Book review: Unlikely president Polk deserves more credit

A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent
By Robert W. Merry
Simon & Schuster
576 pages

Popular history probably hasn’t given our 11th president, James K. Polk, the credit he is due. With a single term bracketed in our consciousness by his mentor, Andrew Jackson; and Abraham Lincoln, the president who had to deal with some of the seeds of civil war that Polk’s actions planted, Polk never seems to rise to the level of recognition given to other presidents. “Probably no other president,” author Robert Merry contends, “presents such a chasm between actual accomplishments and popular recognition.”

So when it comes to giving Polk the recognition he deserves, Merry’s lively new biography is a step in the right direction.

Polk was an unlikely president. A “small, drab man who didn’t much like people,” Polk was “encased in his own sanctimony.” Twice defeated for the governorship of Tennessee, Polk became the Democratic nominee for president as a compromise choice on the ninth ballot at the nominating convention. He mended party factions by agreeing to serve only a single term, and although “charisma” wasn’t a word one would associate with Polk, his expansionist agenda struck a chord with the electorate. He had a limited imagination but a clear and popular expansionist outlook void of any sense of nuance or ramification.

Polk entered office with four goals: First, he planned to settle the Oregon question (Britain and America jointly controlled the territory, although its population was largely American). Second, he would acquire California. Third, he would reduce the Tariff of 1842 and replace its protectionism with a pure revenue rationale. And finally, he would revive the idea of an independent treasury designed to protect federal money and ensure currency stability.

All these goals were pre-empted by the question of Texas. Texas wanted annexation, and so did the rest of the country, and if it had to be taken by force from Mexico, even though Mexican Gen. Santa Anna had signed it away under duress, so be it. The question of whether Texas would be a free or slave state was subsumed by the desire to annex it, and just as events forced Polk to deal with the Texas issue, so did his actions force his predecessors to deal with the growing problem of slavery.

With singlemindedness, Polk was willing to risk war with both Mexico and Great Britain to fulfill his nation’s “vast designs.” In the process, the United States’ territory grew by one-third (including part of Colorado), and Polk cemented his legacy either as an avaricious imperialist or a forceful national advocate.

Merry, though not an academically trained historian, is clearly familiar with his subject and thorough in his research. Polk’s story, particularly when it comes to why America goes to war and when it should go to war, resonates to this day, and for this reason alone deserves our belated attention.