 

 of Tennessee and several other states for the 

 Democratic nomination for Vice-President in 

 1839. His failure to win this nomination and 

 his defeats for governor in 1841 and 1843 do 

 not seem to have lessened his influence in his 

 party. Thus it happened that in 1844 it was 

 again understood that he was a candidate for 

 Vice-President. The national convention, un- 

 able to unite on Van Buren or any of the men, 

 including Lewis Cass and James Buchanan, who 

 opposed him, finally compromised on Polk for 

 President. His platform was carefully stated 

 by him in a letter to a committee which sup- 

 ported him for Vice-President: 



I am in favor of the immediate reannoxat ion 

 of Texas to the government and territory of the 

 United States. The proof is fair and satisfactory 

 to my own mind that Texas once constituU.l a 

 part of the territory of the United States, the 

 title to which I regard to have been as indis- 

 putable as that to any portion of our territory. 



The "reannexation" of Texas was coupled 

 with the "reoccupation" of Oregon, and these 

 made the principal issues of the campaign. The 

 popular slogan was "Fifty-four forty or fight," 

 in reference to the northern boundary of Ore- 

 gon, but more votes were decided by Folk's 

 clear-cut position in regard to Texas. The po- 

 sition of Henry Clay on the Texas question 

 aroused the suspicion of many Northerners, 

 and had it not been for the Whig votes in New 

 York which went to James G. Birney, the anti- 

 slavery candidate, Clay would probably hav 

 been elected. The contest was close and ex- 

 citing; Clay received 105 electoral votes, Polk 

 175. Folk's majority of the popular vote of the 

 nation was only 40,000. 



The Administration of James K. Polk, 1845-1849 



Polk selected a Cabinet which made a, fa- 

 vorable impression on the country. James 

 Buchanan was Secretary of State; the others 

 were Robert J. Walker, an ex-Senator and an 

 authority on national finance, Secretary of the 

 Treasury; William L. Marcy, ex-governor of 

 New York, Secretary of War; George Ban- 

 croft, the historian, Secretary of the Navy; 

 Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral; John Y. Mason, who had been Secretary 

 of War in Tyler's Cabinet, Attorney-General, 



Bancroft resigned after a year, his place being 

 taken by Mason, who was in turn succeeded by 

 Nathan Clifford, of Maine. With this excep- 

 tion the Cabinet remained unchanged through- 

 out the four years, thus nearly equaling the 

 record made by President Pierce's Cabinet. 



The War with Mexico. The outstanding 

 feature of Folk's administration was the Mexi- 

 can War (which see). In his first annual mes- 

 sage to Congress, the President declared that 

 the annexation of Texas was a matter that con- 



