Search results
Based in the History Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the James K. Polk Project sought to locate all extant letters by or to the United States’ eleventh president (1845–49) and to publish an annotated edition of selected letters in print and online.
- The Project
The James K. Polk Project devoted itself to locating and...
- James K. Polk
Fulfilling a campaign promise, James K. Polk served only one...
- The Project
The James K. Polk Project devoted itself to locating and making accessible the incoming and outgoing letters of the Tennessee native who served as U.S. president from 1845 to 1849.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, James K. Polk served only one term in the White House. But in domestic and foreign affairs—in ways that defined and shaped the years of his own public life and continue to weigh upon our age—he left a ubiquitous and, even now, contested legacy.
Dec 10, 2018 · James K. Polk Papers (Library of Congress) James K. Polk Project, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. James Polk Home National Historic Landmark, Columbia, TN. President James K. Polk Home and Museum, Columbia, TN. BIOGRAPHIES OF JAMES K. POLK.
- James Polk’s Early Years
- The Tennessee Politician
- The Dark Horse Candidate
- James Polk as President
- James Polk: Later Years
James Knox Polk was born on November 2, 1795, in a log cabin in Mecklenburg, North Carolina. 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...
In 1825, Tennessee voters elected James Polk to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he would serve seven terms and act as speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839. In Congress, Polk was a protégé of America’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson(1767-1845), a fellow Democrat and Tennessean who was in the White House from 1829 to 1837. Polk favored ...
In 1844, James Polk unexpectedly became the Democrats’ nominee for president. He emerged as a compromise candidate after the more likely choice, former president Martin Van Buren(1782-1862), who had lost his reelection bid in 1840, failed to secure the party’s nomination. Polk thus became America’s first dark horse presidential candidate. George Da...
At age 49, James Polk was younger than any previous president when he entered the White House. A workaholic, America’s new chief executive set an ambitious agenda with four major goals: cut tariffs, reestablish an independent U.S. Treasury, secure the Oregon Territory and acquire the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico. Polk eventu...
James Polk kept his campaign promise to serve just one term and did not seek reelection in 1848. He was succeeded by Zachary Taylor(1784-1850), a military leader who earned acclaim during the Mexican-American War and ran for the presidency on the Whig ticket. Polk left the White House in March 1849 and returned to his home, Polk Place, in Nashville...
The papers of James K. Polk (1795-1849), governor of Tennessee, representative from Tennessee, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and eleventh president of the United States, contain approximately 20,500 items dating from 1775 to 1891, with the bulk falling in the period 1830-1849.
People also ask
What is the James K. Polk Project?
Who was James K Polk?
What accomplishments did James K Polk have?
What did James K Polk do for Texas?
Scholarly essays, speeches, photos, and other resources on James Polk, the 11th US president (1845-1849), including information about the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and Manifest Destiny.
