James Knox Polk, POTUS #11 was born on this day in 1795.

Ten Notes on James Polk

1. James Polk was famous  for being a hardworking president. Up to his time POTUS left Washington in the summer because of the heat and humidity. Polk stayed in Washington and worked. He worked so hard they they say he worked himself to death.

2. Polk was from Tenneessee. He was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson. He was Jackson’s protegé.  One of Polk’s nicknames was “Young Hickory” Other nicknames for Polk were  “Napoleon of the Stump” and ” Polk the Plodder”

3. I think Polk is our most underrated POTUS. He came in and accomplished what he wanted to accomplish in 4 years and went home. In his inaugural address he outlined what he hoped to achieve in his presidency and four years later he had achieved all of his goals. He didn’t run for re-election.He was the first POTUS to not seek re-election. He went back home to Tennessee. Three months after he left the presidency he was dead of cholera.He was only 53. Other than our assassinated presidents no other president has died younger than James Polk. He was buried at the State Capitol grounds in Nashville, Tennessee.

4. Polk was 5’8″ gray eyes, white hair. He was not a very personable person. Before he was POTUS he was the Chief Clerk of the Tennessee state senate, a member of the Tennessee house, a member of the US House of Representatives. He was the Speaker of the House and Governor of Tennessee.

5. The big event of the Polk presidency was the Mexican War. Polk was an expansionist.The Mexican War ended with a victory for the United States and the annexation of California and much of Southwest. Polk believed all this was part of America’s ‘manifest destiny” Polk’s policy of expansionism was highly controversial, the dying Whig Party was strongly against it. Polk was a Democrat.

6. Polk was the first Dark Horse candidate to win the presidency. He promissed to annex Texas for the United States and after being elected  he did. Polk was chosen on the 9th ballot at the Democratic Convention. When he went to the convention his original hopes were to get the nod as the Vice Presidential candidate. He beat the Whig candidate Henry Clay  in the general election.

7. Polk and his wife Sarah had no children. Sarah was very active in her husband’s career. She helped him write speeches. she campaigned for him, she gave him advice on policy matters. She was considered very intelligent and charming. She would live until the age of 87, dying in 1891.

8. Before he got involved in politics James Polk was a lawyer and a planter. He graduated college from the University of North Carolina.

9. Polk had many health problems when he was growing up. When he was 17 the pain was so unbearable that he had to be operated on for urinary stones without any kind of anestheic.

10. James Polk is the only person who was ever Speaker of the House to become POTUS. Also Al Bundy in Married With Children went to James K Polk High School. Also its not true that James Polk invented the mullett.