The leader acquired California and resolved a territory dispute. A Tampa street bears his name.
By MICHAEL CANNING
Published February 6, 2004
America blossomed in many ways during James Polk's presidency.
The nation made its greatest territorial gains. Settlers forged the Oregon Trail toward the Pacific Coast. The California gold rush started, its "forty-niners" singing Stephen Foster's Oh! Susanna. Writers, such as Emerson, Poe, Thoreau and Longfellow, propagated the "Golden Age of American Letters."
And, in Tampa, a street was named after him in 1847.
Polk was born to Irish immigrants in 1795 near Pineville, N.C. His family moved to Tennessee in 1806. Polk later returned to his home state to study at the University of North Carolina, where he graduated in 1818 at the top of his class.
Polk returned to Tennessee to practice law but soon got involved with local politics and the Democratic Party. In 1823, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. During his term, he supported Andrew Jackson's presidential bid.
In 1824, Polk married Sarah Childress, the daughter of a wealthy country merchant. The couple had no children.
The following year, Polk was elected to the first of seven consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jackson persuaded Polk to run for governor of Tennessee in 1839. Polk was successful and, during his inaugural address, announced his support of slavery and opposition of a centralized government in Washington.
Polk lost his re-election bid in 1841 and was defeated again in 1843. The following year, he ran for president, beating U.S. Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky by 40,000 votes. He established four major goals for his presidency, all of which would be achieved: reduce the tariff; re-establish an independent treasury; resolve the Oregon Territory boundary dispute with Great Britain; and acquire California.
Polk kept his campaign promise of not seeking re-election in 1849. He returned to his home in Nashville, Tenn., where he contracted cholera. He died June 15, 1849, at age 53.
Two years earlier, Polk Street was among the first batch of Tampa's streets to be platted.
- Source: Tampa Bay History Center, World Book Encyclopedia.
