He was the 11th president of the United States and was known as “young hickory”, and the first “dark horse”. James Knox Polk accomplished many things in his life. He served in the House of Representative, became governor of Tennessee, and became president of the United States. His achievements impacted the U.S and made it what it is today. For example he annexed Texas, lowered tariffs, established an independent Federal Treasury, went to war with Mexico, and added three states to the union. If James Polk did not become president, then there is a possibility that California, New Mexico and Oregon would not be a part of the United States.
James Knox Polk was born November 2, 1795 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. James was the son of a surveyor and farmer Samuel Polk and mother Jane Polk who came from the family of Scottish religious reformer John Knox. He was the oldest of four sisters and five brothers, many who died young. By the age of 10 he and his family moved to Duck River, Tennessee what is now known as Maury County. James was not a healthy youth and was diagnosed with gallstones, but had done a risky operation to get them removed. During his childhood years he only got an informal education. By age 18 he began his formal education. After attending formal schooling for two and half years Polk was permitted to go to University of North Carolina as a sophomore (Design). He had an interest in law and government by having a membership in a debating society. Graduating top honors in his class Polk returned to Tennessee to become a lawyer. To receive legal training “Polk served as a clerk for the Tennessee Senate working for attorney Felix Grundy” (Design). By the age of twenty-seven his political life began. He s...
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This book by Otis A. Singletary deals with different aspects of the Mexican war. It is a compelling description and concise history of the first successful offensive war in United States military history. The work examines two countries that were unprepared for war. The political intrigues and quarrels in appointing the military commanders, as well as the military operations of the war, are presented and analyzed in detail. The author also analyzes the role that the Mexican War played in bringing on the U.S. Civil War.
Calvert, Robert A., Arnoldo De Leon and Gregg Cantrell. The History of Texas. 4th. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 2007. Print.
Marmor, Theodore R. The Career of John C. Calhoun: Politician, Social Critic, Political Philosopher. New York: Garland, 1988.
Polk was one of the most important people in U.S. history . He was one of the people who started the Mexican American war. He also was the 11Th president of the U.S.A . He help american territory grow ⅓ in size. The united naval service was established during his term. Polk is my favorite president to learn
After the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt inherited a growing empire when he took office in 1901. The U.S. had annexed Hawaii in 1898 and Spanish-American War granted the U.S. control of the Philippines. It also led the U.S. to establish a protectorate over Cuba and grant territorial status for Puerto Rico. By taking on the Philippine Islands as an American colony after the Spanish-American War he had ended the U.S.'s isolation from international politics. Theodore Roosevelt believed that nations should pursue a strenuous life and do their part to maintain peace and order. It was also a belief that civilized nations had the duty of modernizing the barbarous ones. He also pushed for a bigger army and navy and by the end of his presidency he had built the U.S. Navy into a major force at sea.
Just before Polk's presidency Texas had freed itself from Mexican rule and desired American annexation. This desire came from thousands of former American citizens that settled in Texas in the 1820s. This was due to the Mexican government supplying huge land grants to entice new settlers to Texas and secure its northern border from America. The Mexican government failed to realize the true impact that their persuasion of Americans for settlement would cause. In 1830, Mexico finally put a freeze on all American immigration due to the large number of American settlers and their certain revolution. In 1836, The Republic of Texas was est...
Andrew Jackson has been described as a great hero of his time and a man who was atrocious and would destroy the Union. Andrew Jackson accomplished a great number of things during his life but some of his actions were quite questionable. Looking from the present to the past gives insight into areas where the events can be examined more objectively. However, it is vital when examining past events to keep in mind the mindsets of the past. People had a different point of view and a different perspective than the current one. This must be kept in the forward part of the mind to understand the actions of those in the past. This paper will serve as a guide into the life of Andrew Jackson, his trials and tribulations, decisions and contradictions. From the beginning of his life, he was headstrong and that would lead him straight into the history books.
Cole, Allen F. "ASSERTING HIS AUTHORITY: JAMES BUCHANAN'S FAILED VINDICATION." Pennsylvania History Winter 70.1 (2003): 81-97. JSTOR. Web. 14 May 2014.
Andrew Jackson was like no other president before him. The previous presidents had one thing in common, they were all part of the founding fathers or in John Quincy Adam’s case was the son of a founding father. However Jackson was a plantation owner from the west who had no connections with the government. He also had different views from other presidents that made his presidency unique. Two things that separated Andrew Jackson’s presidency from previous presidencies were he reached out to the common people and he was disapproving of the Bank of United States.
As a disjunctive president Buchanan did not have the power or the acceptance to make major policy changes that would have been needed. Unfortunately, Buchanan did not understand that the old Democratic ideals that were accepted under Polk and Pierce, were not favored by the growing regionalization of the country. The people in Kansas felt that Buchanan was forcing them to become a slave state without considering the infighting that was breaking out around him. As proof of his position as a disjunctive president, as Morrison describes it “Buchanan’s failure resulted from his inability to recognize – good Jacksonian Democrat that he was – that the territorial crisis that followed the Mexican cession had separated the nation from the ebullient nationalism of the mid-1840s when he was Polk’s Secretary of State and oversaw the expansion of the Union… what Buchanan did not – or could not – realize is that by his presidency the slavery extension issue had become for Americans of the 1850’s what the conflict over the Second Bank was for Jackson: a way of identifying and rooting out subversive elements” only without realizing how vulnerable his position was in comparison (Morrison
... pro or an antislavery state? It took nine dragged out years to be annexed to the US. So with the new US president James K. Polk being inaugurated in 1845 and one of his priorities being to claim texas, it seemed to set things in motion.
The early 1700’s saw the arrival of James K Polk’s lineage in America. Robert Bruce Polk (shortened from Pollock) moved his Scottish-Irish family to the shore of Eastern Maryland, establishing the one of the first Presbyterian congregations of the New World. In the late 1750’s the Polk’s (along with the family of seventh president Andrew Jackson) moved into the Carolinas as a part of a swarm of national migration. Several decades later on November 2nd 1795 James K Polk, future president of the United States, was born to Samuel Polk (slaveholder and farmer) and Jane Knox in a farmhouse in Mecklenburg, North Carolina. Though Sam and Jane Polk adhered to the Presbyterian religion James was not baptized. This was the outcome of a heated argument by his father and a Presbyterian minister regarding
On April 23, 1791, a great man was born; fifteenth president of the United States, James Buchanan.He was born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, James Buchanan, and his mother Elizabeth Speer Buchanan, raised their son a Presbyterian. He grew up in a well to do home, being the eldest of eleven other siblings. His parents cared for them all in their mansion in Pennsylvania. They sent him to Dickinson College.
Abraham Lincoln’s original views on slavery were formed through the way he was raised and the American customs of the period. Throughout Lincoln’s influential years, slavery was a recognized and a legal institution in the United States of America. Even though Lincoln began his career by declaring that he was “anti-slavery,” he was not likely to agree to instant emancipation. However, although Lincoln did not begin as a radical anti-slavery Republican, he eventually issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves and in his last speech, even recommended extending voting to blacks. Although Lincoln’s feeling about blacks and slavery was quite constant over time, the evidence found between his debate with Stephen A. Douglas and his Gettysburg Address, proves that his political position and actions towards slavery have changed profoundly.
James A. Garfield was an outstanding man of many endeavors who went from driving boats down the canal to become a general of the union army to the twentieth president of the United States of America (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). James A. Garfield was against slavery and had great plans for reconstruction, but sadly they were cut short. His term only lasted in the first year, as Garfield was shot by an office seeker and died many months later (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans).