11.) James K. Polk 1845-1849

[music] Welcome to the Abridge Presidential Histories with Kenny Ryan. Episode 11 James K. Polk. Young Hickory. You might be asking yourself, who is James K. Polk? When Polk ran for president in 1844, that's what everyone else wanted to know. Sure, his public career had started off well, Speaker of the House, Governor of Tennessee, but he was coming off two straight losses for Tennessee Governor when he ran for president. What made him think he could win the nation when he couldn't even win his own state? Well, two things. First, Andrew Jackson wanted him to be president. That's right, all Hickory is still kicking barely, and this is practically his dying wish. And second, Polk was the only major candidate running who wanted to annex Texas. As it turns out, that would be just enough to make in the first dark horse president in American history. And the thing is, I'm surprised more of us haven't heard of James K. Polk, because this guy is gonna do a lot. He'll acquire Oregon from Great Britain through peaceful negotiation. He'll take the American Southwest from Mexico through bloody war. He'll accomplish his domestic goals, lowering tariffs, and establishing an independent treasury that will last nearly 70 years. And he will do all of it in a single four year term. By the end of this episode, you won't be asking whose James K. Polk. You'll be asking, why hasn't everybody heard of him? James Polk was born on November 2nd, 1795, and a North Carolina log cabin. But Tennessee is the state that would define him. His family moved there in 1806 when he was 11 years old, and he only left for college, graduating UNC, the fight in Tar Heels in 1818. And from that moment forward, James K. Polk was a politician for life. Polk's early years are fairly ho-hum, so I'm gonna kinda speed through them because there's a lot to get to later. In 1823, Polk was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives at the age of 27. In 1824, he married Sarah Childress. They never had any children, possibly because Polk was sterile, but they were together the rest of his life. And in 1825, Polk was elected to the US House of Representatives at the age of 29. Polk spent the next 14 years in the House, winning reelection seven times, and serving as the speaker of the House, the most powerful member of Congress, his final four years. Polk was the speaker who allowed the introduction of the GAG rule that we learned about in John Quincy Adams episode. That was the rule that made it illegal for anybody, but mostly John Quincy Adams, to so much as mentioned the word slavery in Congress. It was passed by Southerners who were irate with Adams' constant anti-slavery rhetoric. But perhaps most importantly from these years, Polk was quick to join the young Democratic Party that took shape in the late 1820s, and he successfully campaigned for Andrew Jackson's election in 1828. And remember, Jackson rewards loyalty. By the late 1830s, Polk, the sitting speaker of the House, was starting to think the presidency would be more fun. But no sitting speaker had ever been elected president before, so Polk started thinking. Maybe, maybe if he became Governor of Tennessee, and if he helped the Democrats have a strong showing in that state, that would make him attractive enough to win a place on the Democratic ticket as Martin Van Behrin's running date in 1840, because vice presidents could definitely become presidents. So Polk ran for Governor of Tennessee in 1839 and won, and then began campaigning for vice president, as much with Van Behrin as the rest of the party, which would officially choose a vice presidential nominee at the Democratic Convention in 1840. But Polk didn't get the nomination. In fact, nobody got the nomination. The party convention couldn't reach a majority for any VP candidate, and decided it would be better to just avoid the fight, which was only going to upset the losers and their backers. So Martin Van Behrin ran without a running mate in 1840, making him the last presidential nominee to do so. And he ran with the understanding that the electoral college would pick the vice president on its own if Van Behrin won the presidency. And this is all kind of interesting, because you may remember from my William Henry Harrison episode that Van Behrin's first term VP was very much part of the 1840 campaign, a guy named Richard Menpoor Johnson. There was even a traveling play, re-enacting the claim that Johnson had personally killed the Shawnee War Chief Tacumsa and battle back during the War of 1812. It was ridiculous, and I had to double check my notes on this to confirm, but I had not misspoke. Richard Menpoor Johnson was part of the 1840 campaign. Just he wasn't only running for Van Behrin's reelection, he was running for his own reelection and the electoral college as well because he wasn't actually on the ticket. Anyway, it's interesting, but it's also all moot, because Van Behrin lost in 1840, William Henry Harrison won, and then William Henry Harrison died, and vice president John Tyler became president. If you haven't listened to the last couple episodes, I definitely encourage you to check them out. Polk might not have won the vice presidency that year, let alone the nomination, but he had won some national name recognition, which he would need in 1844, because the next few years would be very unkind. In 1841, Polk, who remember, he's now the sitting governor of Tennessee, well, not sitting much longer. He lost reelection to a wig named Linge Mee Jones. It was a fascinating campaign. The two rode around the state together, going town to town, and every town would greet them with a big party where they would debate each other. And then after those parties, they'd spend their evenings writing letters to their supporters all over the state, well into the night to encourage participation. 103,000 votes were cast in that 1841 Tennessee governor race, and Polk lost by 3,243 votes, 3% of the total vote. This was not according to plan. Two years later, Polk again ran for governor. He still viewed this as a must-win stepping stone if he wanted to be vice president, and later president. But he lost again by another slim margin. As a presidential election of 1844 approached, Polk was a two time loser who thought his political career was over. So you can imagine how surprised Polk would be if you had told him right then that he was about to be elected president. Get ready for the first great dark horse campaign in American history, the election of 1844. Let's set the table real quick. There are three main contenders to know as we approach the election. You have president John Tyler, you have Wig Party founder Henry Clay, and former Democratic president Martin Van Buren. At the start of 1844, everyone expected the race to come down to Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay. But president John Tyler was hoping to play the spoiler. Tyler had been elected on the Wig ticket, but he was formally kicked out of the party when he kept vetoing Wig legislation. As his term neared its end, he realized he would have to do something crazy if he wanted to be reelected. So he decided to reach for the forbidden fruit that no other president had dared pursue. The annexation of Texas. Texas was a huge republic that had won its independence for Mexico in 1836, and which had wanted to be annexed by the United States pretty much ever since, but it hadn't happened yet for two reasons. One, Mexico was telling anyone who would listen that if the US annexed Texas, it would mean war. And two, Texas was a slave owning republic, which meant the southern states were all about adding it as another slave state, and the northern states were totally against it. Any politician who annexed Texas would have a hard time finding any support in the north. But Tyler realized he was poised. to win exactly zero states. So he said fork it and he began secret negotiations with the Texans and leaders in Congress to bring Texas into the union. He knew the North would organize to block Texas annexation if they saw it coming. So his goal was to quietly lock up the congressional support he needed so it could be introduced, fate, a complete, but he failed. Word got out and annexation opponents blocked his annexation treaty. And that was that for John Tyler's dream of running for re-election as the man who annexed Texas. But that's not the end of the Texas story that Cat was out of the bag. Texas annexation was on the table and everyone in the country wanted to know if Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay supported or opposed the annexation of Texas. Clay and Van Buren tried to avoid the question. They knew any answer would alienate half the country. You're either going to piss off the North by saying yes or anger the South by saying no. But everywhere they went people kept asking so eventually they caved. And by a total fluke, Van Buren and Henry Clay came out against annexation on the exact same day. And that was Polk's opening because it's time for Andrew Jackson to re-enter the story. A lot of Southern Democrats were P.O.D. when Martin Van Buren came out against the annexation of Texas. But possibly nobody more so than Olhickory himself. Jackson had always wanted to acquire Texas. He'd even tried to buy it off Mexico back in the early 1830s when Texas was still part of Mexico. And at 77 years old and fading fast, getting Texas now was kind of Jackson's last wish. So Jackson checked his role of Dex of loyal supporters, saw Polk's name, and wrote him a pair of letters. Jackson pitched Polk on the idea of running for president with his backing. Polk would be the "Young Hickory" to Jackson's "Old Hickory." And together they plotted to overthrow Martin Van Buren and reconquer the Democratic Party. It all starts with a Democratic convention of 1844. So the way conventions worked back then were different from today. There's no primary system yet where you campaign state by state to win that state's delegates. Instead, the party of each state picks its delegates however it likes, sends those delegates to a national convention, and then altogether the delegates from all over the country, they first write the convention's rules they vote on what the rules will be, and then they hold a series of votes until one candidate comes out on top. Polk was not the only Democrat hoping to beat out Van Buren at the Democratic convention of 1844. And that was actually very important to his plan. Enough states had their own favorite candidates that Polk thought he could let them do the dirty work of opposing and preventing Van Buren's nomination. And then, when Van Buren and all those other guys were good and angry at one another, Polk could emerge as a compromise candidate who would offended no one and who everyone could agree on. And his plan worked. It started with the fight over the rules. The supporters of opponents of Van Buren succeeded in writing rules that said a candidate needed a two-thirds super majority to win the party's nomination, not a simple 51% majority. So, of the 266 delegates at this convention, you now needed 177, instead of 133, to win the nomination. And this proved decisive, as the first ballot resulted in 146 votes for Van Buren, a majority, but not the required super majority. The remaining 120 delegates went to a wide range of other candidates. But notably, zero votes were cast for Polk. Six more ballots were cast the first day of the Democratic convention. Polk appeared on none of them, and Van Buren's delegate count went down every single time. Van Buren's supporters realized things were getting away from them, so they called for the convention to close for the night so they could regroup and come up with a plan for day two. That night, Polk supporters and some Van Buren supporters gathered to discuss how to get Van Buren nominated because the Polk supporters were still pretending to be on Van Buren's side. And the Polk supporters waited patiently for someone from the North to suggest, "Hey, this Van Buren thing might not happen. Maybe instead of nominating a Northern President, we should nominate a southerner like Polk, who has always been so supportive of Van Buren." And the second this was uttered, Polk supporters rallied around the idea and started to create some momentum going into day number two. The following day, New Hampshire became the first state to announce support for James K. Polk. And the first ballot of day two ended with Polk ranked third of numerous candidates with 44 out of 266 delegates. And this threw everything into confusion. Most of the convention was like, "What the heck is Polk getting all these votes for? We weren't even talking about them yesterday. The entire New York delegation left the hall to strategize." When they returned, they threw their support to Polk, and then most of the convention joined in. Polk, who wasn't even under consideration for the first seven ballots, won on the ninth ballot, with 233 delegates, to just 29 for his nearest rival. Polk then influenced the party to announce the usual Democratic platform, no national bank, lower tariffs, a weak federal government and strong states' rights. Plus one new point. An important point. The Democrats were officially coming out in support of the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory. Polk was putting manifest destiny on the ballot in this race against Henry Clay and the Wig Party, a Wig Party that was at the peak of its national power. And you might be wondering, what was that about the Oregon Territory you just said? If you remember back to episode 6 on John Quincy Adams, the United States had been jointly occupying the Oregon Territory with Great Britain since 1818, so almost 30 years by now. Polk was saying the joint occupation had to end. Oregon had to come under American control and the British had to surrender their claim. And this promise to secure Oregon served as a carrot to any northerners who were concerned about annexing Texas. Because it was like, no, I'm not just trying to get more southern slave holding land. I'm trying to get some non-slave holding territory in Oregon too so balance can be preserved. This really worked, this helped. But the path to the presidency was still perilous. President John Piler may not have annexed Texas, but he was still running for re-election on a pro annexation platform. And while it's unlikely he would win any states, I mean he's still probably going to go over. There was a very real chance that he could take enough votes from Polk for Henry Clayton win states that were hotly contested. And this election is going to be determined by like just a few thousand votes in quite a few states. So this is a very serious threat. So team Polk may getting Tyler out of the race their first priority. And luckily this proved easier than expected. A few ego soothing letters and state resolutions passed by Democrat controlled states convinced Tyler the best thing to do for his legacy was to leave the race and he dropped out in August. Three months before the election. But Polk was still running as an underdog to Henry Clay. And this is where Polk was helped by some self-imposed mistakes by Henry Clay. Clay had a narrow lead, but he was nervous his opposition to Texas annexation would cost him southern support. So he wrote a series of letters to an Alabama newspaper trying to soften his opposition to annexation. Basically he was trying to have it both ways in the north. He wanted to appear opposed in the south. He wanted to appear open to it. But this totally backfired southerners saw him as an unprincipled flip flopper. And northern abolitionist saw him as an unprincipled trader. A second own goal was scored by Clay late in the race when his wick party came out in favor of puffer naturalization laws i.e. laws that make it harder for immigrants to get citizenship and vote. This drove any new immigrants straight to the Democratic camp. Suddenly the race was neck and neck. If there's one thing the election of 1844 has in common with today is the importance of battle ground states. In 1844 the election came out. down to New York and the presence of a nascent abolitionist party called the Liberty Party. 485,000 votes were cast in New York. 15,000 went to the Liberty Party. 232,000 went to Clay and 237,000 went to Pulk. Pulk won New York by 1% of the vote and with New York's 33 electors, Pulk won the presidency 170 through 105 in the electoral college. As a young anti-slavery wig named Abraham Lincoln put it, if the wig abolitionist of New York had voted with us last fall, Mr. Clay would now be president. Indeed, if Clay had won New York, he would have won the presidency 141 to 134. So 1844 isn't just the first successful dark horse presidential campaign. It's also the first campaign to be decided by the influence of a third party. Because the Liberty Party, most of those 15,000 votes probably came from Henry Clay. If they had actually gone to Clay, today's episode would be the presidency of Henry Clay. And so on March 4, 1845, 49 year old James K. Pulk, the two time loser who had been hand picked by President Jackson to reconquer the Democratic Party and the presidency on a pro annexation platform was sworn in as the 11th president of the United States. Let's take a look at the world and the country he inherited when he entered the White House. Domestically, Democrats controlled Congress, which meant Pulk would have a friendly legislature for enacting his policies and aims. Texas was also on its way to officially joining the union, as outgoing President John Tyler had pulled a fast one and tricked Congress into letting him annex Texas three days before he left office. So after running for president on a pro annexation platform, the hard part of annexation, congressional approval, was already done. Texas would officially join the union December 29, 1845. Internationally, Mexico was pissed. The Mexicans didn't immediately declare war, as they had threatened to, but they did still claim control of what we today consider south and west Texas. And as far as Pulk was concerned, this wouldn't do. Up in Oregon, the British realized Pulk's election meant the Americans would soon be coming for total control of the Oregon territory, and they began developing plans on how to hold on to it. And to round this time shortly after winning election, that Pulk outlined the four goals of his administration. One, get the rest of Texas from Mexico, and while we're at it, maybe the rest of the American Southwest. Two, goal number two, get the Oregon territory from Britain, with a border established anywhere between Portland and North of Vancouver. goal number three, lower the tariff, and goal number four, establish an independent treasury. And focusing on these four items is going to be the rest of today's episode, because Pulk is going to accomplish all of them. Let's start with Texas. In 1845, as Texas was undergoing the process of annexation, Pulk sent negotiators to Mexico with orders to purchase recognition of American control of Texas, and all the land west of Texas to the California coast, for $30 million. But he didn't really expect this to succeed. So at the same time he was negotiating, Pulk ordered a general named Zachary Taylor. All rough and ready to form an army of observation on the Texas Louisiana border, with the intent of being on hand to cross into Texas and defend it if Mexico invaded. But Mexico didn't invade. So then, Pulk ordered the army, which was now the largest American army since the Revolutionary War, to move south. And Zachary Taylor took it to the port of Corpus Christi on the Nueces River, which is important, because the Nueces River is the river that Mexico said was the Texas border. And it's 100 miles north of the Rio Grande River, which is the river that the United States said was the Texas border. So basically, there are 100 miles of disputed territory that the United States and Mexico both claim as their own directly south of Corpus Christi, and the American army does camped out there. But again, the Mexicans still didn't invade. They stayed south of the Rio Grande River at their own port city, and out of the contested territory, both countries claimed to control. So then, in 1846, Pulk ordered the army to cross into this contested territory and march right up to the Rio Grande River. A.K.A. 100 miles deep into territory, the Mexicans considered theirs. And Pulk gave Taylor explicit orders to attack any Mexican army that crossed the Rio Grande. Which well, maybe you can see where this is going. On April 25th, 1846, an American cavalry patrol was ambushed by Mexican forces, and 11 Americans were killed. A dispatch about the violence reached Pulk just as he was preparing to ask Congress to declare war on Mexico anyway. And Pulk was overjoyed to see his provocation had finally paid off. On May 11th, he wrote to Congress, quote, "After reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood on American soil." And somehow avoiding sarcasm, he added, "War exists. Notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it exists by the act of Mexico itself." That phrase, "American blood on American soil would become the American rallying cry of the war." And the Declaration of War passed 174 to 14 in Congress, and 40 to 2 in the Senate. Our old friend John Quincy Adams was one of the few to vote against it. The Mexican-American War, like almost every war, was expected to be a quick conflict that would last only a few months. Instead, it lasted nearly two years, and required an invasion deep into the heart of Mexico to end it. The first phase of the war was fought in northern Mexico, where Zachary Taylor won victory after victory against large Mexican armies. There's victories were so overwhelming that our next episode will be all about him, because it will make him famous enough to be elected president in 1848. So I'll cover his part of the campaign in our next episode. The important thing to know now is what Polk thought of these victories. And he wasn't happy. Why wasn't Polk happy? Two reasons. First, he knew Zachary Taylor was a wig, and with good reason he feared these victories would make Taylor popular enough to become president. And Polk didn't want the wigs to take the White House after he left. So that put Polk in a bit of a catch-22, because he wanted to win the war, but he didn't want Taylor to win the war, and that's frustrating, because Taylor is the general in charge of winning the war. But there is that second reason Polk was unhappy. He was unhappy, because despite Taylor's repeated victories in northern Mexico, the Mexicans were refusing to surrender and give up all the land from Texas to California in exchange for a peace deal. Which led to Polk's first crazy idea of the war, and the reintroduction of someone we met in episode A on Sam Houston. Former Mexican dictator Santa Ana. In 1846, Santa Ana, the 12th time leader of Mexico, was living in exile and working on return to power number 10, when one of his allies reached out to Polk with a proposal. If Polk would sneak Santa Ana back into Mexico, Santa Ana would return to power, sue for peace, and sell Polk all the land he wanted for $30 million. Polk seemed like a pretty good deal, so Polk said yes, Santa Ana snuck back into Mexico, returned to power, and then formed a 15,000 man army to fight the Americans with. Whoopsie Daisy. Ok, so crazy idea number one didn't work. It was time for crazy idea number two. Unambibious landing outside the Mexican port of Veracruz nearly 500 miles south of the Rio Grande, and then a 200 mile invasion over the mountains to capture the capital, Mexico City, and force peace. Crazy idea number two would work out better than crazy idea number one. Jealous of payloads. growing popularity, Polk put a new general in charge of this invasion. A general I've been named dropping since episode 4 on James Madison. General Winfield Scott, all fussing feathers. As you might guess from that nickname, Scott was old. He's been with the army since the war of 1812, and he was a bit prickly, but he was also a damn good general, which is a good thing because this invasion is a crazy idea. Landing an army behind enemy lines and then marching it across hostile terrain is asking for trouble. But Scott's invasion went flawlessly. On March 29, 1847, he conquered the port city of Vera Cruz with 15,000 men, and then he used it as a supply base for his invasion into the interior. Santa Anna tried to block him with 12,000 men, but a young officer named Robert E. Lee scouted a path behind the Mexican position, and the Americans used this to flank Santa Anna and drive him out of the mountains. By July, Scott's men reached Mexico City, where Santa Anna now had 25,000 men to oppose him. But at least half of Santa Anna's guys were last-minute volunteers with little training, and the Americans were now a veteran army. In a series of bloody battles, the Americans fought their way up the valley and across the lava fields that surround Mexico City, and on September 14, 1847, they captured the Mexican capital, and again drove Santa Anna from power. Over the following months, a peace treaty was negotiated in signed on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe, Hidalgo, which recognized American control of Texas as far south as the Rio Grande River, and all the land west that would later become California, Utah, Nevada, and most of Arizona in New Mexico. In exchange for this land, the Americans paid $15 million dollars. All told, Mexico surrendered 55% of its territory, and the Treaty of Guadalupe, Hidalgo. Much of that territory, by the way, had already been conquered by smaller American military forces, including New Mexico and California. In fact, in California, the Marines accidentally thought the war had started early, got off the ship, captured a city, where the war hadn't started, got back onto their ship, and then reinvaded and recaptured the city later when the war actually had started. So, Mexico, when it seeded this territory, it was merely recognizing the reality of what the United States had already taken. Ultimately, the United States won the Mexican-American War because of its superior leadership and artillery. Numerous future civil war legends like Grant, Lee, and others served in this war. Despite often being outnumbered, the Americans won every major battle. But there is one more aspect of the Mexican-American War to mention, the political side. Remember how I said nobody wanted to touch Texas because it would reopen the question over slavery? Well, as early as 1846, the first year of the war, a Wig Congressman named David Wilmot of Pennsylvania decided to force the South to prove this war was not a land grab for slavery, by attaching a proviso to an appropriation spell needed to pay for the war. The proviso declared that slavery would never be allowed to expand, and to any of the territory, acquired from Mexico. Southerners were infuriated by this so-called Wilmot proviso because to them this totally was a land grab for slavery, and they defeated the proviso. But its mere introduction and repeated reintroduction would incense southerners and help set the tone for an agronious decade of political strife between North and South in the 1850s. So that's the Mexican-American War. It's a war we were manipulated into fighting by President Polk so he could realize his dreams of manifest destiny and acquire 500,000 square miles of Mexican land for the United States. But Polk did have those three other accomplishments I promised we talk about, so let's dive into the next one. The acquisition of the Oregon Territory. The Oregon Territory was a chunk of land encompassing modern-day Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The area had once been claimed by Spain, Russia, Britain, and the United States. But by 1844, only Great Britain and the United States were still in the game. They were actually jointly occupying it in a deal that had been arranged by John Quincy Adams during President James Monroe's administration back in 1818. The rules of the deal were that both powers could settle Oregon, but neither could send their armies or build forts, and either had to give the other a one-year notice if it wanted the arrangement to end. And that's pretty much how things held up until 1843, when the first American wagon train headed west. Nobody had really made an effort to settle Oregon before this. But, well, if you've ever played the game Oregon Trail, this is that moment. By the end of the 1840s, there will be 9,000 settlers in Oregon, and all but 300 will be American. So when Polk became President in 1845, he began his pursuit of the territory, and he decided to play aggressively. His opening demand was a border at the 49th parallel. The border we have today, and the British countered by demanding a border at the Columbia River, the current boundary between Washington, state, and Oregon. Instead of countering, Polk called off negotiations and kicked the heat up in arch. During his 1845 state of the Union address, Polk announced a four-step plan for the acquisition of the Oregon territory. Step 1, he gave Great Britain that one-year notice that the United States was withdrawing from the joint occupation treaty. Step 2, he announced U.S. law would extend to American settlers in Oregon. Step 3, he announced a plan to build forts and station troops along the Oregon Trail to protect settlers heading west. And step 4, he announced American Indian removal policies would be applied to the Oregon territory. By announcing he was going to deploy troops and build forts in the Oregon territory, Polk was taking a big gamble. Great Britain had a huge military, and the United States was just then getting embroiled in war with Mexico. There was no way the U.S. could win on both fronts. But it was all bluster, as he wrote in his journal quote, "The only way to treat John Bull," a nickname for Britain, "was to look him straight in the eye." If Congress faltered or hesitated in their course, John Bull would immediately become arrogant and more grasping in his demands. And the bluster worked. Polk suddenly had Great Britain's attention. But American rhetoric was starting to get pretty heated, too. I mentioned Polk had asked for the 49th parallel, the current border. Well, back in Congress, some legislators wanted more. 5440 or fight became a popular slogan among congressmen who wanted a boundary at the 5440 parallel. Basically so far north that the Americans would have gotten Vancouver, all of Vancouver Island, and the modern ski resort at Whistler. Polk didn't care how much of Oregon he got, so he left it up to the Senate to decide. And the Senate eventually voted to extend an offer for the 49th parallel, which was Polk's initial offer. By this point, the British were well aware that some Americans wanted far more than that, and as much as the Americans couldn't afford a war, Great Britain didn't really want one either. Great Britain and the United States were major trading partners now. Was it really worth putting all that trade at risk for a little bit more territory on the far side of the world that Britain hadn't really done anything with yet anyway? I mean, Britain can just buy any resources found there. Just do it that way. And so the British signed the Oregon Treaty of 1846. What seeded the Oregon territory to the Americans and gave us the Pacific Northwest boundaries we have today. So that's how the United States got the Oregon territory. Aggressive and honest negotiations with Great Britain that boiled down to a game of chicken, where the British blinked. Which brings us to Polk's third and fourth accomplishments, the establishment of an independent treasury, and the lowering of tariffs. The lowering of tariffs proved the more difficult of the two, which should not be surprising. Remember, a conflict over tariffs took the United States to the verge of civil war during the nullification crisis, which was just like a decade earlier. This stuff could be volatile. The debate in Polk's case came down to two types of tariffs. The country currently had protectionist tariffs, which were favored by the Wigs and basically tariffs on foreign goods designed to nurture and protect American businesses. In the past, I used the example of a $10 tariff on bananas. If all foreign bananas cost $10. You would totally buy American bananas, but you could also bet your bridges American banana growers would hike their prices to like $8 or $9 a banana to maximize profit. Well, Polk didn't like tariffs like that. He preferred revenue generating tariffs. The idea of a revenue generating tariff is you set the tariff at the rate that maximizes revenue. So, picture a curve and let's talk about bananas again. When the tariff is low, say one penny per foreign banana, everyone's going to continue buying foreign bananas. But you're not going to raise much money because you're only making one penny per banana. Now, when the tariff is too high, say that $10 a banana, that also makes no money because now nobody's buying foreign bananas so you can't collect the tariff. But if you set the tariff to say maybe 5 or 10 cents a banana, sure. Some Americans might stop buying foreign bananas. But most will keep buying them and you'll make the maximum amount of tariff revenue possible when you find that sweet spot of how high you can raise the tariff before people stop buying bananas. Anyway, getting this tariff law passed was a huge pain in the butt. It eventually passed the Senate with a 27/27 vote where Polk's vice president had to cast the tie-breaking vote. And that's only after one senator changes vote in the final hours and another senator was chased down at the train station to keep him from fleeing Washington ahead of the difficult vote. So the revenue generating tariff passed. That takes us to Polk's final accomplishment, the independent treasury. And this one was anti-climatically easy. But also hugely impactful. Remember, in 1844 the United States had no national bank and no independent treasury after Andrew Jackson killed the last bank and John Tyler killed Martin Van Buren's independent treasury. The lack of these institutions made the economy a bit precarious and Polk wanted to provide stability. He favored the independent treasury as a place the government would deposit its hard currency, gold, with the idea that the treasury would only act as a depository and could not make loans or invest. The benefits of the system were that you minimized the risk of economic bubbles and recessions, because nobody was making all these big loans, and the government would always have gold on hand to pay its debts. But the cons of the system were that the government was putting all of its money in these vaults, and that would take the money out of circulation. Meaning if you need a loan to grow your business, it's harder to get. This slowed economic development. But it also made it harder to survive the economic and recessions that did still happen, because now if there's an unexpected recession, you can't easily get a loan to just get you over the hump. Just because you're not making big loans from a national bank does not mean you don't have recessions. Anyway, former president Martin Van Buren had spent his entire presidency and all of his political capital to make something like that happen in 1840, but Polk was able to accomplish it almost as an afterthought in 1846. The independent treasury system he created would last until 1913, when we eventually switched to the Federal Reserve system that we still operate under today. By 1848, Polk had accomplished every major goal he had laid out at the start of his administration. He'd acquired the American Southwest by manipulating the US into war with Mexico. He'd acquired the Oregon territory through bold negotiation with Great Britain. He'd lowered the tariff and a vote that passed by a hair, and he had established an independent treasury that would last more than 60 years. After all that, he was tired, and who can blame him, so he prepared to retire. That's right, after one term, Polk is going to leave the White House voluntarily, because I hadn't mentioned it yet, but back during that campaign in 1844, one of his promises was to serve only a single term. And in 1848, he was ready to make that his fifth promise kept. Polk didn't run for re-election, and when his term ended on March 4, 1849, he stepped into retirement. So how did America change during the four years of the Polk administration? Territory-wise, a ton! When you look at a map of the lower 48 states, Polk is the president who made it look the way it does. We'll purchase a little more land from Mexico later and make a few other changes to small to even see on the map, but when Polk leaves office, we're basically there. Four new states were also added to the union during Polk's presidency, two in the North and two in the South. You had Texas, uh, on December 29, 1845, Florida, on March 3, 1845, Iowa, on December 28, 1846, and Wisconsin on May 29, 1848, bringing the United States of America to 30 states. And one last thing domestically, a few months before Polk left office, a messenger arrived from California with a precious package in hand. It was California Gold. Any 49ers fans out there? The announced discovery of gold in California is going to trigger a historically massive westward migration. And when California is ready for statehood a year or two later, it's going to put that question about the expansion of slavery on the front burner in a big, big way. On the invention front, I'll give you two up in New York City, a volunteer firefighter and bank clerk named Alexander Joy Cartwright codified the first official rules for the new sport of baseball. Among other things, the rules called for a diamond shaped infield, a three strike rule, and they banned the practice of tagging runners out by throwing balls at them. And your second invention? The doughnut. This may be apocryphal, but the story goes in American sailor was trying to eat a fried dough ball that had nuts in the middle while sailing through a storm in 1847. When the waves got so rough that he needed both hands to hold the wheel, so he jammed the dough ball onto a wheel spoke, poking a hole through the middle of it and creating the familiar ring shape, be known today. From the International Front, Jane Eyre and Weathering Heights were published in 1847. The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848, and a great potato famine struck Ireland in the 1840s. So get ready for the first great wave of immigrants to hit American shores in the 1850s, which surely won't result in the reactive creation of an anti-immigrant secret society-turned political movement that will try to win the White House. Right? Stay tuned in a couple episodes for that one. Anyway, in 1849, Polk set out for what he hoped to be a long retirement. At 53 years old, he was one of the youngest ex-presidents the country had ever had. But, sadly for Polk, his retirement is going to be the shortest of any ex-president still to today. Polk had been a sickly guy his whole life. He was so small, his wife popularized the tune "Hail to the Chief" by having a band play it whenever he entered a room so he'd be noticed. And the country was experiencing a cholera outbreak during the months this small, sickly president was traveling home. At a Pierce Polk contracted the disease either just before leaving DC, or on his way home to Nashville. He died on June 15, 1849, at his home in Nashville, just 103 days after leaving the presidency. He was 53 years old. So what can we learn from Polk? How about, if you want to accomplish something, make a list. I feel like this one is an every 10 cent self-help book on the shelf, but it's in all of them for a reason. At the start of his administration, Polk laid out everything he wanted to do and the timeline in which he wanted to do it. Four years. That timeline honed his focus on his four clearly identified goals and helped him become one of the most successful presidents in terms of accomplishing what he set out to do in American history. Thank you for listening today's episode of A Bridge Presidential Histories. If you enjoyed it, please tell your friends about the show. Then subscribe and leave a five star review on your podcast listening platform of choice. It's always encouraging to see you guys are enjoying the show. You can also follow me on Facebook at a bridge presidential histories or on Twitter at a page podcast. If you'd like to support the show, you can look it up on Patreon or go directly to www.patreon.com/abridge-resonetries. It helps me buy books and pay to host the show. The music in today's podcast is a public domain recording of the United States Old Army "Fife and Drum Corps." The intro music was a recording of Isaac Brands from Smithsonian Folkway Records. The primary biography for today's episode was Polk, the man who transformed America. It is a fantastic read by Walter R. Borneman. In our next episode, we'll look at the life and presidency of Zachary Taylor, the man whose battlefield victories will win him the presidency. including a climactic showdown against Mexican dictator Santa Ana in the deserts of Northern Mexico. That's next time on Abrid's Presidential Histories.