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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Tennessee / USJames Knox POLK
(1795-1849)
POLK, James Knox, (brother
of William Hawkins Polk), a Representative from Tennessee and 11th
President of the United States; born near Little Sugar Creek,
Mecklenburg County, N.C., November 2, 1795; moved to Tennessee in
1806 with his parents, who settled in what later became Maury
County; attended the common schools and was tutored privately;
graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
1818; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1820 and commenced
practice in Columbia, Tenn.; chief clerk of the state senate
1821-1823; member of the state house of representatives 1823-1825;
elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth through the Twenty-fourth
Congresses and reelected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress
(March 4, 1825-March 3, 1839); chairman, Committee on Ways and
Means (Twenty-third Congress); Speaker of the House of
Representatives (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses); did
not seek renomination in 1838 having become a candidate for
governor; governor of Tennessee 1839-1841; elected as a Democrat as
President of the United States in 1844; inaugurated on March 4,
1845, and served until March 3, 1849; declined to be a candidate
for renomination; died in Nashville, Tenn., June 15, 1849;
interment within the grounds of the state capitol.
Bibliography
Merry, Robert W. A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the
Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2009; Borneman, Walter R. Polk: The
Man Who Tranformed the Presidency and America. New York: Random
House, 2008.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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