50 Fun Facts About James K. Polk

Polk was which number president of the United States?

He served from 1845 to 1849, between John Tyler and Zachary Taylor.

In which state was Polk born, in a log cabin in 1795?

He was born in Pineville, the first of ten children, and moved with his family to the Duck River area in 1806.

Polk was known as "Young Hickory" as a protégé of which president?

Jackson was "Old Hickory"; Sarah Polk and her siblings are said to have called him "Uncle Andrew".

Polk is the only president to have also held which office?

He became Speaker in 1835 and served two terms before leaving Congress to run for governor.

Which Whig did Polk narrowly defeat in the 1844 presidential election?

Polk won 49.5% of the popular vote and 170 of 275 electoral votes.

Before the White House, Polk served as governor of which state?

He won the governorship in 1839 but lost it in 1841 and again in 1843 before his surprise presidential nomination.

On which ballot did the 1844 Democratic convention nominate Polk?

He got only 44 votes on the eighth ballot, then 233 on the ninth once Van Buren's name was withdrawn.

Who served as Polk's vice president?

Dallas, a Pennsylvanian, later broke a Senate tie to pass Polk's tariff cut despite his protectionist home state.

As a boy, Polk had surgery for urinary stones with what as the only anesthetic?

Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Kentucky performed the operation, which may have left Polk sterile; he had no children.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty divided the territory mostly along which parallel?

Britain kept all of Vancouver Island, which dips below the line, plus temporary navigation rights on the Columbia.

Expansionists wanted all of Oregon Country, which extended north to what latitude?

The demand gave rise to the slogan associated with the dispute, though Polk never claimed the whole territory in his inaugural.

Which 1848 agreement ended the war with Mexico?

It was signed in a small town near Mexico City at the Mexicans' request; Polk declared it in effect on July 4, 1848.

Who negotiated the peace with Mexico despite being recalled by Polk?

Trist, Buchanan's chief clerk, ignored his recall in November 1847 and kept talking; Polk grudgingly accepted the result.

How much did the United States pay Mexico under the 1848 peace terms?

Trist had been authorized to offer up to $30 million and to let Mexico keep Baja California, which it did.

In late 1845 Polk sent which envoy to Mexico to buy New Mexico and California?

President Herrera refused to receive him; Polk called the snub an "ample cause of war".

Which April 1846 skirmish prompted Polk's war message to Congress?

Polk told Congress Mexico had "shed American blood on the American soil"; the Senate vote was 40–2.

What was the first major engagement of the Mexican–American War?

Taylor's troops lost only four dead against hundreds of Mexican casualties, and routed Arista's army again the next day.

Which Whig congressman introduced the "exact spot" resolutions challenging Polk?

The resolutions demanded Polk identify exactly where American blood had been shed; the House refused to consider them.

Which general landed at Veracruz in 1847 and went on to capture Mexico City?

Polk and Scott disliked each other; the president feared giving a Whig general wartime glory.

Which general, a hero of Buena Vista, succeeded Polk as president?

Polk thought Taylor had poor judgment but still hosted him at a gala White House dinner before the inauguration.

Which 1846 amendment sought to ban slavery in land bought from Mexico?

It passed the House attached to Polk's $2 million appropriation but died in the Senate, and cost Democrats the House in 1846.

Who was Polk's Secretary of State?

Polk wanted no presidential hopefuls in his cabinet but made an exception for the ambitious Pennsylvanian.

Polk's 1846 tariff cut bore the name of which Treasury Secretary?

The bill needed the vice president's tie-breaking Senate vote and substantially undid the Whig Tariff of 1842.

In what year did Polk sign the Independent Treasury Act?

The system kept federal funds in the Treasury and sub-treasuries rather than banks, and lasted until the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

How old was Polk at his inauguration, making him the youngest president to that point?

He took office on March 4, 1845, in a steady rain, and referred to "28 states" to signal Texas was already in.

Polk's 1845 inauguration was the first to be reported by what means?

It was also the first inauguration shown in a newspaper illustration, in The Illustrated London News.

Polk died in June 1849, most likely of which disease?

He had dodged the disease on a riverboat tour home, where several fellow passengers died of it.

How many days did Polk live after leaving office, the shortest such retirement?

At 53 he also had the shortest lifespan of any president who was not assassinated.

What was the maiden name of Polk's wife, Sarah?

Unusually well educated for a frontier woman, she helped write his speeches and advised on policy.

Polk's oratory earned him which nickname?

He earned it in his first 1823 campaign, where he also provided voters with alcoholic refreshments at the polls.

Polk graduated with honors from which school in 1818?

He was president of its Dialectic Society, and in one speech accused Alexander Hamilton of flirting with monarchy.

Polk's college roommate later became the first governor of which state?

William Dunn Moseley took office in 1845, the same year his old roommate entered the White House.

Under which renowned trial attorney did Polk study law after college?

Polk later bought Grundy's former house, which became Polk Place, where he died.

Polk's first major House speech in 1826 urged abolishing what?

He wanted presidents elected by popular vote, still bitter at the "Corrupt Bargain" that put John Quincy Adams in office.

Polk's Mississippi plantation, worked by enslaved people, grew which crop?

He ran it largely as an absentee owner and reinvested its profits in buying more enslaved people while president.

The 1844 "Roorback" forgery smeared Polk by claiming he had done what?

It came from a fictional travel book reprinted as fact; one historian thinks it still cost Polk Ohio.

In which city was the 1844 Democratic convention that nominated Polk held?

Polk stayed home in Columbia throughout; word of his nomination reached him by letter and newspaper on June 6.

How much did Polk authorize offering Spain for Cuba in 1848?

Spain, still profiting from sugar, rum and tobacco, said no; Polk also refused to back a filibuster invasion of the island.

The Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty guaranteed New Granada's sovereignty over what?

It was Washington's only alliance of the 19th century and paved the way for the Panama Railway and, much later, the canal.

Which Polk Supreme Court appointee wrote a concurrence in Dred Scott v. Sandford?

Grier served until 1870; Polk's first nominee for the seat had been rejected by the Senate amid Pennsylvania feuding.

Which historian served as Polk's Navy Secretary before becoming minister to Britain?

Bancroft had placed Polk's name before the 1844 convention after plotting with Gideon Pillow between ballots.

Polk reluctantly signed a bill creating which new executive body on March 3, 1849?

He worried it would let the federal government usurp state power over public lands, but signed anyway.

In which city did Polk die?

His funeral was at McKendree Methodist Church; his remains have since been moved twice.

On his deathbed Polk was baptized into which church?

His mother arrived with her Presbyterian clergyman, but Polk chose the church he had long admired.

Who led settlers in the Bear Flag Revolt against the Mexican garrison at Sonoma?

A later feud between Frémont and Kearny cost Polk the support of Frémont's father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton.

Sam Houston called Polk "a victim of the use of water as a beverage" — why?

Polk was also a famously grim workaholic who spent ten to twelve hours a day at his desk.

Texas joined the Union in December 1845 as which numbered state?

Mexico had already broken off relations when Congress passed the annexation resolution that March.

How many electoral votes did Polk win in 1844?

He won despite losing both his birth state and his home state, a first for a president-elect.

Which Liberty Party candidate drew enough New York votes to cost Clay the 1844 election?

Birney's New York total exceeded Polk's margin there; had Clay carried the state he would have won.

Polk's first case as a lawyer, settled for a one-dollar fine, defended whom?

Samuel Polk faced a public fighting charge; the son built a thriving practice on Panic of 1819 cases afterward.