The Presidency of James K. Polk

by Paul H. Bergeron

James K. Polk was one of the strongest and most active presidents ever to occupy the office. In the nineteenth century only Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln matched his overall leadership and domination of national government. Bergeron's crisp, insightful narrative shows how and why Polk achieved such stature and yet failed to attract the kind of popular support or retrospective recognition granted other presidential luminaries.

A native of North Carolina, Polk prepared for the presidency by honing his leadership skills as a seven-term congressman, speaker of the house, and governor of Tennessee. Bergeron's summary and analysis of those years shed light on the foundations of the presidency that followed. He provides fresh new perspectives on Polk's relationship with his cabinet, his skirmishes with Congress over domestic economic legislation, and the curse of presidential patronage.

But perhaps the most fascinating portions of this study are devoted to Polk's role as the western expansionist. By the end of his term, the United States had acquired enormous territories in the Southwest and far West. Bergeron demonstrates that Polk adroitly used both war and diplomacy to acquire and protect these lands. When the annexation of Texas led to the outbreak of war with Mexico, Polk was forced to become commander-in-chief of the American forces. In contrast, the potentially explosive dispute with Great Britain over Oregon's borders was settled through purely diplomatic means. Norman A. Graebner, in America's Top Ten Presidents, declares, "Polk's achievements in diplomacy were among the most remarkable in American history."

Drawing upon a careful review of the extensive literature on our eleventh president, as well as Polk's personal diary, Bergeron has written a significant and balanced reassessment of the Polk presidency. In the process, he has also created a revealing portrait of a complex man who led the nation with imperial determination tempered with compassion, generosity, and even humor.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History

328 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1987

About the author

A specialist in 19th-century U.S. history, Paul Bergeron is professor emeritus of history at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he has regional specialties in both Southern history and Tennessee history.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best books in the American Presidency series fill a gap in the president’s story, setting aside the frills of a full-scale biography in order to provide a studious, straightforward recounting of the president’s administration.

There aren’t a whole lot of frills to James K. Polk’s story, though, so most books about him cover his administration quite thoroughly. What this book does differently, then, is add a lot of minutiae and mundanities, stirs it all up, and the result is something of an uneven mix of material.

I thought the preface setting up Polk’s presidency and complicated legacy was quite good. Then I flipped to the end notes to read Bergeron’s note that “I am relying here and elsewhere in my Preface upon the observations made by Charles A. McCoy in his book ‘Polk and the Presidency’.” Well, since I liked the preface, maybe I should have read McCoy’s book then.

As it turns out, Bergeron’s book is unapologetically, almost defiantly, based on secondary sources, in a way I haven't quite seen before. "I have depended heavily upon the scholars who have already written about Polk,” he explains. “In writing this study of Polk's presidency it was not my purpose to investigate collections of primary materials." Of Polk's own papers, he admits that "I have consulted that collection only sparingly."

So it’s a synthetic work, fine. But after a perfunctory first chapter on the era and Polk's background, the thematically-organized book next goes on to present an out-of-place chapter on Polk’s Cabinet, including descriptions of the political and geographic considerations that went into choosing each member, and the debates and discussions the Cabinet had throughout Polk's term on various issues that haven't even been fully described in the book yet. The chapter also includes oddly analytical rankings of the number, and percentage of times in relation to each other, that each secretary participated in Cabinet discussions, came to call on Polk individually, were in agreement with him on a policy matter, and even paid social visits with him. This strangely-constructed chapter belonged much later in the book, if at all.

The next chapter on the annexation of Texas claims that "most southerners... desired the Texas region in order to assure the expansion of slavery and thereby guarantee its preservation,” which is a rather simplistic and unsupported generalization. "As with most momentous developments,” Bergeron concludes, “the Texas story had a mixture of rationales in its background" - but he fails to explore or even mention most of those other rationales.

In the next chapter, the Mexican-American War just kind of starts, after General Taylor’s troops are attacked - there’s no exploration of how exactly it happened or what responsibility Polk may have had for provoking it

The chapter on the Oregon boundary dispute appears next and seems out of place, after the entirety of the Mexican-American War is recounted. Subsequent chapters delve into less consequential matters like patronage, and relations with the press and Congress, followed by an actually interesting chapter on everyday life in the White House, albeit one that’s adapted almost entirely from Polk’s published diary entries.

The book ends with the familiar conclusion that Polk had a consequential but controversial presidency, but doesn’t really dig much deeper than that. It’s a decent enough overview of Polk’s presidency, if you chop out a few less important chapters. But it’s ultimately disappointing, given that some of the other books in this series are much more thorough and thoughtful. A consequential but controversial presidency like Polk’s deserves more serious study than this.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking at the structure of the United States in the twenty-first century, your first impression of the presidency of James Polk would be that he should be ranked in the top five presidents of all time. In the short span of his single term in office, Texas was annexed, Mexico defeated in war and the entire American southwest minus the relatively tiny Gadsden purchase annexed and a treaty splitting the Oregon territory between the United States and Great Britain finalized. The area taken from Mexico after their defeat alone is 2/5 of the territory of the continental United States. However, while the Louisiana Purchase under Thomas Jefferson is consistently mentioned in classes in American history, Polk, the architect of the greatest expansion, is rarely mentioned.
Part of this is Polk’s own personality, as he is commonly portrayed as a humorless man who seemed aloof from his political peers. His time in office is also considered to be the point where the sectional differences that led to the civil war began in earnest. Both are mentioned and downplayed in this book. While he personally could have been much more sociable, given the strong political personalities of that time, it is unlikely that it would have made a difference. Bergeron is quite correct in emphasizing the strained relationships that Polk had with people like former president John Quincy Adams, and congressmen Henry Clay and John Calhoun. These were powerful men who represented deeply held sectional interests and who had dramatically different visions for the future of the country.
Given the force of the western expansion of the United States, it was inevitable that the only thing that could stop it was the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, the war with Mexico was probably an historical inevitability and once the territory was acquired, it was also inevitable that the question of slavery in that territory would be raised. Therefore, the argument that Polk’s policies led to the great break between the states is nonsense. Bergeron takes a position against this nonsense, but it is not made as forcefully as it should have been.
One point about Polk that was not made and that should have been included deals with the comments of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. In 1848, Lincoln rose in the House of Representatives and delivered a fiery speech against Polk. In it, he accused Polk of being a liar, abusing his power as president and assuming the role of a dictator. As he was slowly dying, Grant, who was an officer in the American army during the war with Mexico, said Polk forced the United States into an unholy war against Mexico. He considered the destruction of the civil war to be “God’s punishment for Polk’s sin.” Neither argument was necessarily correct, but their status as being involved in the war and president means that they should have been mentioned.
I consider this book to be an honest appraisal of the presidency of James Polk and first read it over five years ago. I recently made the choice to read it again because it is a case where a successful war planted the seeds for widespread destruction twenty years later. At the time I am writing this review, the United States is one year into the invasion of Iraq, a war that has generated rhetoric similar to that of Lincoln’s. Many experts on the Arab world have argued that a victory now may lead to a much greater disaster later. I don’t quite agree with that, but certainly consider it a possibility. Without question, like the presidency of Polk, that of George W. Bush will largely be measured by the consequences of an aggressive war launched despite a great deal of opposition and dubious points of justification.

This review also appears on Amazon

[Duane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the 1991 edition by The Easton Press

[Lori Amato]

Ugh... this was the pits for me.

[Bob Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives reader a good look into how the Polk presidency worked, and how Polk util9ized his cabinet members.