Today is the only day of the year, where not one, but TWO president's have a birthday. I really toyed with the idea of trying to celebrate two on one day, but I just didn't think the boys would retain all that much if I did that. So, we went with the oldest first: James Knox Polk! And tomorrow, we will celebrate Warren Harding.
Meet Samuel and Jane Polk. He's a successful farmer, and a slaveholder. She's the daughter of James Knox a Revolutionary War hero, and a direct descendant of the founder of the Presbyterian Church.
On November 2, 1795, somewhere in North Carolina (most likely a log cabin), Jane has her first child, a son they name after her father: James nox Polk.
He would be the oldest of ten kids.
In his childhood, the family, the farm, and the slaves all moved from North Carolina to Tennessee.
Jmes spent his childhood in a tidy, well organized being taught by tutors and his stern, strict Presbyterian mother, Jane.
He was a pretty weak and sickly child, who suffered from gallstones. When he was 17, he had them surgically removed WITHOUT ANY ANESTHESIA, or PAIN KILLERS.
And that's about all we know about James Polk as a kid. Trust me, finding information on his childhood, rivaled that of Millard Fillmore. Even though he had no formal schooling, he was quite advanced in reading, writing, and math because his mother hired tutors. When he was 21 he headed off to college at the University of North Carolina. Fun fact about his roommate...
...he was William Dunn Mosley, the first governor of Florida (when it became a state there were other governors of the territory of Florida. For a hot minute Andrew Jackson was the first military governor of the state of Florida!)
He graduated with honors in two years, and became a lawyer. From there he started his own successful law practice.
When James was 19, he met a 12 year old Sarah Childress, while they both had the same tutor. Eventually (years down the road so it's a bit less creepy), they got married. Sarah was a smarty pants, being extremely well educated for the time. She avidly supported her husband's political career, and would often help him write speeches and letters.
Plus, Andrew Jackson thought she was "pretty, wealthy, ambitious, and intelligent," and urged James to marry her.
The couple never did have any kids, joining George Washington, and James Buchanan in the no kids club. (Andrew Jackson had adopted children, but no biological ones. And we'll talk about Warren Harding tomorrow).
James's whole life he lacked any sort of physical strength. He was always kind of sick and weakly. But what he lacked in physical strength, he made up for in obsession with not being held back by his lack of physical strength. As a result of his early physical inferiority, he drove himself ruthlessly, exploiting abilities and energies he did possess to an extent few men could equal.
Translation: Polk would find what he was good at, and he would be the BEST at it. As, it turns out, what he was good at, was politics.
He was a good speaker (a skill he learned being on the debate club at college), and he used that to end up on the Tennessee state legislature. He was also a supporter of Andrew Jackson.So much so, people called him "Young Hickory" (Jackson was known as "Old Hickory"). Even though he had Andrew Jackson for a mentor, the two were not exactly one in the same.
Polk was an introvert, and terrible in social situations. He didn't really have any friends, and was so obsessed with politics, he never really got good at anything else. (He also wasn't the dueler his mentor was, even if a challenge was thrown down and his honor was insulted, Polk refused to duel).
For the next 14 years, Polk served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He still didn't have any friends, but he was well respected, and he was eventually elected as Speaker of the House. (He's the only president to hold this office).
During that time he supported President Jackson's attack on the Bank of the United States, and argued in favor of Westward Expansion.
He eventually left the house to become governor of Tennessee.
By now, John Tyler was president, and being a president without a party, the Whigs weren't going to nominate him.
Instead, they went with our buddy, Henry Clay.
Many people expected it would be a Martin Van Buren (back from his loss to William Henry Harrison) to get the Democratic nomination. I mean, the Democrats had a good shot, Henry Clay was a perpetual loser for the Whigs as far as the presidency was concerned.
But, Andrew Jackson was not endorsing his former Veep, Van Buren, instead he was endorsing Polk for the presidency. And, I mean, what Andrew Jackson wants, Andrew Jackson gets. (Unless of course were talking about him wanting to be the sixth president of the United States).
Polk's introverted behavior and lack of popularity made him the first ever dark horse candidate. I mean nobody but James Polk and Andre Jackson though Polk was a good candidate (the New York Harold said "A more ridiculous candidate was never put forth by any other party.")
In fact, his nomination was the first bit of news ever reported via telegraph, and listeners were so surprised that assumed the new invention must be broken.
The Whigs ran with the slogan "What do you think of Polk?"....
.....a play on the fact that nobody knew who he was.
Polk meanwhile ran on the annexation (takeover, conquest... whatever) of Texas. Henry Clay was against it.
Polk was elected in a nail biter. In the end he lost his home state of Tennessee, but won New York and the election, in part thanks to a third party candidate taking some votes from Henry Clay. (If you're wondering who to thank, it's abolitionist James Birney, who took 15,000 votes in New York that likely would have gone to Clay).
James Knox Polk was 49 years old when he became the 11th president of the United States. At the time, he was the youngest to hold the office (To date, 8 presidents have been younger than him: Teddy, JFK, Clinton, Grant, Obama, Cleveland, Pierce, and Garfield).
Sarah, meanwhile was an effective, respected, influential first lady. She was her husband's closest adviser. But, the Polk White House was much more about getting things done than throwing parties. The Polk White House was a bit of a kill-joy.
The first couple scratched hard liquor, music, dancing and even food from public receptions, which were held during the week early in the afternoon. My theory: Polk wasn't a people person and knew throwing lame parties would keep the people away. Good move, Polk, good move.
On the rare occasion wine or cider was served, Polk would just have coffee or water. People often said of him "The only thing wrong with Polk, is that he drinks too much water."
With a perpetual sneer at the social calendar, the no-nonsense Polk chained himself to his desk as much as possible. I can't tell you about the cool things he did in the White House. He hardly ever took a day off. There was no putting greens installed, no sliding down stairs on cookie sheets, and no swimming naked in the Potomic. There was just work, work, and more work. (You'll have to check out his quote later). He was described even by his enemies as "the hardest working man in Washington."
Here's the thing about Polk, just like nobody knew who he was before he entered the race for president, almost everyone since has completely forgotten about him. Which is a tragedy. Polk is one of the most underrated president's ever. The most important thing you need to know about Polk is that he was a man who accomplished what he sent out to do, no matter what.
He is literally the only president who knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got into office, exactly how he would do it, and exactly how long it would take. When he took office he made a list of four very lofty goals what he was going to accomplish before his time was up. His to-do list was impressive enough, and he decided to do it with the political equivalent of one hand tied behind his back saying "Oh, and by the way, I'm going to do it all in one term."
One and two were pretty easy on his list in comparison, especially since he had a Democratic house and Senate during his term.
It was 3 and 4 that would take more work.
He had every intention of expanding the boarders of the U.S. all the way to the Pacific Ocean. and he needed to settle the long ongoing dispute with Britain over the Oregon Territory.
You see, thanks to a John O'Sullivan published article claiming it was America's "Manifest Destiny" to claim the North American continent for itself, Americans had their rallying cry for gaining new land by annexing Texas, waging war against Mexico, and claiming Native American territories.
And nobody was a bigger supporter of the idea of "Manifest Destiny" than James K. Polk. I mean, he had the t-shirt for god sakes. In his mind, the spread of American institutions and culture, promised to uplift all of humanity. America had the god given right to extend from "Sea to shining sea".
He settled the dispute with the British, and the lines were drawn creating the current U.S/Canadian boarder. Doing it without a war gave him street cred as a serious negotiator and number 3 was checked off his list.
Last, but not least, he had one thing left to do: Get California, and New Mexico from Mexico.
He tried to buy the territories from Mexico, but that just made the Mexican Government angry...
...when Polk granted Texas statehood, they got even more ticked off...
...and tensions mounted at the boarder. It wasn't long before the Mexican-American War broke out.
Critics called the war "Mr. Polk's War". Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But, the dude only had one term to shut this down and get to his last goal. He bolstered the size of the army from 7,500 troops to 100,000 with volunteers.
The brilliant leadership of one, Zachary Taylor, and the U.S. superior weaponry (Thousands of Colt revolvers were issued to the troops), America won the war fairly quickly, as far as wars go anyway.
Soldiers like Sam Grant and Robert E. Lee used the war to hone their skills they would later use in the Civil War.
The war was not without it's casualties. 1,700 soldiers died in action, and another 11,000 died of disease. Among those was Henry Clay's son. So, that's kind of sad, given that he was against the annexation and war in the first place.
With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States gained control of the land that eventually became California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico for the small price of $15 million.
In all, Polk added 1.2 million square miles of land to the Unites States, adding all or part of 11 current states. It was the most land acquired since the Louisiana Purchase.
And with that, his four goals were accomplished, he did everything he came there to do. A feat only Polk can claim. There's not a single other president in history that can boast a similar record.
And he even made time for a few other things too. He set national Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November)....
....during his presidency postage stamps were put into production for the first time...
...the Naval Academy (Jimmy Carter says thank you!) was established...
...the Smithsonian Institution was established...
...and the Department of the Interior was created.
Oh, and Wisconsin and Iowa (not pictured) joined the Union!
With his to-do list checked off in less than four years (just like he said), Polk looked around at his accomplishments and said "nah, I'm good, pretty much nailed it one." and chose not to seek a second term. So he dropped the mic, and he was out. Fun fact: He is the first president ever not to seek re-election.
Making all of his accomplishments even more impressive, Polk did it all on his own. He was a Lone Wolf, who embraced the phase "if you want something right, you've got to do it yourself" more than anyone else in history.
After his presidency, he and Sarah went back home to Tennessee, where he had the shortest post-presidency to date.
Some say he worked himself to death (others say the chronic diarrhea killed him), but only three months out of the presidency, Polk was dead. He was only 43. Sarah lived another 40 years. He's buried on a hill in front of the Tennessee State Capitol. Peyton and I have been there, it's really very lovely.
Not too many people remember Polk, and maybe that's the way he would have liked it. But, he is considered the best of the Forgotten presidents. He was the strongest president from Jackson to Lincoln, and the last of the good post civil war presidents. He usually ranks somewhere just outside the top 10.
And really, if you're looking for a legacy for Polk, just look at a map. His determination and perseverance is why America today is from "Sea to shining sea", and not " from sea to wherever Great Britain or Mexico say stop".
...and owl mail...
...we added our props to our James Knox Polk tombstone
His famous, work-aholic, quote...
...biggest presidential issues...
... and fun facts (excuse the typos and the double print, I just barely got Harding and Polk done in time).
For his historical hashtag, he was tweeting and Andrew Jackson.
We made birthday cards...
... and our activity is a two parter in honor of Warren Harding and James Polk being birthday twins! We're all finding one of our birthday twins, and filling out a sheet about them.
I, of course, share my birthday with Herbert Hoover, and about nobody else that's awesome...there's some Kardashian//Jenner or something.
Asa shares his with Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Aretha Franklin.
Calib shares his with both Morgan Freeman and Marilyn Monroe.
Peyton had just a bunch of awful people to choose from (people like Ashley Tisdale and Lindsay Lohan, blah), but he does share a birthday with Thurgood Marshall.
And Hayden has a ton of cool people born on his birthday: James Spader, Charles Dickons, and Steven Stamkos.
I'll fill you in tomorrow with who they picked when they have to present them.
It's hard to find exactly what James Polk was into food wise. All I could come up with was that he was a fan of corn pone, but we've had very similar things, and nobody was a fan. Instead, dinner was a nod to the fact that the Polk's (despite their non-partying ways) was the first to serve an official White House Thanksgiving dinner.
Next Up: I'll be back here tomorrow with Warren Harding!
No comments:
Post a Comment