James Knox Polk, 11th US President, Ancestor of Lifford - v1

Описание: James Knox Polk (b.1795 d.1849), the 11th President of the United States, and the second Irish-American to hold the office.

James was born on 2 Nov 1795, in a log cabin in Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County, just outside Charlotte.

James was the first of 12 children born into a family of farmers. His mother, Jane Gracey Knox (b.1776 d.1852). His father, Maj. Samuel Polk (b.1772 d.1827) a farmer, slaveholder, and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent.
His family originated from Ballindrait near Lifford in County Donegal, Ireland.

He enrolled at the Presbyterian Zion Church Academy in 1813 located outside of Murfreesboro, later transferred to the Presbyterian Bradley Academy in 1814 and entered the University of North Carolina in 1816, graduating with honours in May 1818.
He studied law under Felix Grundy (b.1777 d.1840) and after building a successful law practice in Tennessee, he was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1823.

James married, Sarah Childress (b.1803 d.1891) from Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., Tennessee on 1 Jan 1824. She was the third of the seven children of Elizabeth Whitsitt (b.1781 d.1863) and Joel W. Childress (b.1777 d.1819).
James and Sarah had no children; however, they did raise a nephew, Marshall Tate Polk (b.1831 d.1884).

In 1825 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming a strong supporter of the Democratic leader, General Andrew Jackson (b.1767 d.1845).

He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839, the only person to serve both as Speaker and U.S. president introduced a strict “Gag Rule” barring the discussion of slavery.

Polk left Congress to run for governor of Tennessee, winning in 1839 but losing in 1841 and 1843.
While he had a successful career in politics, he continued to expand his property holdings by establishing a plantation called Somerville in southern Tennessee in 1831.
After Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the military forced the Choctaw Nation off their lands in northern Mississippi, one in a series of forced relocations known as the Trail of Tears. Polk joined the rush of speculators to purchase the vacant land. He sold his Tennessee plantation and purchased a new one in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, where he enslaved workers to harvest cotton.

At the Democratic convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1844, Polk hoped only for the vice presidential nomination however he was nominated largely because of his support for “Manifest Destiny” and expanding the United States’ territorial holdings. His Vice-President was George Mifflin Dallas (b.1792 d.1864).
His one term administration seen an immense expansion of the the US after the Republic of Texas, having gained its independence from Mexico, asked to be annexed to the US and in Dec 1845 it formally did so.

In Nov 1845 Polk sent John Slidell (b.1793 d.1871) on a secret mission to Mexico City to negotiate the purchase of disputed territory, including an area between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers in Texas, as well as New Mexico and California for up to $30 million.
Mexican President José Joaquín de Herrera (b.1792 d. 1854), aware of Slidell’s intention to dismember the country, refused to receive him. When Polk learned of the snub, he ordered troops under General Zachary Taylor (b.1784 d.1850) in July 1846, to occupy a strip of land.
When General Taylor refused a Mexican request to leave, his troops were attacked and the US Congress then declared war on Mexico, resulting in the Mexican-American War (aka, Mr. Polk’s War) and the defeat of Mexico.

The US gained more than 500,000 square miles of Mexico’s land, including California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. President Polk publicly supported the expansion of slavery into these territories, while employing enslaved individuals at the White House, including Henry Carter, Jr. and Elias Polk. Polk, secretly purchasing 13 enslaved children during his presidency, who worked on his Mississippi plantation.

At the end of his term James and Sarah travelled to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River into Tennessee, visiting his mother in Columbia, and also their newly renovated home Polk Place, downtown Nashville. James’ diary makes frequent mention of cholera during their travels with outbreaks occurring throughout the country. The President would succumb to the disease two weeks later, just three months after leaving office. This is the shortest retirement of any previous US President.

President Polk died on 15 June 1849 and was initially buried on 16 June in the Nashville City Cemetery within 24 hours in an area for victims of Cholera. On 22 May 1850 his body was exhumed and reinterned at Polk Place Vine Street, Nashville.
On the 19 Sept 1893 after Polk Place was demolished his remains along with Sarah were transferred to Tennessee State Capitol Building, Nashville.