Polk Addendum

I forgot this!

#11 Polk, James K.

New format: I think I'm going to do five bullets (tops!). The goal? Maximum readability. Maybe by week forty I'll be tweeting entries.

Today... James K. Polk!

November 2, 1795 (Pineville, North Carolina) - June 15, 1849 (Nashville, Tennessee, of cholera)
President #11, 1845 - 1849

• Polk oversaw the greatest territorial growth of the US, including winning the Mexican War and adding Texas to the Union. During his presidency, covered wagons rolled across the Oregon Trail and forty-niners hunted for gold in California.
• Polk's era as president was the "Fabulous 40's." "The country seethed with excitement, energy, and prosperity." (Seethed!)
• The national scene had a seedy underbelly too: reformers called attention to the hardships of child laborers, the poverty of immigrants, and slavery.
• Mrs. Polk became the first wife of a President to serve as her husband's secretary. Over the course of his career, she looked over and approved his writings. She managed a plantation on the Yalobusha River for 42 years after his death.
  
• Polk is the first President not to seek reelection. He retired at the end of his first term.
  

The "P" volume includes a handy reference for: Polled Cattle. See Cattle (Horns; Beef Cattle).
And for: Polka. See Dancing (Folk Dancing; The Rise of Romanticism).

Recap

The entries have gotten long-winded and unwieldy, so I'm rethinking this project a little. In the meantime, here's a recap of the first 10 presidents, the first fourth of this enterprise!

1. George Washington - Revolutionary War hero, our first President

2. John Adams - accomplished statesman

3. Thomas Jefferson - father of the Declaration of Independence

4. James Madison - shaped the system of Separation of Powers

5. James Monroe - oversaw grand expansion and Missouri Compromise

6. John Quincy Adams - didn't get much done

7. Andrew Jackson - opposed the Bank of the US, drove the Indians out

8. Martin Van Buren - presided over the first major recession, refused government aid

9. William Harrison - died after 30 days in office

10. John Tyler - wigged out the Whigs by going his own way

#10: Tyler, John

John Tyler
March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862

Tyler was long considered a bad president. (And I am a bad blogger for falling behind again.) Theodore Roosevelt said of him: “Tyler has been called a mediocre man, but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.” (What wit!!?) According to World Book, Tyler earned this reputation by being soft-spoken, but stubborn. He was the first Vice-President to become President upon the death of a Chief Executive. He was elected on the Whig party ticket alongside Harrison. After Harrison’s death in 1841, 30 days into his term, Tyler assumed the presidency. He proceeded to veto almost every important bill that was presented to him. When he blocked a call for a new Bank of the United States, an armed mob marched to the White House. “Hoodlums shouted insults at the President and hurled rocks through the windows. Tyler calmly issued guns to the White House servants and stood firm against the mob. The rioters melted away.” The Whigs shortly thereafter disowned Tyler, and in 1843 tried unsuccessfully to impeach him.

During Tyler’s presidency, China opened its ports to world trade, the YMCA was organized in London (laying the groundwork for one of the great disco classics of the modern era), and the Oregon Trail opened the way for settlement of the Pacific Northwest (laying the groundwork for many a wasted hour in sixth grade social studies classes circa 1992).

On Tyler’s last day in office, March 1, 1845, he signed a bill admitting Florida to the Union. The House and Senate passed a joint resolution admitting Texas as well, though it did not formally join the Union until December 29, 1845, under Tyler’s successor James K. Polk.

Tyler was married twice and had way too many kids. With his first wife, he had eight children. Mrs. Tyler died during her husband’s presidency, and Tyler remarried 22 months later. He was the first president to be married while in office. Tyler and wife #2 met on a ship watching the firing of a new naval gun. The gun exploded, killing eight persons, including David Gardiner. Tyler had been courting Gardiner’s daughter Julia. The death of Gardiner brought Tyler and Julia together (this is somehow distasteful to me--it seems vaguely predatory--but it's not nearly as creepy as the last minute of this). Tyler and Julia married and had seven children.

After leaving the presidency, Tyler retired to Virginia, his home state, where he lived until just before the Civil War. In 1861, Tyler participated in a secession convention, and voted in favor of Virginia leaving the Union. He won a seat to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before taking office.

#9: Harrison, William Henry

William Henry Harrison
February 9, 1773 - April 4, 1841

At 68, William Henry Harrison was the oldest man to become president and the first to die in office. He was a Virginian, but perhaps better known as a leader in the new Northwest Territory, where he pushed to have a bill passed dividing western lands into tracts small enough for even a poor person to buy. He later was named governor of the Indiana Territory, where he set up a seat in Vincennes (I've driven by Vincennes!!). On the one hand, Harrison sought to "protect" the Indians' welfare, in a paternalistic way (e.g. banning sale of liquor to Indians, forced smallpox innoculations). But on the other hand, he later set out to drive Indians from treaty lands, shattering Indian forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe, 1811. After serving as brigadier general, major general, U.S. Representative, and Senator, Harrison was named the first U.S. Minister to Columbia in 1828. His blunt-spoken ways were a hindrance: he told Simon Bolivar not to become a dictator, and Bolivar took offense.

I've composed this lame little limerick about Harrison's short-lived presidency, 1841-1841:

Good Willy H., “Old Tippecanoe,”
Spent too long outside and caught the flu.
He worked thirty days,
Temperature ablaze,
Then gently died, without much ado.*

*Actually, there was some ado: Congress had to sort out an order of succession.