James K. Polk: Biography

Learn about the 11th President, the youngest up to the time, who managed to expand the borders of the United States to the Pacific Ocean, added three states to the Union, started the Naval Academy, the Washington Monument, issued the first postage stamp, and remains the youngest President to die outside those who have been assassinated.

Career Before the Presidency

The career of the eleventh U.S. President reflected and fulfilled the young nation's commitment to westward expansion. The son of a North Carolina farmer and surveyor, James Knox Polk was ten years old when his family moved across the Appalachian Mountains. Growing up on the Tennessee frontier, he inherited his neighbors' work ethic, resourcefulness, and democratic ideals.

Although young James was accustomed to the rigors of frontier life, he lacked physical stamina. Shortly before his seventeenth birthday, he needed surgery for stones in his urinary bladder. The successful operation, performed by noted Kentucky surgeon Ephraim McDowell, enabled James to pursue an education with renewed enthusiasm.

After only two and a half years of formal schooling in Tennessee, James K. Polk was admitted to the University of North Carolina as a sophomore. His college studies and his membership in a debating society helped nurture his growing interest in law and government. He graduated with top honors in mathematics and the classics, and returned to Tennessee determined to become a lawyer. To receive legal training, he worked in the office of renowned Nashville trial attorney Felix Grundy and served as clerk of the Tennessee Senate. Diligent and ambitious, James soon established a law practice in Columbia, Tennessee.

Encouraged by his early professional success, he turned his attention to politics. At age twenty-seven, he defeated an incumbent for a seat in the Tennessee Legislature. While serving as a State Representative, he courted and eventually married Sarah Childress, the daughter of a prominent Murfreesboro merchant and planter. An educated lady whose intellect and social grace impressed contemporaries, Sarah became James K. Polk's personal and political confidante. Her active involvement in her husband's campaigns helped ensure his victories.

Fervently supporting the policies of fellow Tennessee Democrat Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk was elected to the U.S. Congress at age twenty-nine. His Congressional career lasted fourteen years and included two terms as Speaker of the House. While working in Washington, he remained keenly interested in state politics. Concerned that the Whig Party was becoming increasingly popular in Tennessee, he returned home and successfully ran for the governorship. After one two-year term, he twice failed to be re-elected. Although rivals reasonably assumed that his political influence had peaked, James K. Polk stayed active in Democratic politics and shrewdly sought opportunities to revive his career.

Challenging the well-known Whig candidate Henry Clay in the 1844 Presidential election, Polk promised to actively encourage America's westward expansion. He favored Texas statehood and the acquisition of the Oregon Territory. Although critics expressed concern that aggressive expansionism might lead to a war with Great Britain or Mexico and might destroy the tenuous balance between free states and slave states, a majority of Americans accepted Polk's vision of a continental nation.

True to his campaign pledge to serve only one term as President, James K. Polk left office and returned to Tennessee in March, 1849. The nation's expansionist aims had been realized. When Polk died of cholera three months later, thousands of Americans were rushing west in search of California gold.

Click here to read about First Lady Sarah Childress Polk.

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