The man who was arguably the most handsome US President also happens to be one of the few occupiers of the Oval Office to have a really catchy song written about him by They Might be Giants. That man was the 11th President, James K. Polk. Such was Polk’s physical attractiveness that he was considered the George Clooney of Tennessee politics, sweeping his way through the best looking and most available of that state’s female population. In fact, James K. Polk was such a dedicated ladies’ man that it has been said the single most important event of his life was when he was reprimanded by his mentor, Andrew Jackson, who advised him to “Settle down as a sober married man” if he really had any aspirations in national politics.
Andrew Jackson, of course, was nicknamed Old Hickory. Not quite as well known is that James K. Polk received the nickname Young Hickory. Polk is perhaps most well known for the fact that he is the only President to outline a set of goals in his first term and leave office having accomplished all of them. Not that Polk left the White House a popular man. Accomplishment is one thing; making other politicians happy is something else entirely. At the top of his list was lowering tariffs. He worked alongside his Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker to come up with a radical tariff legislation that reduced the rate from 32% to 25%. Known as the Walker Tariff of 1846, what Polk accomplished with this bill was something that none of us can even imagine Bush doing: boosting revenue on top of a boom economy. Polk in this sense may be seen as the anti-Bush.
Another top-level Polk initiative was to reinvent Alexander Hamilton’s banking system which had been nearly devastated by the disastrous policies of the Whigs in 1841. What Polk managed through cajolery and his own tenacious efforts was to restore the national treasury and avert a possible depression that would have followed hard upon those boom times.
Next on Polk’s list of Presidential things to do involved the expansion of the West and the indulgence of the foundational concept of Manifest Destiny. Polk saw the vital interest to the country of acquiring California and setting once and for all the longstanding dispute over Oregon. The Oregon issue had been a huge promise of the Democrats in the north during the election of 1844. Following the annexation of Texas, however, many Democrats in the south no longer saw the vitality as brimming with necessity. You may have heard the phrase “54-40 or Fight” and this somewhat vague and confounding rallying cry (it certainly doesn’t have quite the ring of Remember the Alamo!) has to do with settlement compromise over Oregon. The dispute, of course, was with England and there was great fear that the inability to reach an adequate compromise acceptable to both sides would result in tremendous spillage. Ultimately, the way that James K. Polk settled the dispute resulted in neither the 54-40 wanted nor the fight expected. Instead, what Polk accomplished, much to the consternation of his political enemies and doubtlessly what today’s Republicans would consider a sign of weakness, was to avoid a long and bloody war while still attaining the goal of expanding the borders of the country.
Polk was also able to do this in California. Polk was especially keen to pluck California out of the hands of Mexico, but to do so on a cash basis seemed highly unlikely in the face Mexico’s overriding suspicion of America’s increasing imperialist aims. As if those concerns weren’t enough, Polk was anxious about the rumors (since disproved) that England had their sights set on California either through purchase or seizure. That would have been in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine, of course, and Polk saw no way around a war if it ever came to that. In desperation, Polk sent an envoy named John Slidell to Mexico City in 1845. Slidell was supposed to offer 25 million dollars to the Mexicans, but he was notoriously snubbed. A series of events occurred that many read as warmongering on Polk’s part, while others recognize that precarious circumstances compounded by bad communication on all sides had created a situation where waiting too long to show force could have resulted in yet another confrontation with powerful Britain. The result was a successful war against Mexico and a peace treaty that resulted in achieving Polk’s dreams of California.
James K. Polk set a standard of success for himself upon winning the Presidency and used methods both foul and fair to achieve them. Nonetheless, it must be noted that no other President accomplished every major goal he set for himself in his first term. Another thing that sets Polk apart is that he gave himself just one term to realize his goals; his success allowed him to walk away after just one single term and not look back. Not that he had much time; he would be dead just three months later.
