James K. Polk

Served as president from 1845-1849
Era: Westward Expansion Era

American Identity and Culture
James K. Polk was a follower of Jackson and therefore committed wholeheartedly to expansion and manifest destiny when he was elected president. During his presidency, Americans cried for westward expansion believing it was their right to expand towards the Pacific Ocean and all the way towards the south into Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. The United States intended to widen its civilization and control throughout North America. This was often fueled by nationalism. Other factors were population increase, rapid development in the economy, advances in technology, and reform ideals. On the other hand, northern critics claimed that expansion was a southern goal to spread slavery into western lands.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
Polk passed the Independent treasury Act of 1846 during his presidency. This act established independent treasuries to hold government funds that were separate from private or state banks. It was meant to revive the one that was passed by Martin van Buren which was repealed once the Whigs took over Congress. They had intended to make a step towards creating an institution like the Second Bank of the United States that Jackson had “killed” when he was president. This new independent treasury system required payments to be paid in hard money, or in paper backed by rare metals like silver and gold.
Environment
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo occurred in 1848 after the United States went to war with Mexico. This treaty was negotiated in Mexico by an American diplomat named Nicholas Trist. The results of the treaty called for Mexico to acknowledge Texas’ southern border at the Rio Grande. The United States also took possession of California and New Mexico, which was also called the Mexican Cession, for $15 million. Some people who were against the treaty were Whigs in the Senate because they thought it would help to expand slavery in the country. On the other hand, several southern Democrats did not agree with the treaty because they were influenced by their strong expansionist views and believed that the U.S. should have taken all of Mexico.
Politics and Citizenship
During Polk’s presidency, he favored the “reoccupation” of Oregon, the acquisition of California, and Texas annexation. Thus his slogan: “Fifty-four Forty or Fight!” This strongly appealed to westerners and southerners and their expansionist attitudes. However, Polk ended up compromising with Britain and settled for its southern half by dividing the territory at the forty-ninth parallel. In June 1846, the treaty was submitted. Some northerners thought that the treaty was a sellout to the interests of the south because it ended the possibility of free states developing from British Columbia.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
In 1846, a Pennsylvania Congressman, David Wilmot proposed a bill called the Wilmot Proviso. The proposal was meant to amend a spending bill by prohibiting slavery in any new territories that the United States received from Mexico. It went through the House of Representatives twice, but was slammed to a stop in the Senate. This was proposed while the U.S. was in its first year of the war with Mexico and the acquisition of lands only renewed the issue of slavery. Those from the North believed the war to be a southern scheme to increase the “slave power.” Therefore, they supported the amendment while southerners voted against it.
War and Diplomacy
The Mexican-American War started when Polk commanded General Zachary Taylor to mobilize an army toward the Rio Grande. By doing so, the army would be moving into Mexican territory. A Mexican army navigated past the Rio Grande and overwhelmed an American army patrol killing eleven men on April 24, 1846. Most of the war was fought in Mexico and in the end, General Winfield Scott succeeded in capturing Mexico City in September 1847. Even at the beginning of the war, Mexico was at a military disadvantage but the government refused to reach peaceful terms and accept that it had lost its land in the north. Only after Mexico City fell down did the government finally agree to U.S. terms.