James Polk Biography

James Polk Biography

James Polk was the last of the Presidents that were known as “Jacksonians”, and he was president that governed with strength, and is thought to be one of the last truly strong Presidents until Lincoln and the Civil War.

James Polk was born in North Carolina in 1795 and was a strong student all of his life. He graduated with honors from college, he attended the University of North Carolina.

He graduated from college in 1818 and became a lawyer almost immediately. He served in the Tennessee legislature and was a friend when young of Andrew Jackson. He was the chief assistant and lieutenant of Andrew Jackson during the famous Bank War. He was speaker of the House of Representatives during his time there from 1835 until 1839.

After serving in the House, James Polk ran and was elected Governor of Tennessee. Polk has some strong opinions that were not necessarily popular with citizens of the time, for example he thought that Oregon should be re occupied and the state of Texas annexed.

President James Polk was elected in 1845 and served for four years, until 1849. Polk stood firm in his view that the United States should have all of the Oregon territory and British officials wanted the area.

In the end Polk compromised with the British, and a treaty was signed in 1846.

Polk is known for adding Oregon and what is now California to the Union. He favored expansionism, and in the end he had to offer Mexico $15 million dollars and paid for a number of damage claims, after a number of skirmishing including Congress at one point declared war on Mexico in 1847, but it was a short lived war, with Mexico agreeing to sell New Mexico and California to end the war.

For adding a large amount of area to the United States James Polk will always be remembered but the addition of the large land area fueled the building quarrel between the North and South that eventually erupted into war in 1865.  James Polk left office in poor health, and died in June of 1849 after working himself into the ground.