Polk Quotes

“John Quincy Adams was convinced that Polk's election meant the end of the civilized world”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion,” Lincoln lectured Herndon, “and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“No President who performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“The sentiment of nativism, decidedly against foreign-born citizens and frequently anti-Catholic, had recently manifested itself in the American Republican party,”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“The agitation of the slavery question is mischievous and wicked, and proceeds from no patriotic motive by its authors,” Polk wrote in late December 1848.”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“He paused to write a five-thousand-word rebuttal.”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

“If the government was ever to be destroyed, Polk concluded, it would be by “the alluring and corrupting influence of executive patronage.”
― Walter R. Borneman, Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America