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Volume 6 in the collected messages and papers of the Presidents, as
prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing, of
the House and Senate.
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 - June 15, 1849) was the 11th
President of the United States (1845-1849).Polk served as the 17th
Speaker of the House of Representatives (1835-1839) and Governor of
Tennessee (1839-1841). Polk was the surprise (dark horse) candidate
for president in 1844, defeating Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party
by promising to invade and annex Texas.
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
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Title: History of the Polk Administration.Publisher: British
Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the
national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's
largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all
known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound
recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its
collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial
additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating
back as far as 300 BC.The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes
books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied
collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view
of the world. Topics include health, education, economics,
agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and
industry, mining, penal policy, and social order. ++++The below
data was compiled from various identification fields in the
bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an
additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++
British Library Chase, Lucien Bonaparte; Polk, James K.; 1850. 512
p.; 8 . 9603.d.15.
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.
In the second half of 1845 the focus of Polk's correspondence
shifted from those issues relating to the formation of his
administration and distribution of part patronage to those that
would give shape and consequence to his presidency: the admission
of Texas, preparation for its defense, restoration of diplomatic
relations with Mexico, and termination of joint occupancy of the
Oregon Country. For the most part the incoming letters tended to
urge rather more militancy on the Texas and Oregon questions than
Polk would adopt, and notions of national destiny registered a
singular theme of buoyant confidence in taking on both Mexico and
Great Britain if military action should be required. President Polk
and Secretary of State James Buchanan succeeded in both using and
controlling the surge of nationalism that heightened expectations
for expansion westward.
Polk and Buchanan agreed on the importance of reestablishing
diplomatic relations with Mexico, but the President chose to take a
personal hand in managing the selection and instruction of John
Slidell, whose departure for Vera Cruz would not be made public
until he had arrived in Mexico. Polk wanted to give the fledgling
Mexican administration of Jose Joaquin Herrera a chance to compose
Mexico's differences with Washington free of contrary pressures
from Great Britain and France; and he fully understood the price
that Herrara might pay for a peaceful settlement of the Texas
question. If Mexico required more than $6 million for the purchase
of their two most northern provinces, as provided in his
instructions, Slidell might agree to any reasonable additional
sum.
Slidell's mission probably never had much chance of success, for
without control of his military the Herrara administration could
neither give up its claim to Texas nor overcome British opposition
to the sale of New Mexico and Upper California. Within but a few
days of Slidell's arrival in the Mexican capital, Mariano Paredes y
Argilla organized a military coup, put the Herrera government to
flight, and on January 2, 1846, declared himself interim of
president of Mexico.
Polk left on the table his predecessor's initiative to divide the
Oregon Country at the 49th parallel with all of Vancouver Island
going to the British. The summary rejection of that offer by the
British minister to Washington, Richard Packenham, so angered Polk
that on August 30th he formally withdrew all prior offers to settle
the dispute. The British foreign secretary, Lord Aberdeen,
disavowed and assured the U.S. minister to Britain, Louis McLane,
that no ultimatum had been sanctioned by his government. Buchanan
tried in vain to soften Polk's decision to initiate further
negotiations, but he had determined to give the required one year
advance notice prior to abrogating the treaty of joint occupancy.
Accordingly, in his First Annual Message to Congress Polk asked for
a joint resolution terminating Oregon agreements with Great
Britain. Polk received high praise for his Message and its hard
line on Texas and Oregon.
In addition to the texts, briefs, and annotations, the editors
have calendared all of the documents for the last six months of
1845. Entries for unpublished letters include documents' dates,
addresses, classifications, repositories, and precis.
The Polk Project is sponsored by the University of Tennessee and
assisted by grants from the National Historical Publications and
Records Commission, the Nations Endowment for the Humantines, and
the Tennessee Historical Commission.
The Authors:
Wayne Cutler is research professor of history at the University of
Tennessee. He earned his bachelor's degree at Lamar University and
his master's and doctor's degrees and University of Texas at
Austin. Professor Cutler became director of the Polk Project in
1975, served as associate editor in the fourth volume of the
correspondence, and headed the editorial team in the preparation of
the series' fifth and subsequent volumes. He began his professional
career in 1966 as an editorial associate of the Southwestern
Historic Quarterly and moved to the assistant editorship of the
Henry Clay Project in 1970.
James L. Rogers II, the Project's associate editor from 1995 until
2002, received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the
University of Louisiana at Monroe and his doctor's degree from the
University of Tennessee. He joined the Polk staff in 1991 as
graduate research assistant and became associate editor following
completion of the series' ninth volume.
In the second half of 1845 the focus of Polk's correspondence
shifted from those issues relating, to the formation of his
administration and distribution of party patronage to those that
would give shape and consequence to his presidency: the admission
of Texas, preparation for its defense, restoration of diplomatic
relations with Mexico, and termination of joint occupancy of the
Oregon Country. In addition to the texts, briefs, and annotations,
the editors have calendared all of the documents for the last six
months of 1845. Entries for unpublished letters include the
documents' dates, addressees, classifications, repositories, and
precis. The Polk Project is sponsored by the University of
Tennessee and assisted by grants from the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, and the Tennessee Historical Commission.
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