James K. Polk in 1845
Electoral Brawlage, #11
“Electoral Brawlage” examines the first inaugural address of each president in U.S. history, with some commentary and analysis. This is the eleventh installment. Check back on Mondays for more.
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The Accidental Candidate
James Knox Polk opened his 1845 inaugural address saying “Without solicitation on my part, I have been chosen by the free and voluntary suffrages of my countrymen to the most honorable and most responsible office on earth.” What did he mean by this?
To understand the 1844 election, we have to look back at the 1840 election, when Van Buren lost to Harrison. Van Buren wanted to become the first non-consecutive executive, and tried running again in 1844, but he didn’t favor annexation of Texas because it would lead to a larger conflict with Mexico (true) and there were also questions of whether it would be admitted as a slave state (problematic.)
Back in the 1840s, the party convention process was far more functional than it is today, and you could actually appoint or draft a candidate who didn’t campaign for the nomination. It doesn’t work like that now because powerful interests have bought the process so they can install their own stooges, and also because the party managers $@^#ing hate you. (This is more true for Democrats than it is for Republicans, but don’t misunderstand, the Republicans hate their voters just as much.)
The 1844 convention went to numerous rounds of voting until the different factions settled on a compromise candidate: James K. Polk, who had only stood for a Vice Presidential appointment, and didn’t campaign for the top dawg chair. He favored expansion (oh BOY did he favor expansion) and Americans really wanted to annex Texas, so he won the nomination, and went on to defeat Henry Clay, who was running for president for the fourth or fifth time.
(I could do an entirely separate post on Clay, that dude couldn’t stop racking up Ls in the general presidential elections. He probably still holds the record, Ralph Nader notwithstanding. Maybe next year I’ll do presidential losers.)
Anyway, here are the points he hammered in his speech:
—He was grateful to be nominated, he wasn’t looking for it, and he was going to take care of the office. He’d ask God for help in adhering to the Constitution.
—States’ rights good, limited government good.
—We are a nation of diverse opinions and interests, which will necessitate compromise, and we should seek to avoid factionalism. (Tyler was concerned about this too, the spread of factionalism would only worsen as we got closer to the Civil War.)
—Polk opposed the idea of a national bank and abhorred the idea of debt, saying that it robbed the citizens via interest and inflation. He was absolutely right btw.
—And this is the big one: EXPAND, EXPAND, EXPAND. Oh, you call that Mexico? Guess what, that’s gonna be America. Oregon is British? Haha, not for long, baby. This is all the United States and I’ll prove it, or else! I think you’ll find that this destiny is quite manifest indeed!
America claimed a large part of Texas under the terms of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, but those claims were contested by Spain (Mexico) and ceded away in 1819 under James Monroe, with John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State. One of Polk’s mentors was Andrew Jackson, who had beef with John Quincy, so you can see where the fingerprints of this idea came from.
He closed his address with the same sentiment as his predecessors:
Confidently relying upon the aid and assistance of the coordinate departments of the Government in conducting our public affairs, I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned 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 a prosperous and happy people.
I haven’t read a whole ton on Polk, though I know his reputation and his impactful single term. He didn’t expect to be nominated, probably didn’t expect to win against such an experienced opponent (and was indeed helped across the finish line by a third-party candidate), then served four years, and grew the United States through sheer will and grit.
I love this era of the Executive Branch. We sure got up to some stuff in those days.
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