(November 2, 1795–June 15, 1849), was the 11th President of the United States, 1845–49, won the Mexican War against Santa Anna, 1848, which resulted in California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming being added to the Union; resolved dispute with Great Britain, 1846, fixing the Oregon border at the 49th parallel; Governor of Tennessee, 1839–41; U.S. Representative, 1824–39, being Speaker of the House, 1835–39; married Sarah Childress, 1824; member of the Tennessee Legislature, 1823–25; admitted to the bar, 1820; and graduated from the University of North Carolina, 1818.
On Tuesday, March 4, 1845, in his Inaugural Address, President James Knox Polk stated:
In assuming responsibilities so vast, I fervently invoke the aid of that Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are the destinies of nations and of men to guard this Heaven-favored land against the mischiefs which without His guidance might arise from an unwise public policy. With a firm reliance upon the wisdom of Omnipotence to sustain and direct me in the path of duty which I am appointed to pursue I stand in the presence of this assembled multitude of my countrymen to take upon myself the solemn obligation “to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” …
The Government of the United States. … leaves individuals, over whom it casts its protecting influence, entirely free to improve their own condition by the legitimate exercise of all their mental and physical powers. It is a common protector of each and all the States; of every man who lives upon our soil, whether of native or foreign birth; of every religious sect, in their worship of the Almighty according to the dictates of their own conscience. …
If he say that error and wrong are committed in the administration of the Government, let him remember that nothing human can be perfect, and that no other system of government revealed by Heaven or devised by man has reason been allowed so free and broad a scope to combat error. …
With these views of the nature, character, and objects of the Government and the value of the Union, I shall steadily oppose the creation of those institutions and systems which in their nature tend to pervert it from its legitimate purposes and make it the instrument of sections, classes, and individuals. We need no national banks or other extraneous institutions planted around the Government to control and strengthen it in opposition to the will of its authors. Experience has taught us how unnecessary they are as auxiliaries of the public authorities—impotent for good and how powerful for mischief. …
The Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our Union, to form a part of our Confederacy and enjoy with us the blessings of liberty secured and guaranteed by our Constitution. …
I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned to me by the people, again humbly supplicating that Divine Being, who has watched over and protected our beloved country from its infancy to the present hour, to continue His gracious benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be prosperous and happy people.2086
On Monday, June 16, 1845, President James K. Polk directed George Bancroft, Acting Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy, to issued General Order No. 27:
The President of the United States with heartfelt sorrow announces to the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps the death of Andrew Jackson. On the evening of Sunday, the 8th day of June, about 6 o’clock, he resigned his spirit to his Heavenly Father. … Heaven gave him length of days and he filled them with deeds of greatness. … Thrice happy in death, for while he believed the liberties of his country imperishable and was cheered by visions of its constant advancement, he departed from this life in a full hope of a blessed immortality through the merits and atonement of the Redeemer. Officers of the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps will wear crape on the left arm and on their swords, and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning for the period of six months.2087
On Tuesday, December 2, 1845, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President James K. Polk stated:
Under the blessings of Divine Providence and the benign influence of our free institutions, it stands before the world a spectacle of national happiness. … It becomes us in humility to make our devout acknowledgements to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored. …
Our experience has shown that when banking corporations have been the keepers of the public money, and been thereby made in effect the Treasury, the Government can have no guaranty that it can command the use of its own money for public purposes. The late Bank of the United States proved to be faithless. But a few years ago, with millions of public money in their keeping, the Government was brought almost to bankruptcy and the public credit seriously impaired. …
The public money should not be mingled with the private funds of banks or individuals or to be used for private purposes. When it is placed in banks for safe-keeping, it is in effect loaned to them without interest, and is loaned by them upon interest to borrowers from them. The public money is converted into banking capital, and is used and loaned out for the private profit of bank stockholders. … The framers of the Constitution could never have intended that the money paid into the Treasury should be thus converted to private use and placed beyond the control of the Government. …
Banks which hold the public money are often tempted by a desire of gain to extend their loans, increase their circulation, and thus stimulate, if not produce, a spirit of speculation and extravagance which sooner or later must result in ruin to thousands. If the public money be not permitted to be thus used, but kept in the Treasury and paid out to the public creditors in gold and silver, the temptation afforded by its deposit with banks to an undue expansion of their business would be checked. …
The separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people. … To say that the people or their Government are incompetent or not to be trusted with the custody of their own money in their own Treasury, provided by themselves, but must rely on the presidents, cashiers, and stockholders of banking corporations, not appointed by them nor responsible to them, would be to concede that they are incompetent for self-government. …
The enjoyment of contemplating, at the advanced age of near fourscore years, the happy condition of his country cheered the last hours of Andrew Jackson, who departed this life in the tranquil hope of a blessed immortality. … In his language on a similar occasion to the present, “I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God, with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels.”2088
On May 13, 1846, President James Knox Polk stated in a Proclamation of War with the Republic of Mexico:
I do, moreover, exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love their country, as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and they consult the best means, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of abridging its calamities.2089
On December 8, 1846, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President James K. Polk stated:
Our devout and sincere acknowledgments are due to the gracious Giver of All Good for the numberless blessings which our beloved country enjoys.2090
On Tuesday, December 7, 1847, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President James K. Polk stated:
The success of our admirable system is a conclusive refutation of the theories of those in other countries who maintain that a “favored few” are born to rule and that the mass of mankind must be governed by force. Subject to no arbitrary or hereditary authority, the people are the only sovereigns recognized by our Constitution. …
No country has been so much favored, or should acknowledge with deeper reverence the manifestations of Divine protection. An all-wise Creator directed and guarded us in our infant struggle for freedom and has constantly watched over our surprising progress until we have become one of the great nations of the earth. … In the enjoyment of the bounties of Providence at home such as have rarely fallen to the lot of any people, it is the cause of congratulation. …
Invoking the blessing of the Almighty Ruler of the Universe upon your deliberations, it will be my highest duty, no less than my sincere pleasure, to cooperate with you in all measures which may tend to promote the honor and enduring welfare of our common country.2091
On February 24, 1848, President James K. Polk issued the Executive Order:
It has pleased Divine Providence to call hence a great and patriotic citizen. John Quincy Adams is no more. At the advanced age of more than fourscore years, he was suddenly stricken from his seat in the House of Representatives. … He had for more than a half a century filled the most important public stations.2092
On Tuesday, December 5, 1848, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President James K. Polk stated:
Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the Sovereign Arbiter of All Human Events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy. Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world. …
Invoking the blessing of the Almighty upon your deliberations at your present important session, my ardent hope is that in a spirit of harmony and concord you may be guided to wise results, and such as my redound to the happiness, the honor, and the glory of our beloved country.2093
On June 8, 1849, only a week before his death, James K. Polk commented to the Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Nashville, Tennessee:
Sir, if I had supposed, twenty years ago, that I should come to my death bed unprepared, it would have made me an unhappy man; and yet I am about to die, and have not made preparation. I have not been baptized. Tell me, sir, can there be any ground for a man thus situated to hope?2094
Shortly following, James Knox Polk was baptized into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and received the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.2095