The 11th U.S. President

 

James Polk

Born: November 2, 1795

Died: June 15, 1849

Term in Office: 1845-1849

 

We Californians have this guy largely to thank for our state's addition to the Union. Though there are no official records of the meeting, Polk called the already famous surveyor and "Pathfinder" John C. Frémont to the White House to give his rather obtuse orders to head to the Pacific coast under the guise of a surveying mission to rouse the U.S. citizens living in Alta California into revolt against Mexico, under whose flag and shaky rule the sunny piece of territory existed.

Polk had campaigned with the goal of realizing the manifest destiny of a country that was meant to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At the same time Frémont was dispatched to California, talks and actions were in place to bring Texas under U.S. rule as well. Though money was offered, war with Mexico was the result. It was a conflict that was debated in the halls of Congress, with a young Congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln in vocal opposition. "For myself," Ulysses S. Grant, who served as a young army lieutenant for the fight, wrote in his biography, "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."

 

[Not to condone Russia's actions in Ukraine these past few months, but we have a history of throwing stones while living in a glass house. As a country, historically, we have wanted things, and we have just taken them. And we have justified the taking.]

 

Enough of that. How about a couple of notes about the subject of this post: James Polk? 

 

Polk was a workaholic, putting in twelve hours a day while he was president, seven days a week. He took only 27 days off in his four-year term.

 

He and his wife Sarah were married 25 years but had no children; the only presidential couple not to have children while they were together. A surgery Polk had when he was 17 may have left him sterile.

 

Polk died at the age of 53 from cholera, just 3 months after leaving the White House, making his the shortest retirement of any U.S. president.

 

Thanks to www.americanheritage.com and www.discoverwalks.com for some info contained herein.

 

Peace to all, and don't take what's not yours.