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Correspondence of James K. Polk - Vol 14, April 1848-June 1849 (Hardcover)
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Correspondence of James K. Polk - Vol 14, April 1848-June 1849 (Hardcover)
Series: Correspondence of James K. Polk
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The final volume of the Correspondence of James K. Polk documents
the end of a presidency and the end of a life. With the Mexican War
over, Polk focused on integrating new lands into the country,
resolving discord over slavery, and planning for a retirement that
proved all too short. His letters of April 1848 to June 1849 reveal
his and his contemporaries' thoughts on a nation racing from an
international conflict toward a civil war. Having won half of
Mexico's land, Polk wanted to create territorial or state
governments for New Mexico and California. He chafed under
Congress's inability to agree on whether to permit slavery there.
Clashes in New Mexico, Oregon, and YucatAn, meanwhile, involved
Americans in further violence. Like many Americans, Polk welcomed
the republican revolutions that swept Europe. But he soon learned
that conservative armies were reversing those gains. From here at
home, he received petitions by Native Americans to remedy ill
treatment by an administration intent on their removal. Though he
refused to seek reelection, Polk closely followed the presidential
campaign of 1848. Stung by the victory of Zachary Taylor, one of
his chief generals and now a leading Whig, he still happily left
the White House for his retirement in Nashville. In his new mansion
he hoped to rest and socialize while continuing to profit from the
labor of slaves on his Mississippi plantation. His voyage home,
alas, took Polk through a US entry point of a worldwide cholera
pandemic. He arrived in Tennessee ill and died only three months
after leaving office. Others were left to mourn the
fifty-three-year-old, to assess his legacy, and to deal with the
consequences of his actions. Right to the end, Polk corresponded
with diverse men and women. This volume includes letters by future
presidents, to a past first lady, and by the newly installed
Vicaire of the German Empire. It includes letters by pro-annexation
Cubans, to India's poet laureate, and by a planter who would become
one of the earliest female physicians. Presented here with full
annotation, they illuminate politics, diplomacy, economy, and
culture. This volume concludes a six-decade-long project to render
accessible key primary sources in US history. From slave escapes to
presidential lies and from gas lighting to temperance reform, the
letters herein expose controversy and change at the end of one of
America's most consequential presidencies.
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