James Knox Polk

James K. Polk
Daguerreotype of Polk as President by Mathew Brady, February 17, 1849
11th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849
Vice President	George M. Dallas
Preceded by	John Tyler
Succeeded by	Zachary Taylor
9th Governor of Tennessee
In office October 14, 1839 – October 15, 1841
Preceded by	Newton Cannon
Succeeded by	James C. Jones
13th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office December 7, 1835 – March 4, 1839
President	Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren
Preceded by	John Bell
Succeeded by	Robert M. T. Hunter
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district
In office March 4, 1833 – March 4, 1839
Preceded by	William Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Harvey Magee Watterson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 6th district
In office March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1833
Preceded by	John Alexander Cocke
Succeeded by	Balie Peyton
Personal details
Born	James Knox Polk (1795-11-02)November 2, 1795 Pineville, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	June 15, 1849(1849-06-15) (aged 53) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place	Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Sarah Childress (m. 1824)
Alma mater	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Profession	Lawyer Planter
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Tennessee
Service/branch	Tennessee State Militia
Unit	5th Brigade Cavalry Regiment

James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th President of the United States (1845–49). Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee to study law. After building a successful law practice, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature and then to United States House of Representatives in 1825. A leading Democrat and close ally of Andrew Jackson during the Second Party System, Polk served as the 13th Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839, making him the only president to have served as House Speaker. He left Congress to serve as Governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841. After losing re-election as governor in 1840, and losing in another gubernatorial election in 1842, Polk was a dark horse candidate for president in 1844. Though he entered the convention hoping to be nominated for vice president, he won the presidential nomination as a compromise candidate among the various party factions. In the general election, he defeated Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party in large part due to his promise to annex the Republic of Texas. True to his campaign pledge to serve only one term as President, Polk left office in March 1849 and returned to Tennessee. He died of cholera three months later.

Polk is often considered the last strong pre–Civil War president, having met during his four years in office every major domestic and foreign policy goal set during his campaign and the transition to his administration. When Mexico rejected the U.S. annexation of Texas, Polk achieved a sweeping victory in the Mexican–American War, which resulted in the cession by Mexico of nearly the whole of what is now the American Southwest. He ensured a substantial reduction of tariff rates by replacing the "Black Tariff" with the Walker tariff of 1846, which pleased the less-industrialized states of his native South by rendering less expensive both imported and, through competition, domestic goods. He threatened war with the United Kingdom over the issue of which nation owned the Oregon Country, eventually reaching a settlement in which the British were made to sell the portion that became the Oregon Territory. Additionally, he built an independent treasury system that lasted until 1913, oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and of the Smithsonian Institution, the groundbreaking for the Washington Monument, and the issuance of the first United States postage stamp.