James K. Polk: The Best President Americans Have Never Heard Of

On this episode of Our American Stories, Monte Monroe, Rachel Helvering, and Anne Claire tell the story of President James K. Polk and why his one term in office managed to beat out most Presidents who served two.

Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habibe and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to get our Our American Stories podcasts, go to
the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts. Up next, the story of someone who might

(00:30):
not have seen the world would played the huge role
in creating the one we live in today. Here's our
own Monty Montgomery. You get us into the story of
this math major turned lawyer turned president. Let's get into
the story. James K. Polk is probably the greatest president
Americans have never heard of. Here's Rachel Halving at the

(00:54):
James K. Polk home in Columbia, Tennessee with his story.
Polkas very forget at least in a personal sense. He's
not very fun and he's not very scandalous in the
way that Jackson is. Jackson really kind of sucks all
the air out of Tennessee politics. But Polk really doesn't
get enough credit because he's absolutely the most effective one

(01:18):
term president. Most people are shocked to learn that Polk
adds more territory than the Louisiana purchase during his presidency.
Polk is unmatched Dancy Polk is born November two of
seventeen ninety five, and he's born in Meckelburg County, North Carolina.

(01:41):
He is not baptized as a child because you had
to have a confession of faith from both parents, which
is very shocking. You know, his mom, Jane, is related
to John Knox, so she is like the Presbyterian and
is very devout, and it's interesting that she up with
his father because he's as you certainly see that Jane

(02:05):
influences Polk's religious kind of outlook, though he also would
consider himself I think adist for a lot of his life.
I think one thing to underscore about Polk's early life
is that he's very sick, stuck in the house, not
able to travel much, not able to do a lot
of physical things. And he finally has surgery for gallstones

(02:27):
or bladder stones when he's about sixty year seventeen. And
that's this really terrible account of surgery where he's given
brandy and they cut through his pelvic floor to remove
these stones. So you have to imagine that he's traumatized
by that. But after that his health does seem to improve.

(02:49):
His dad's a justice of the peace and he's pretty
prominent resident here in Columbia. He builds the first two
story brick residence in town. He's fairly wealthy. He's a
land surveyor, owns tons of land. So that's how the
Polks are able to acquire Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee land.
And what's so interesting about Polk is that he doesn't

(03:11):
he's not well traveled. He's very isolated in this kind
of eastern seaboard of the United States. But that does
not stop him from having this huge vision of what
America should be. He adds all this territory that he
never even sees, and so it's interesting that he so
strongly believes in the idea of America as this kind

(03:32):
of power that stretches from sea to shining sea, but
he never goes there. You know, I always describe Polk
as the hand of Jackson almost his entire political career,
even into his own presidency. It's just kind of finishing
what Jackson started. Tennessee for wealthy white men at the

(03:54):
time was not a big pool, you know, it wasn't
a big state. There weren't that many and so they're
kind of all in each other's spheres. Of influence at
the time. James's father was accruing wealth and gaining prominence
as James is growing up, so we assume that he
and Jackson knew each other. Jackson's a very interesting character.

(04:18):
You can see why people admired him at the time
and even today. He's like the self made man, right.
He's orphaned at a really young age. One of his
brothers dies in the Revolutionary War. One of them and
I think his mother both died from smallpox. And we
think that Jackson probably had quite a bit of scarring
from smallpox himself, that he had painters kind of edited

(04:39):
out of his paintings. He's fighting duels, he kills somebody
in a duel, and you know, he doesn't have support.
He moves himself up the ladder, as it were. What
really makes Jackson a national figure is the War of
eighteen twelve and the Battle of New Orleans, and that's
when he brings a bunch of Tennesseeans down to Orleans.

(05:00):
He wins the battle and it's unbelievably decisive against the British,
and he loses very few soldiers and it's just incredible.
But he really gets the love of Tennessee and then
because he takes care of his men, really making sure
that they all get there and get home, and so
he really gets the name of like this common man

(05:21):
politician during that time, and the people that serve with
him helped perpetuate this ethos of like, oh man, Andrew
Jackson is for us, and that's how he's catapulted to
national politics. And as James Polk is moving up, I
think that Jackson genuinely sees that Polk is going to
be a star. You know, for all that we say
Polk is cold and he's not effective, he is. We

(05:43):
shouldn't undersell him either, Jackson. You know, in eighteen twenty four,
he runs and he wins the popular vote, and no
one has enough electoral votes, so it goes to the
House of Representatives and John Quincy Adams is kind of
so connected that he's able to sway the House to

(06:04):
basically make him president. People are outraged because Jackson actually
has the support of the people, as they see it,
and instead they get an elite he's only elected because
his father is a president. Jackson is so in control
of Tennessee politics at that time, even though he loses
the bid for the White House. His mark of approval
is what is needed. That's probably the very biggest thing

(06:27):
that Polk has going for him to make it into Congress. Interestingly,
Polk's first speech in Congress in eighteen twenty four, even
though he doesn't really believe it, because you see him
reverse it later, but he gives a speech to abolish
the electoral college because of what happens to Jackson's first
bid for president. So you can see kind of how
unwavering Polk support is even when Jackson has lost the presidency.

(06:51):
His first speech is to talk about kind of undoing that.
And you're listening to the story of a president you
don't know but should. And that's why we love telling
these stories because no one else will. The story of
James Polk the story of manifest destiny. And you've heard
those two words bandied about in some high school history
class years and decades ago. When we come back, more

(07:13):
of the remarkable story of the man who helped make
America president James Polk Here on our American story. Folks,
if you love the stories we tell about this great country,
and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that

(07:36):
all of our stories about American history from war to innovation,
culture and faith are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
cut to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu

(07:56):
to learn more. And we returned to our American stories
and the story of our eleventh President, James K. Polk.
When we last left off, Rachel Halving of the James K.

(08:19):
Polk Home in Columbia, Tennessee, was telling us about his
early life. James was sickly couldn't get out of the
house much, but was exposed to the concept of the
West by his father. He was also exposed to Andrew Jackson,
a man who saw the potential in James and took
him under his wing, supporting him politically. James would eventually

(08:41):
become Speaker of the House, but was soon recalled back
to Tennessee to run for governor, something he didn't want
to do. Let's return to the story. This must have
been the lowest point of Polk's career. Because he's in Washington.
Sarah Polk is with him. You know, they never have kids.
She's up there living a great life. They writ extra

(09:02):
rooms and she's hosting parties, and he's moving his way
up in national politics. But Tennessee is slowly slipping and
Jackson no longer has control and the Whig Party has
gained all this momentum, and so Jackson asks Polk to
come back and run on the Democratic ticket to basically
help shore up Tennessee support. And he does, and I

(09:25):
think he only does because Jackson asked him to. And
he does win the first time, and you get the
sense from his letters that he in no way is
loving this run. You know, he and Sarah are corresponding.
She's basically his campaign manager, and you get this sense,
and he's doing it out of obligation and not because
he really wants to be the governor of Tennessee. And

(09:45):
he's not successful because he is elected for one term,
but he loses. He runs two more times, and he
loses both times to lean Jimmy Jones, a very talented
orator and kind of comic contrast to James K. Polk
because he's everything James K. Polk is not. He's kind
of glib, and James even makes statements about basically like

(10:10):
I'm the serious politician and the one that understands what
needs to be done, and he's not getting elected that
people aren't seeing that he, in his mind, should be
elected to these offices. We don't know exactly when Sarah
and James met. She was one of the rare women
at the time that was given a very good education

(10:31):
by her father. There's not a lot that we know
about kind of their courtship. We do know that Jackson
very much liked Sarah and kind of pushed Polk towards her,
and we don't really know if it was a love match.
There is a quote that is kind of an oral
tradition that Sarah Childress said she would only marry Polk
if he went on to serve in Congress, which he

(10:52):
does in eighteen twenty five. So I think that Sarah
was probably pretty ambitious too, and she recognized that Polk
was is a rising star, that he was very smart,
but she's very calculated. She's very politically savvy. Pulk doesn't
like to really get into a lot of the politics
in a non professional way, you know, he doesn't want

(11:13):
to try and court members of Congress over dinners at
the White House, and Sarah does that, and she organizes
it at all, so she knows kind of what is
needed to give him authority and respect, and she goes
about it. One of the things that Sarah Polk helps establish.
She doesn't establish it, but she helps establish Hail to
the Chief being played when the president comes in, because

(11:33):
she feels like Pulk comes into parties and people don't
know that he's there because he doesn't really care to
make an entrance. So she starts having that played every
single time, which is important. It shows her devotion to
Polk's political career. But before Sarah could popularize the playing
of Hail to the Chief for her introverted husband, he

(11:56):
had to be nominated, unlikely for someone who had just
lost two elections in his home state, the home state
of Andrew Jackson, the Democrat. But before the days of primaries,
anything could happen, and in eighteen forty four it did.
The Democratic Convention is going on. He's not even there,
which is interesting, and I don't know that he is
even actively kind of throwing his name in the hat.

(12:19):
But the Democratic Party is extremely divided and they really
can't decide on who they want. This is why really
Polk becomes the dark horse candidate. Is where that term
comes from, because in a lot of ways, he's given
up his career in Washington, the career here in Tennessee
is failing, and he's just kind of not sure what's

(12:42):
going to come after, and he becomes a little bit
of a compromise candidate. This is where his one term
comes from. He says, if you elect me and I
get elected, I'll just serve one term and then you
guys can figure out the Democratic Party can figure out
who they want to replace me, and they go for
it and he gets to vote. I argue that if

(13:04):
somebody ran with a similar platform today that they would win.
Who doesn't want a president that's going to run one term.
It's going to accomplish some really huge goals, and then
it's going to leave office and leave public service, which
is Polk's intention, is he's going to retire. So he
runs on fifty four forty year fight, which is to
say that we're going to settle this dispute over the

(13:26):
Oregon territory. Here's Zanclair, one of our regular contributors, with
more on that multiple countries had sent explorers to the
Pacific northwest coast of North America. These explorers laid claim
to territory in the New World. However, as there weren't
markings on property lines, Britain's and the fledgling United States

(13:47):
ended up with overlapping claims. Both nations had reasons why
they felt their claim was more legitimate. Britain and the
United States had already agreed to set their borders from
Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains along the forty ninth Parallel.
Why not moderate American voices asked agree to just keep
the same line all the way to the Pacific. As

(14:07):
the debate wore on, some American voices clamored that a
border on the forty ninth Parallel wasn't not enough land anyway.
So he runs on fifty four forty year fight, which
is to say that we're gonna settle this dispute over
the Oregon territory. In other words, he called for a
border that went up to fifty four degrees forty minutes,
which would extend the United States border all the way

(14:29):
north to Alaska or thereabouts or else. But he basically
says he's gonna settle that dispute that he's going to
settle the Texas question. He's going to annex Texas, basically
is what he's promised. A lot has happened in Texas.
The Mexicans fight against the Spanish rule and gain kind

(14:51):
of their independence. Very quickly. Out of that, Texas decides
to break away. I like to jokingly say Tennessee is
the mother of Texas because I think there's thirty Tennesseeans
who died at the Alabo. Here's Monte Monroe, the official
Texas state historian, with more. Their grievances centered on the

(15:11):
rights to religious freedom, in other words, you didn't all
have to be Catholics, the right religious freedom, and the
fact that Mexico had failed to establish an education system.
They were interested in their right to bear arms, their
right to a trial by jury versus a military tribunal,

(15:32):
which was called for in the Siette Less. So they
make this remarkable break politically with Mexico. So it seems
like this kind of fight for freedom that the American
people are very invested in, and you've got Americans from
all over steadily pouring into Texas. Sarah Childress's bephew goes

(15:56):
to Texas and helps them write their declaration of independence
when they're breaking off Mexico. So you can see where
people have romanticized the idea of like a second Revolution
and helping somebody else gain their independence. In a lot
of ways, we kind of see it already as our
territory and Van Buren's presidency. I believe it's van Buren.

(16:16):
The Mexican government basically says, if you annex Texas, We're
going to immediately go to war. That's part of the
reason presidents and Americans have not acted on him. But overall,
Polk kind of rides that national support for Texas annexation.
And predating Polk, though it becomes very synonymous for his presidency,
is manifest destiny, this notion that Americans were God's chosen

(16:41):
people and that they were to spread their culture and
religion across the North American continent from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and Polk capitalized on that sentiment. Pope is
ultimately elected, and he was elected by an overwhelming majority,

(17:01):
and that mandate, that electoral mandate gives President Tyler. And
you have to remember at that time, sitting presidents remained
in office till March. Polk's election in that mandate allows
President Tyler or encouraged him to prompt Congress to pass

(17:23):
a joint resolution on February twenty eighth, eighteen forty five
simple majority resolution to annex Texas, and President Tyler promptly
signs the measure on March the first, right before he
goes out of office. Polk is going to be the
one to carry that out. And when we come back

(17:44):
more of the story of our eleventh President, James K.
Polk after these messages, and we return to our American

(18:10):
stories and the final portion of our story on the
eleventh President of the United States, James K. Polk. When
we last left off, against all odds, Polk had been
elected president in large measure due to his support for
Manifest Destiny and his promised to serve only one term.
Let's return to the story. Pulk does everything when he

(18:32):
takes office. His entire start to finish term as president
is like a marathon that he treats like a sprint.
Here again, as Monty Monroe, the Texas state historian, he
claimed that he would bring in Oregon, Texas, and California
into the Union in response to these mounting sentiments in

(18:52):
the United States, a so called manifest destiny. He is
so ambitious, and he is so dedicated. He's such a workaholic,
and he's extremely detail oriented, to the extent that the
people that are working for him and around him are
kind of eye rolling, you know. He says his favorite

(19:13):
day of the year to work is on Christmas Day
because he can get so much done and nobody bothers him.
We have records where he's working over eighteen hours a day,
and he says he wants to be basically involved in
every aspect of government. He doesn't trust his subordinates to
do everything correctly, so he's going to be involved in everything.
He immediately starts going after all of his goals. Great Britain,

(19:36):
he immediately starts going back and forth with them about
our northern border. You're again, is Anne Claire. However, once
he was in office, President Pulk wasn't really feeling the
fight part of his slogan anymore. You get the sense
that he doesn't actually want to go to war with
Great Britain. He does want to go to war with Mexico,
but I think he knows that Mexico is attainable, and

(19:58):
he really doesn't want to go back against the British Empire,
so he is more amenable to settle that dispute, which
they eventually do with the forty ninth Parallel and the
acquisition of more territory than just we say Oregon, but
it's a big swath of territory on the West coast.
The last president of the Republic of Texas at that

(20:20):
time was doctor Anson Jones. He convenes a constitutional convention.
They draft a state constitution, which Texas voters approved by
a two to one margin in October, and ultimately, in
December of eighteen forty five, elections for state officials are held.

(20:42):
Anson Jones becomes the last president of the Republic of Texas.
There's a fear by the Mexican governments of land hunger
of the Americans because of manifest destiny and this desire
to acquire California. The US wanted California for its natural horror.
They believed it would make the United States a strong

(21:03):
Pacific power and open Asian markets to the United States.
President Pope knew that Mexico had severe financial problem, so
he since Slidell John Slidell, that is the namesake of Slidell, Louisiana,
and the United States minister to Mexico to try and
purchase California, which only had about three thousand Mexican citizens

(21:24):
living there at the time. Slidell met with the current
of Mexican president at that time, Jose Herrera, who stated
that Texas was the key issue. If the US would
return Texas to Mexico, Mexico might consider selling California the US.
That didn't happen, and it couldn't happen. Ultimately, Herrera is overthrown.
President Mario prethus comes in heed he refuses to talk

(21:48):
to a Slidell. Slidell returns to the US convinced that
military versus diplomatic means was the only way for the
US to achieve its goals, particularly in relation to the
Mexican controlled what would become the American West. When Polk
learned of Slidell's failure, he immediately sends General Zachary Taylor

(22:10):
old ruff and ready to move to the Rio Grand.
Of course, the United States and Texans had always believed
that the Rio Grand was a southern border because of
Santa Anna was forced after the Battle of San Jacino
to retreat below the Rio Grand, and it was stipulated
in the Treaty of Alaska. The Mexicans, of course, never

(22:33):
ratified that treaty. So old ruff and ready Zach Taylor,
he goes down and he starts building fortifications on the
Texas side of the Rio Grand. Mexico claimed that Taylor's
move was an invasion of Mexican territory, and on October
the twenty fourth, President Paredes declares a defensive war against

(22:54):
the US and Mexican troops skirmish with Taylor's troops, and
Taylor wires poke that war exists. It's not the first
war that West Point graduates fight in, but it is
the first kind of big one, and so you get
people like Lee Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis is fighting.

(23:16):
You have all these kind of West Pointers in this war,
and they're getting experienced, and it's really the first big
test of kind of Westport West Point graduates and how
they're going to work following the war, and as a
consequence of the border now being secure, settlement increases dramatically
in Texas. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, we gained

(23:39):
so much territory at a very low cost. I mean
fifteen million dollars even in today's standards, that's a deal.
The security of having kind of all of this territory
from sea to Shining Sea is unmatched. And I don't
know that we could have survived as a country without

(24:00):
having kind of the land mass. America's future would have
been untenable. It's kind of similar when we talk about
the Civil War, what happened, What would have happened if
the South had broken away? I mean, I think America
would have been over and I think this is a
similar situation. It's hard to think of another future for
America that wouldn't have involved kind of this land presence

(24:22):
and command. The Gold Rush is announced right at the
end of his presidency, and you can see him kind
of realizing that it's like it's going to change the
course of the country, and it also kind of validates
him and his ideas of westward expansion before he leaves
office and then eventually dies that he knows, like, okay,
it was worth it, because look, we've already uncovered these

(24:45):
natural resources in the land that we kind of fought
and argued over. So I don't think he created the
Wild West, but I think he made it part of
the United States. You know, we had no term limits
then until after FDR served for a long time, most
presidents did not go past two terms, which is what

(25:06):
George Washington set So it's kind of an honor system
that you'll retire after so long. But I think because
Polk is so young, that he wanted to be clear
he wasn't going to move in and stay forever. You know,
he wasn't gonna sit in that office until he died.
And then you get the sense very much as he's
wrapping up his presidency he is ready to retire. He's exhausted,

(25:26):
and so he kind of throws all that he has
into this one term and then he's thinking he's going
to come back home and kind of live this quiet life.
I don't think he would have liked a quiet life,
but you know, he at least is kind of saying, oh, man,
I can't wait to come home and relax. So you
get the sense that he was also happy to be

(25:46):
done after his one term. It is the shortest retirement
of any president. Right around one hundred days, there'd been
this huge flood in Middle Tennessee and all the wells
had flooded and all this dirty water has permeated all
over and so people are dying of cholera like crazy.
And all this to say, he's buried with no ceremony,

(26:08):
essentially the first time. Now Sarah does dig him up
and have him reburied maybe six months after he dies,
and she gets William Strickland, who's like one of the
most prominent architects at the time. He's in Nashville building
the state capital, and so she commissions him and he
builds a grand tomb, and at that point they have

(26:29):
kind of the more grand funeral that we would associate
with a presidential funeral. Sarah sees at as being really
important because her husband was the president. They have a
procession through Nashville and re enter him on the grounds
of polk Place, their house right on the front lawn. Honestly,
it's almost just by the road, because Sarah wants him
to kind of get that attention. And that's really the

(26:51):
rest of her life is devoted to kind of perpetuating
the legacy of James. And a special thanks to Rachel Helvering,
who worked at the polk Holm in Columbia, Tennessee. Monte Monroe,
the Texas State historian, and Anne Claire, who's a regular contributor.
And what a story about a man with ambition in

(27:11):
one term, promises to do one big thing, and that
is a sure America's ownership of land from coast to coast.
The story of James K. Polk, our eleventh president. Here
on our American story.