Images and More: Passed Presidents - # 11

James Knox Polk was the last strong president before the union dissolved into civil war. Four boobs followed him and allowed the nation to crumble until Lincoln put it back together...at the cost of over 700,000 lives. Polk insisted at the outset of his tenure that he would not run for a second term. Good thing since his retirement period was the shortest of any president. He lived a mere 103 days after leaving the White House and died at 53 on this date in 1849.

The president’s grave with the Tennessee capitol in the background
(13 June 2005)

Polk is the only president who was also Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was later elected Governor of Tennessee. The 1844 presidential election was a contentious affair. Incumbent John Tyler had ticked off his Whig Party so much, they refused to nominate him. At the Democratic Party convention, former president Martin Van Buren and other contenders could not get enough votes to clinch the deal. Polk emerged as our first ‘dark horse’ candidate and broke the deadlock. He accepted the nomination and promised to serve but a single term so the party could unite behind a new leader in just four years.

Polk’s single term was eventful. Our first postage stamps were introduced and the California gold rush began. The Department of the Interior and Smithsonian Institution were created. The Oregon Treaty settled the border with Canada in the northwest and Wisconsin, Iowa and Texas became states.

Of course, the Texas annexation led to what many consider Polk’s greatest achievement...if you look past the lame pretext for going to war with Mexico. We were the bigger, more powerful country. When General Zachary Taylor took his army into disputed Texas territory and the Mexicans defended what they believed to be their land, we beat them up and took their land. Within a few months, Mexico was conquered and the peace treaty gave us forty percent of their country. Our ‘Manifest Destiny’, the right to claim and settle the entire western frontier, was achieved as the U.S. now owned all the land to the Pacific Ocean.

’

American Progress’ by John Gast

Westward-striding Columbia leads the way illustrating the

popular belief that America was destined to trample its way

across the continent, stringing rail and telegraph lines...

settling and cultivating...because it was the thing to do.

Everyone alive today knows we are a nation of fifty states...’Sea to Shining Sea’ and all that. There was a time when the country ended not far from the east coast. The interior was sparsely settled by Native Americans and colonists from other countries. We tend to downplay that the French were exploring the Midwest when our colonies were just being established. And we totally ignore that the Spanish had thriving colonies in the southwest before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Polk and the American people believed that ‘Might Makes Right’ and the rest of the continent was ours for the taking.

James Polk Grave, Nashville, TN (13 June 2005)

Mr. Polk is the only president buried on the grounds of a state capitol. He was not a healthy guy and apparently came from less-than-fit stock. While all nine of his siblings lived to maturity, six died before age forty. Being a workaholic also explains his short retirement. This quote from his diary should be included in every business management training course as an example of how not to delegate:

“The public has no idea of the constant accumulation of
business requiring the President’s attention. No President who
performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any
leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to
subordinates, constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise
the whole operations of the Government myself rather
than entrust the public business to subordinates.”

The First Lady lived 42 years after her husband died (13 June 2005)

Sarah Polk was no shrinking violet. She was educated and independent. She was an indispensable advisor to her husband throughout his career and was visited for her counsel by state and national politicians for the rest of her life. A strict Presbyterian, she banned dancing and hard liquor from the White House and refused to attend the theater. The Widow Polk wore black the rest of her 42 years, one of the longest any First Lady survived her husband.

I visited the grave the day before seeing The Hermitage and Andrew Jackson’s last resting place and the day after seeing Andrew Johnson’s. It was a memorable week that began my Dead Presidents Quest in earnest as I had left the work-a-day life just three months before.