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- He spent his childhood on an estate in Tennessee that was owned by his grandfather. Polk studied law at the University of North Carolina and became active in politics early on, where he appeared as an opponent of bank and land speculators. In the presidential campaign of 1824 he supported the candidacy of Andrew Jackson, who was a friend of his father. In 1825 Polk was elected as a Democratic Jackson supporter to the US House of Representatives, of which he was a member until 1839 and for which he served as speaker from 1835.
From 1839 to 1841 Polk rose to the position of governor of Tennessee, but failed to be re-elected to that office in 1841 and 1843. In 1844 he was chosen as the Democratic presidential candidate, who managed to unite the different branches of the Democrats under his leadership during the election campaign and achieve an electoral victory. The new US President of the United States included in his cabinet, among others, the future President James Buchanan and other ministers who largely represented the different tendencies of the Democratic Party. Nevertheless, he became distant from a democratic faction around Martin Buren. His domestic policy was characterized by successful reforms in the area of financial administration, for which he created an independent treasury.
The greatest successes of his presidency, however, were linked to the foreign policy field. In the conflict with Great Britain over jointly occupied Oregon, he achieved an extension of US territory up to the 49th parallel through the British-American treaty of June 15, 1846. Polk achieved a further increase in territory through the annexation of Texas, which, however, provoked a war with neighboring Mexico in May 1846, which the USA won in April 1848 with the capture of Mexico City. In the subsequent peace negotiations, Polk secured Mexico's renunciation of New Mexico, California and Texas in exchange for $15 million. The war thus resulted in a considerable consolidation of US territory.
On the other hand, during the war against Mexico, an opposition movement against Polk's foreign policy had emerged, partly within the Democrats. In its policy against slavery in the newly acquired southern territories, it anticipated the conflicts that would later lead to the American Civil War. Although James Knox Polk was a principled supporter of slavery, he sought to achieve an intra-party compromise by partially banning it. In 1848, Polk was no longer available as a presidential candidate in accordance with a pre-agreement within the party. Rather, he now supported the election campaign of the Democrat Lewis Cass, who, however, suffered a defeat.
James Knox Polk, who was already in poor health during his presidency, died just three months after leaving the presidential chair on June 15, 1849 in Nashville, Tennessee.