Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

Always honest & loyal he was also ambitious. From his earliest days as a leislative clerk he figured he'd like to be president someday & worked slowly to that goal. A favorite of Andrew Jackson all his life, he was often referred to as "young hickory". His connection didn't hurt & in fact his presidency ended what is referred to as the "Jacksonian Era" in our history. He first ran for elected office as a state senator in 1823 a year before Jackson's first run at the presidency. By Polk's term, The United States had risen to the status of a continential country, with unlimited potential, if it could hold together. The congress of the time was populated with greats such as Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay & Benton Hart. Also some not so greats as a young one-term Whig named Abe Lincoln. His time would come later. Polk came into the Democrat convention of 1844 on the heels of two straight defeats for governor of Tennessee. His plan was to manuever for the vice president slot. As events unfolded he became the party's nominee & was subsequently elected, four years before he planned. He promptly declared he would only serve for one term. He is one of the few presidents that was able to accomplish all he set out to do. He had a list of proirities (there were four). Settle the Oregon territory question in the U.S.'s favor, finish annexing Texas, stabilize the National Bank & reduce tariffs. He also presided over a fairly unpopular war with Mexico. This yielded most of our southwest & California from Mexico. Very partisan, Polk hated & mistrusted Whigs. Most of his generals were Whigs. This war yielded many prominent soldiers who lived to fight in another war such as Lt. Robert E. Lee & Lt. U.S. Grant. A Whig, Zachary Taylor followed him into the presidency. He was Polk's top general & Polk didn't think he was fit to be president. Polk was a very hard worker & saw to every detail. Some historians even suggested that he worked himself to death. As many presidents before & after once he got the prize he sought, hated it as a sort of prison. He was happy to leave. Never a robust man he was dead scant months after leaving the White House. He might be considered a sucessful president as he accomplished what he wanted. Also on the basis of the territory accuumulated. But that very sucess probably accelerated the war that was on the horizon. He was dedicated to preserving the union, but owning slaves, he paid mere lip service to that cause. A near-great president with perhaps that one flaw. But after all the Civil was was still five president away.

Polk The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America By Walter R. Borneman If asked to name those who have served as President of the United States, few average Americans would be able to offer more than a handful of names. Among those least likely to be named is that of James Knox Polk our eleventh president. Yet, in a 1948 poll of leading historians conducted by the late Arthur Schlesinger, Polk ranked tenth in a list of twenty-nine. Why, one wonders, would a former president rank so highly among historians, while remaining comparatively unknown to the average American? In his new biography of Polk, historian Walter R. Borneman (1812 The War That Forged A Nation and The French and Indian War) takes a fresh look at Polk, the man and his presidency. The period between the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln has sometimes been seen as something of a drought, lacking a forceful, dynamic president. Yet as Borneman skillfully points out, Polk proved, by far, to be the strongest of the pre-Civil War presidents, greatly expanding the executive powers of the office and acquiring a huge chunk of territory for the U.S. Interestingly enough he accomplished all of this as a one-term president, having vowed at the outset not to run for reelection. The author's captivating style illuminates Polk's life and his not inconsiderable accomplishments as president. It was Polk who, in 1844, finally settled the long disputed Oregon question that brought the present states of Oregon and Washington into the Union and in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War it was Polk's political adroitness (through the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo) that also added California and virtually all of the Southwest. Thus, with the exception of a small strip of extreme southern Arizona and New Mexico (added five years later in 1853 with the Gadsden Purchase), Polk completed the formation of the contiguous United States. No president since Thomas Jefferson added as much territory to the U.S. as Polk: more than a million square miles of territory. Polk also played an active role in bringing Texas into the Union. Polk The Man Who Transformed the Presidency is an insightful and beautifully written biography that will doubtless move Polk from the shadows of history into the forefront of those chief executives who have had a dramatic impact on the development of the United States.

This biography recounts the life of James K. Polk, our eleventh president and the strongest president in the quarter-century between the presidencies of Jackson and Lincoln. Polk was Andrew Jackson's protégé, and the book traces Polk's path through the House of Representatives to the Tennessee governorship. In the cliffhanger election of 1844, Polk became the youngest elected president to that point in American history. Polk served as chief executive during a time when railroads and the telegraph were rapidly changing America, when there was lively debate over westward expansion, when the conflict over slavery was slowly heating up, and when settlers were heading west on the Oregon Trail. The book demonstrates how American politics of the 1840s had many similarities to the politics of today. Then as now, politicians jockeyed for their party's presidential nomination years in advance, there were third-party spoilers, and there were even campaign biographies of the candidates published in the presidential election year. Polk's experience also shows that the presidency had already become a taxing, all-consuming job even by middle of the nineteenth century. The book outlines the border disputes and negotiations with Britain and Mexico concerning Oregon and the Southwest--had some of the negotiations turned out differently, our country's total land area could have been much larger or much smaller than it is today. Polk also wanted to purchase Cuba from Spain. A brief history of the Mexican War is included, and the book relates how during this period the power to declare war migrated from Congress (where it had been during the War of 1812) to the presidency. Polk's legacy is marred by his position on slavery, but his territorial acquisitions make him one of the most consequential presidents of the nineteenth century.

I didn't know squat about James Polk and now I do. Isn't that the point. The period between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln is by far the least studied period of my "historical hobby." I picked this book up on a business trip in Canada and read it in a week. First, it is an easy read. It goes into just enough detail to keep you interested but not too much detail to cause you to lose interest. Second, the book is not long for no reason. I've read a lot of biographers and many times I think authors want to write a 900+ page account of someone just because they think people will think it is better or more complete if it is 900+ pages instead of 300+. I couldn't disagree more. This book was the perfect length. Polk was a one-term President who didn't serve in congress during critical legislation. The big thing about Polk was American expansionism and the author treats that in very fine fashion. I really enjoyed this book completely and would recommend it to anyone wanting a solid account of Polk the man and Polk the President. If you are a "Polk" lover than maybe you should read something more detailed but for a guy like me it was perfect.