President James K. Polk dies June 15, After leaving Washington at the end of his term. Be the first to hear about new exhibitions, community events, and learning opportunities at the President James K. Polk Home and Museum. Web Design and Development by Muletown Digital. Who is James K. It is a simple question with a complicated answer. Career Politician Polk returned to Tennessee in determined to begin his law career. Dark Horse Despite his national success, James Polk kept an eye on the politics of his home state of Tennessee, returning to run for governor in President Polk An ambitious politician with his gifted wife by his side, President Polk tirelessly pursued his goals.
Learn More. Stay in the Know. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Get Directions. He then moved to California, capturing Los Angeles in January Taylor remained active in northern Mexico, winning several battles and capturing Monterrey, an important Mexican trade-center.
Polk then ordered a large portion of Taylor's troops to Vera Cruz to bolster Scott's force for the assault on Mexico City. With a strong advantage in the field, Polk's diplomat Nicholas Trist attempted to arrange terms with Mexico. After several false starts, Trist on February 2, arranged the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war. The Senate approved the treaty on March 10, The Mexican War was both controversial and compelling at home.
Many Whigs, including a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln, objected to the war, but these dissenting voices were mostly lost underneath an outburst of nationalism that only grew more vociferous as the American victories mounted. Propelling this nationalist upsurge was the penny press, which sent war correspondents to the field and made the war the most reported in American history to that date.
The press coverage made General Zachary Taylor a hero who captured the public's imagination and helped to propel him to the presidency in In the Bear Flag Revolt, approximately thirty American settlers anticipating the Mexican War take over a small Mexican garrison in Sonoma, California, and declare California a free and independent republic.
The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between British and American claims to the Oregon Territory, granting the United States clear title to present-day Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana, while granting to Britain territory above the 49th parallel and full control over Vancouver Island.
On June 15, , the United States Senate approved the Oregon Treaty, which established the 49th parallel as the border between British and American claims to the Oregon territory. The treaty granted the United States clear title to present-day Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana, and granted Britain the territory above the 49th parallel and full control over Vancouver Island. James K. Polk gained the presidency in in part on the Democratic Party's expansionist pledge to seize all of the Oregon territory for the United States.
America had jointly occupied Oregon with Britain since , when the two nations began negotiating over a final boundary in the territory. Both sides had remained unwilling to agree to a dividing line which did not include for them the valuable harbor of Vancouver Island: the United States desired the more northerly 49th parallel, while Britain wanted the Columbia River to be the border which was far south of the 49th parallel.
Two issues complicated matters in the s and s. First, American settlers poured into the region. Politicians felt compelled to respond to a now pressing political issue. President Tyler called for the annexation of Oregon to its northern limit, and Polk expressed a similar hard-line stance in his Inaugural Address; Polk's words inflamed American passions and upset the British.
In July , however, Polk proposed a compromise to the British, offering to establish the boundary at the 49th parallel while granting Britain full control of Vancouver Island. With war in Mexico appearing ever more likely, the President wanted to avoid a simultaneous war with Britain. The British rejected the initial offer, and Polk responded by intimating that he was willing to go to war over the issue.
London, however, reconsidered the proposition a year later, sending Polk a treaty on the terms he had proposed. When it arrived in Washington, Polk forwarded the treaty to the Senate unsigned, refusing to commit himself to it politically until the Senate approved it.
The Oregon Treaty was a great success, finally granting the United States clear title to vast tracts of land in the Northwest. Moreover, it allowed both Britain and the United States access to the Pacific Ocean through the channel south of Vancouver Island and avoided a possible war.
Polk had handled the matter with skill, and the treaty allowed him to shift his full attention to the ongoing war with Mexico. Polk: Impact and Legacy. Breadcrumb U. Presidents James K. Polk James K. John C. Pinheiro Professor of History Aquinas College. More Resources James K.
Polk Presidency Page. Polk Essays Life in Brief. As a boy, Polk, the eldest of 10 children, moved with his family to Columbia, Tennessee , where his father became a prosperous land surveyor, planter and businessman.
The younger Polk was often sick as a child, and as a teen he survived a major operation for urinary stones. The surgery was done before the advent of modern antiseptics and anesthesia; Polk was reportedly given some brandy as a sedative. A top student, Polk graduated from the University of North Carolina in and studied law under a leading Nashville attorney. He was admitted to the bar in and opened a law practice in Columbia.
He entered politics in , when he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. In , Polk married Sarah Childress , a well-educated Tennessean and devout Presbyterian from a wealthy family. As first lady, she was a charming and popular hostess, although she banned hard liquor from the White House and eschewed dancing, the theater and horse races.
In , Tennessee voters elected James Polk to the U. House of Representatives, where he would serve seven terms and act as speaker of the House from to Polk left Congress in to become governor of Tennessee.
He ran for reelection in and lost; another run for the governorship in also ended in defeat. George Dallas , a U. In the general election, Polk ran against U. He narrowly won the presidency with At age 49, James Polk was younger than any previous president when he entered the White House. Polk eventually achieved all his goals. He was a champion of manifest destiny—the belief that the United States was fated to expand across the North American continent—and by the end of his four years in office, the nation extended, for the first time, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
In , the United States completed its annexation of Texas, which became the 28th state on December
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