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Polk, James Knox Reference library
Wayne Cutler
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...Polk, James Knox ( 1795–1849 ), eleventh president of the United States. A Jacksonian Democrat and devotee of Thomas Jefferson 's agrarian political ideology, Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and reared in Maury County, Tennessee. Graduating with honors from the University of North Carolina in 1818 , he first practiced law and in 1823 won election to the Tennessee legislature. He married Sarah Childress in 1824 . Elected to Congress in 1825 , he opposed President John Quincy Adams 's domestic program of economic development and...
James Gillespie Birney
Liberty Party
Oregon treaty
Expansionism
Whig Party
Democratic Party
Polk, James K (b. 2 November 1795) Reference library
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass
..., James K ( b. 2 November 1795 ; d. 15 June 1849 ), eleventh president of the United States. James Knox Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His father, Samuel Polk, was a prosperous farmer who owned thousands of acres of land and about fifty slaves in Tennessee. His mother, Jane Knox Polk, was a devout Presbyterian who instilled Calvinist virtues of hard work and self-discipline in her son. The eldest of ten children, Polk was a sickly child. At the age of seventeen he underwent a very dangerous and painful operation in order to have...
Buchanan, James Reference library
Joel H. Silbey
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...Buchanan, James ( 1791–1868 ), fifteenth president of the United States. Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of a storekeeper and farmer, Buchanan was a successful lawyer who soon turned to politics. Originally a Federalist, he became a Jacksonian Democrat, serving successively as a state legislator, congressman, minister to Russia ( 1832–1834 ), U.S. Senator ( 1834–1845 ), secretary of state under James Knox Polk ( 1845–1849 ), and ambassador to Great Britain ( 1853–1856 ). Like other antebellum Democrats, Buchanan distrusted federal power,...
Liberty Party. Reference library
Joel H. Silbey
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...1 percent of the national vote in the 1840 presidential election, and just over 2 percent in 1844 . Some historians suggest that its New York State vote in the latter year denied the state to the Whig candidate, Henry Clay , and insured the election of the slaveholder James Knox Polk , but this involves the unlikely assumption that in the Liberty party's absence, its voters would have cast their ballots for Clay. It is more useful to see the Liberty party as an early manifestation a gathering movement that would culminate in the crusades of the Free...
Oregon Trail. Reference library
David E. Conrad
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...often assisted the migrants as well.) By 1844 , with more than five thousand Americans in the Willamette valley, the “Oregon question” dominated U.S. politics. In that year's presidential election, voters in effect risked war with Great Britain by selecting the Democrat James Knox Polk on a platform committed to acquiring Oregon and the slogan “Fifty-four forty or Fight.” The slogan referred to a willingness to fight Great Britain to secure all of the jointly administered Oregon territory. Fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude was the...
Monroe Doctrine Reference library
Howard Jones
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...and boasted that he had already secured a noninterventionist pledge from France. As American power grew, however, American presidents increasingly asserted the doctrine to justify U.S. commercial and territorial expansion. In the 1840s, President James Knox Polk articulated what later became known as the Polk Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in opposing British claims in the Pacific Northwest. The following decade, Americans for the first time referred to the doctrine by name in arguing against British claims in Central America. During the Civil War ,...
Mexican War Reference library
Robert E. May
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...the conflict as an outgrowth of U.S. expansionism (expressed in the popular slogan “ Manifest Destiny ,” coined in 1845 ). According to this view, President James Knox Polk was so bent upon acquiring California ports and other Mexican territory, in part to preempt rumored British designs on California, that he provoked war as a pretext for conquest. Other scholars, however, contend that Polk sought a peaceful resolution of outstanding issues and conducted his prewar diplomacy with Mexico in good faith. In an immediate sense, warfare erupted because of...
Bancroft, George Reference library
Lilian Handlin
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...was the collectorship of the Boston Customhouse, a growing national reputation, and ties to successive Democratic administrations in Washington. Bancroft's role at the national Democratic convention in 1849 led to his appointment as secretary of the navy in President James Knox Polk 's cabinet. Bancroft played a pivotal role in the Mexican War , firmly espoused Manifest Destiny , and was instrumental in establishing the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. After a term as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain ( 1846–1849 ), Bancroft settled in New York...
Taylor, Zachary Reference library
Elbert B. Smith
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...honored Indian treaties; prevented white settlement of Indian lands; and during the Seminole wars in Florida, refused to return to their owners escaped slaves living with the Seminoles. Although opposed to Texas annexation, Taylor in January 1846 was ordered by President James Knox Polk to advance to the Rio Grande River. A Mexican attack on a unit of his army in April led to the Mexican War . Winning battles against numerical odds, he became a national hero, nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready.” As the Whig party 's presidential candidate in 1848 , he...
Tyler, John Reference library
Eric D. Daniels
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...and the brewing conflict over slavery , Tyler saw it as an opportunity to defend both the South and states' rights. He negotiated an annexation treaty and waited for southern Jacksonians to assist in its ratification. The Democrats heeded the call in 1844 by nominating James Knox Polk , an ardent annexationist. Bypassing the ratification process that would have required a two-thirds majority for Tyler's treaty, Congress simply admitted Texas by resolution in February 1845 , just days before Tyler left office. In 1860 , Tyler served on a futile peace...
Democratic Party. Reference library
Jean Harvey Baker and Paul S. Boyer
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...nearly 80 percent of white males were voting in national elections, with the Democrats the majority party controlling Congress and many state legislatures. From 1840 to 1860 , the Democrats displayed considerable resiliency. While they elected presidents James Knox Polk , Franklin Pierce , and James Buchanan in this period, they faced a bitter sectional crisis. Recruiting urban German and Irish immigrants into their ranks, they achieved a nationwide constituency, only to see it shattered in the 1850s by congressional divisions over slavery in the...
Democratic Party Reference library
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass
...Democrat who hoped to gain a spot on an important Senate committee was forced to support the party's proslavery agenda. The most successful Democratic presidents—Jackson ( 1829–1837 ) and James Knox Polk ( 1845–1849 )—were also slaveholding southerners. The northern Democratic presidents—Martin Van Buren ( 1837–1841 ), Franklin Pierce ( 1853–1857 ), and James Buchanan ( 1857–1861 )—were classic “doughfaces,” northern men with southern principles. With Democrats controlling the presidency for twenty-four of the thirty years leading up to the Civil...
Expansionism. Reference library
Norman A. Graebner
The Oxford Companion to United States History
... December 1845 , its boundary with an embittered Mexico still undefined. Following Texas's annexation, the James Knox Polk administration pursued Texas's border claims to the Rio Grande. Early in 1846 Polk sent General Zachary Taylor 's army into the disputed region between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande to underscore those claims. In May , the predictable clash of arms led to the U.S. declaration of war against Mexico. From the outset, Polk and Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft were determined to secure Mexico's California territory as...
Federal Government, Executive Branch Reference library
David K. Nicholas, Henry F. Graff, Robert David Johnson, Steven L. Rearden, Paul S. Boyer, Jesse Stiller, Richard C. Sawyer, David L. Herzberg, and Daniel J. Tichenor
The Oxford Companion to United States History
...cabinet-level departments are the largest units of the contemporary executive branch. Department of the Interior (1849). Although a “home affairs” or “interior” department was proposed in the earliest days of the republic, Congress resisted until the administration of James Knox Polk . Polk's treasury secretary, Robert J. Walker , strongly supported an interior department, arguing that managing the public lands of an expanding nation was overly burdensome for his department. Walker was especially daunted by U.S. acquisitions of vast new territories...
