James Polk: Dark Horse

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02James Knox Polk moved into the White House as the 11th President of the United States in 1845.

03Few had predicted that Polk would become president.

04Even he was surprised.

05Polk had come to his party's presidential nominating convention nearly a year earlier with low expectations.

06But the top politicians, including former President Martin Van Buren, failed to win a majority of votes.

07Convention delegates tried again and again to agree on a candidate.

08Eventually, Polk was nominated.

09A small number of delegates supported him.

10Then the delegates voted again.

11This time, Polk received all 266 votes.

12He became the first dark horse candidate in U.S.

13history to be nominated by a major party.

14In other words, he was someone no one thought would win.

15But he did.

16Music Polk was born in the southeastern state of North Carolina.

17When he was a child, his family moved west, to Tennessee.

18At the time, Tennessee had few white settlers.

19Some considered it the wilderness.

20Polk's family did well there.

21His father became wealthy, buying land and enslaved people.

22His mother, Jane, who followed strict Christian religious teachings, gave her ten children a good education.

23James was the oldest.

24He went to college, then studied law.

25When he was 25, he married an intelligent and wealthy young woman named Sarah Childress.

26The two never had children.

27But they worked together to launch Polk's political career.

28In time, Polk was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives.

29Then the National House of Representatives.

30There, he developed a close relationship with President Andrew Jackson.

31Since Jackson was called Old Hickory, Polk became known as Young Hickory.

32When Polk left Congress and returned to Tennessee to become governor, he supported Jackson's banking reforms.

33But soon, the U.S.

34economy collapsed.

35Tennessee voters failed to re-elect Polk as governor.

36Not once, but twice.

37So, Polk returned to his plantations and waited for a chance to re-enter national politics.

38In 1844, Polk traveled to the city of Baltimore to attend the Democratic Party's National Convention.

39He thought he could perhaps win the nomination for vice president.

40Instead, he became the Democrats' candidate for president.

41Several months later, he narrowly defeated the opposing party's candidate in the national election.

42Historian Robert Mary wrote a book about Polk's presidency.

43Mary says, One reason Polk won the election was the issue of Texas.

44Polk wanted to make Texas a state.

45He thought the United States could take possession of the area peacefully.

46The other leading candidates did not.

47Mary says the other candidates were right.

48The United States eventually went to war with Mexico.

49But Polk spoke for the American people.

50In the 1840s, many Americans liked the idea of expanding the country.

51They believed in manifest destiny, the idea that God wanted America to expand west all the way to the Pacific Ocean and take control of the continent.

52As a result, many voters supported Polk and his promise to add Texas to the United States.

53Polk took another unusual position in the 1844 election.

54He said if he won the presidency, he would serve only one term, that is, four years.

55Several previous presidents had served two terms.

56Polk told voters presidents might abuse their power if they held office too long.

57One term, he said, would be enough for him.

58But Robert Mary says there was more to Polk's one-term promise.

59It was a political bet.

60Polk thought if he said he would serve as president for only one term, other party leaders might help him win.

61Then those politicians could try again to win the presidency in four years instead of waiting eight.

62He was probably right.

63If Polk had not made the campaign promise, Mary says, young Hickory would not have won.

64During the first days of his administration, James K.

65Polk famously listed the four things he planned to do as president.

66He wanted to reduce taxes on imports.

67He wished to establish an independent treasury.

68He hoped to settle the dispute with Britain over the Oregon border.

69He wanted to get California for the United States.

70Less than four years later, Polk had realized each item on his list.

71He is remembered for greatly expanding the size of the United States.

72He successfully negotiated with Britain for U.S.

73control over territory in the West up to the 49th parallel.

74The agreement gave the U.S.

75the current states of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.

76Below those states lay California.

77California.

78An American government minister once described California as the richest, the most beautiful, and the healthiest country in the world.

79The official said the port of San Francisco was big enough to hold all the navies of the world.

80He said, someday San Francisco would control the trade of all the Pacific Ocean.

81There was only one problem from the point of view of the U.S.

82government.

83California was part of Mexico.

84At first, U.S.

85officials attempted to buy California from Mexico.

86But Mexican officials refused even to talk about selling California to the United States.

87Shortly after the U.S.

88Congress approved statehood for Texas in early 1845, Mexico broke relations with the U.S.

89altogether.

90The following year, Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and clashed with American soldiers.

91In answer, President Polk asked Congress to declare war.

92He did not think the conflict would last long.

93He believed the U.S.

94declaration would quickly force Mexico to sell him the territory he wanted.

95Polk was wrong.

96Historian Robert Mary says, The war with Mexico lasted longer, was more expensive, and cost more lives than Polk expected.

97But in the 1848 treaty that ended the war, Polk got the land he had wanted.

98Mexico recognized the independence of Texas and did not stop it from joining the United States.

99And it sold the areas that are now all or part of the states of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and, yes, California.

100President Polk kept his promise to serve only one term.

101After four years, he retired from the presidency, traveled for a few weeks, and then returned to Tennessee to settle in a new home.

102But Polk did not have much time there.

103He had been sick often throughout his life.

104But he became seriously ill during his travels.

105Only three months after he left the White House, Polk died.

106He left behind a much larger country, but a divided one.

107The issue was, again, slavery.

108Southerners argued that they had the right to take enslaved people into California and other former Mexican lands.

109Northerners opposed any further spread of slavery.

110The question was this.

111Did Congress have the power to control, or even ban, slavery in the new territories?

112I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

113The Congresswoman.

114The Congresswoman.

115The Congresswoman.

116The Congresswoman.

117The Congresswoman.

118The Congresswoman.