Obscure president rated one of best

According to Dr. Marvin Kranz, an historian with the Library of Congress, James Knox Polk was "one of the most successful presidents in American history" and "belongs among the near-greats among presidents."

Far from considering him an outstanding chief executive, however, many Americans have never even heard of President Polk, the occupant of the White House when the Albany Diocese was founded in 1847. He is so obscure that one Washington politician recently referred to him as "President Knox."

A North Carolinian by birth (in 1795), Polk grew up on a Tennessee farm. Although he was a sickly child who was unable to attend school, he learned enough at home to gain entrance to the University of North Carolina when he was 20. There, earning the reputation of being "correct, punctual and industrious," he merited the honor of being Latin salutatorian of his class.

Into politics

Admitted to the bar in 1820, Polk was a staunch Democrat who idolized Andrew Jackson; later, they became close friends.

Known as austere and inflexible in his personal life, Polk had such a powerful oratorical style that he was nicknamed "the Napoleon of the stump," a quality that helped him get elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, to Congress and to the governorship.

In 1844, at the Democratic national convention, Polk was not among those considered to have a chance to the presidential candidate. Martin Van Buren, who had been president, and James Buchanan, who would be, were two of the leading contenders. But when a compromise could not be reached, the party turned to Polk, making him the first "dark horse candidate" for the White House.

Expanding the nation

In his campaign against Henry Clay, Polk supported enlarging the United States in two directions: to the southwest through the annexation of Texas, which had been independent from Mexico since 1836 and the Battle of the Alamo; and to the northwest. The latter position led to his famous slogan: "Fifty-four Forty or Fight." The numbers stood for the parallel below which, he claimed, everything belonged to the U.S., not England.

Polk was elected president before his 50th birthday, making him at the time the youngest man ever to lead the nation. As president, he fulfilled his campaign promises, but not without some heavy costs when the annexation of Texas sparked a two-year war with Mexico (and led to a meeting with a Catholic bishop from New York; see sidebar). In a more peaceful vein, Polk compromised with Great Britain in the northwest, granting Vancouver to the British and keeping America below the 49th parallel.

After the war with Mexico, the U.S. expanded into the southwest and far west, taking territories which had previously been Mexican. As a supporter of the Monroe Doctrine, Polk saw such expansion as part of the "manifest destiny" of the U.S.

Among other achievements of his presidency were the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, the authorization of the Smithsonian Institution and the creation of the Department of the Interior. He also concluded a treaty with Colombia that gave American citizens the right to cross the Isthmus of Panama; he lowered import duties; and he took steps to shore up domestic financial problems.

Faith and finale

On the morning of his 50th birthday, Polk went to services, heard a "solemn sermon" and took communion at the Presbyterian church in Washington, D.C., which his wife Sara attended. Back at the White House, he wrote in his diary that before another 50 years had passed, he would be dead. It was a humbling thought and more accurate than he knew: In fact, he would not live to see 54.

Three months after leaving office in 1849 (when he was succeeded by Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican War), Polk died at home in Nashville.

Shortly before his death, Polk was finally baptized, not as a Presbyterian like his mother and wife but as a Methodist. He had entered office, according to one historian, "full of vigor and...zeal" but left "exhausted and enfeebled by his efforts."

Polk diary reveals dealings with bishops

President James Polk kept a daily diary during his four years in the White House, providing a rare, intimate glimpse at the workings of the executive branch. On several occasions, he wrote about Catholics.

On May 19, 1846, Polk noted in his diary that he met at 7 p.m. with Bishop John Hughes of New York City. (At that time, a year before the Albany Diocese was severed from New York City, Hughes was bishop of the entire state.) The President and Bishop talked for an hour about the war against Mexico; Polk wanted help in convincing Mexican Catholics that the U.S. had no "hostile designs...upon the religion and church property of Mexico."

The president told Bishop Hughes that "the false idea had been industrious[ly] circulated by interested partisans in Mexico that our object was to overthrow their religion & rob their churches."

The Bishop, wrote Polk, "fully agreed with me" that such impressions needed to be corrected. The President's idea was to have American priests who spoke Spanish accompany the army as chaplains. In Mexico, he reasoned, the priests could give "assurance to the Catholic clergy in Mexico that under our constitution their religion and church property would be secure" and, in fact, would even be protected by the army.

An 'agreeable man'

Hughes "expressed his entire willingness to cooperate," Polk wrote, and even "expressed his willingness to visit Mexico himself," since he knew the archbishop of Mexico.

After their discussion, the President and the Bishop retired to a reception "in the parlour below." Assessing Hughes in his diary, Polk described him as "a highly intelligent and agreeable man, and my interview with him was of the most satisfactory character."

The next day, May 20, 1846, Polk met with "the Catholic Bishop of Missouri," whom he did not name. Again, the topic was Catholic priests who could serve as army chaplains and "allay the fears of the Mexican Catholics." The Bishop agreed to provide such clergy. With such aid, the President confided to his diary, the war would be "easy...and of short duration." Without it, "the resistance to our forces will be desperate."

Objections

But the notion of Catholic chaplains didn't sit well with everyone. Later in 1846, a Protestant minister met with Polk to deliver "a violent & most intolerant attack on the Roman Catholics," and to threaten to "attack the Administration upon religious grounds because of the employment of these Catholic Priests."

The President, in an Oct. 14 entry in his diary, said he "felt great contempt for" the minister "and for his religion and gave him my mind freely. I told him that, thank God, under our constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the U.S. I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments to office."

But while he had called the priests "chaplains" in his conversations with the two Catholic bishops, Polk told the Protestant minister that they were "not chaplains...but...employees, such as armies often require, who had been sent out for the purposes stated." He noted that as president, he had named several Navy chaplains "without regard to the sects of religion to which they belonged"; but, he added, "I had appointed no Catholic Priests."

(03-13-97) [[In-content Ad]]