James Polk

C

Lawyer

After graduating from college, Polk went to Nashville, Tennessee, to study law under Felix Grundy, who was Tennessee's leading lawyer and a power in the state legislature, called the General Assembly. During the following year, 1819, a severe depression hit the United States. Cotton prices dropped, credit was withdrawn, and there was widespread suffering throughout the agricultural regions of the West. Riding the judicial circuit with Grundy, Polk became aware of the political unrest caused by the depression. This experience reinforced his faith in Jeffersonian democracy and made him distrustful of banks, speculators, and paper credit.

In less than a year, Polk was admitted to the practice of law in Tennessee and established his own law practice in Columbia, Tennessee. Through Grundy's influence he also secured the post of clerk for the state senate, a chamber of the General Assembly. Polk continued to practice law but was drawn more and more into politics.

III

Early Political Career

The Assembly met at Murfreesboro, where, as a student, Polk had become acquainted with Sarah Childress, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Polk's duties in the Assembly enabled him to renew his friendship with Sarah, and in 1822 they became engaged. Polk resigned his clerkship to run for a seat in the Assembly. Called the “Napoleon of the stump” by his supporters because of his small stature, he proved to be an effective campaigner and a skillful orator. Consequently, he was elected and it was Assemblyman James Polk who married Sarah Childress on January 1, 1824.

Sarah Polk was as vivacious and sociable as Polk was quiet and solitary. Their marriage was childless, and she devoted herself to her husband's career. When Polk was elected to national office, she became one of the most popular hostesses in Washington, D.C.

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A

Assemblyman

Polk served in the General Assembly at a time when an important shift in political alignment was taking place among the voters. One side tended to represent the farmers and laborers, who were usually debtors. The other side reflected the interests of the creditor group, consisting of businessmen, merchants, speculators, and wealthy planters and farmers, who could afford to invest their money in Tennessee's growing economy. Polk quickly established himself as the champion of the debtor class and immediately became their leader in the Assembly. He supported free public education, “hard” (gold or silver) money, and other policies associated with Jeffersonian democracy. In 1825 Polk was elected to the lower house of the Congress of the United States.

B

United States Congressman

Polk entered Congress in the same year John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as president. Polk and other followers of Andrew Jackson were bitter over the election of 1824. Jackson had won a plurality of the popular and electoral votes. But because he lacked a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives had to decide the election among the three candidates with the highest number of electoral votes. When Henry Clay, the candidate who had come in fourth, swung his support to Adams, Adams won the election.

Polk, with his firm belief in democratic rule, held that the election of Adams was a violation of the people's will. In his first speech before Congress he called for an end to the existing electoral system and for a constitutional amendment giving the people the right to elect the president by direct popular vote.

On all issues, Polk followed the Jacksonian line. He opposed the high protective tariff (tax on imports), high land prices, the national bank, paper money, and the financing of internal improvements such as roads, bridges, and canals with federal funds. Like Jefferson, whose philosophy the Jacksonians believed they followed, Polk placed his trust in an agrarian country and opposed all forces that strengthened the commercial and financial interests.

In 1828 Jackson was elected president, and Polk became the leader of the administration's bloc in the House. As such he took a leading part in Jackson's battles against federal financing of internal improvements, the protective tariff, and South Carolina's threat to nullify federal laws within its borders (see nullification). When Jackson sought to end the use of a national bank as a depository for U.S. Treasury funds, many Jacksonians defected to the Whig Party because they thought his policy was fiscally unsound. Polk, however, remained faithful and drew up the minority report that portrayed the bank as a tool of vested financial interests. Polk's handling of the issue in Congress contributed to the popular support given Jackson when he vetoed a bill renewing the bank's charter and began placing federal funds in state, or “pet,” banks instead of the national bank.

C

Speaker of the House

In 1835 the Jacksonians, who by now called themselves Democrats, elected Polk as presiding officer, or Speaker, of the House. With the retirement of President Jackson and the 1836 election to the presidency of his chosen successor, Vice President Martin Van Buren of New York, the Whig delegation in Congress grew stronger and more vocal. Bitter at what they considered Jackson's unconstitutional use of executive powers but unable to make a dent in his personal popularity, the Whigs took out their anger on Polk and Van Buren. Throughout his tenure as speaker, Polk was subject to constant insults and vituperation. He was called a “menial,” a “slave,” and a “servile tool” of Jackson, as well as a “petty tyrant” and “a cancer on the body politic.” Polk bore this daily abuse with composure.

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