Polk, JAMES KNOX, eleventh president of the United States, was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, November 2, 1795. His ancestors, who bore the name of Pollock, emigrated from the north of Ireland; his father was a farmer in moderate circumstances. Polk was educated in the University of North Carolina, and studied law with Felix Grundy of Tennessee, an eminent lawyer and statesman. Admitted to the bar in 1820, he was three years after elected a member of the legislature of Tennessee, and in 1825 returned to congress by the Democratic party. In 1835 he was chosen speaker of the House of Representatives, a position he filled during five sessions with firmness and ability. After serving fourteen years in congress, he was in 1839 elected governor of Tennessee; but he failed to secure re-election in 1841 and 1843. In 1844 he was nominated as a compromise candidate for the presidency, against Henry Clay, and elected by a popular majority of only 38,000, but by 175 electoral votes to 105. His cabinet included James Buchanan as secretary of state and Bancroft, the historian, as secretary of the navy. Polk's firm attitude with regard to the annexation of Texas had mainly secured his election, and he carried out the policy to which he was committed with promptness and vigour. In his first message to congress, in December 1845, he announced that the western bank of the Nueces River, beyond which Texas had not exercised jurisdiction, was already occupied by American troops. On 29th December Texas was admitted to the Union; on the 31st jurisdiction was extended to the disputed territory beyond the Nueces.
These proceedings failing to goad the Mexicans into a declaration of war, the president forced on hostilities by advancing the American army, at the suggestion of General Taylor, to the Rio Grande. Palo Alto and Resaca followed, and the Mexican war was successfully started; the capital was taken in September, and its fall enabled the conquerors to dictate terms of peace, by which the United States acquired California and New Mexico. During Polk's term the Oregon boundary was settled by a compromise (49°) offered by England, though the party cry ('Fifty-four-forty or fight') which helped to elect him was a claim for the entire territory to 54° 40' N. lat. In 1846 a revenue tariff, in which ad valorem were substituted for specific and minimum duties, was adopted—in the senate, however, only by the casting vote of Vice-president Dallas. Polk consistently condemned the anti-slavery agitation; he did not believe in the possibility of a United States all slave or all free, and considered the modus vivendi between North and South quite satisfactory. Having pledged himself to a single term of office, he refused a renomination, and retired to his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he died three months afterwards, June 15, 1849. Polk was a man of good abilities, and of a solid, firm, honest, and religious character. He was devoted to the principles of the Democratic party of Jefferson and Jackson—state rights, a revenue tariff, independent treasury, and strict construction of the constitution.
See Life by J. S. Jenkins (1850), and a History of his administration, by Lucien B. Chase (1850).