the pen of impartial history, in the full confidence that neither my motives nor my acts will bear the interpretation which has, for sinister purposes, been placed upon them."

After a most animated and exciting canvass, the presidential election took place, in the fall of 1844, and resulted in the election of the democratic candidates, James K. Polk as president, and George M. Dallas as vice-president, of the United States, over the whig candidates, Clay and Frelinghuysen. The votes of the electoral colleges were, for Polk and Dallas, 170; for Clay and Frelinghuysen, 105. Tho popular vote was, for Polk, 1,335,834; for Clay, 1,297,033; for Birney, the abolition candidate, 64,653; exclusive of South Carolina, which state gave its electoral vote through the legislature, that body choosing the presidential electors. In the states of New York and Michigan, the democratic electoral ticket received a plurality over the whig vote, less than the amount of abolition votes in those states. In addition to the states which voted for Mr. Van Buren in 1840, giving 60 electoral votes; Mr. Polk received the votes of Maine, 9; New York, 36; Pennsylvania, 26; Georgia, 10; Mississippi, 6; Louisiana, 6; Indiana, 12; and Michigan, 5; which states gave their electoral votes to General Harrison, in 1840.

The second session of the twenty-eighth Congress commenced on the 2d of December, 1844, and closed on the expiration of their term, the 3d of March, 1845. The most important and exciting subject of the session was that of the annexation of Texas. Joint resolutions for annexing that republic to the United States, as one of the states of the Union, passed the house of representatives, on the 25th of January, 1845, by a vote of 120 to 98; and on the 1st of March the same passed the senate, by a vote of 27 to 25; and the same day the resolutions were approved by the president.

Among the public acts of interest passed at this session, were the following: To establish a uniform time for holding elections for electors of president and vice-president, in all the states in the Union; to provide for the establishment of the mail between the United States and foreign countries; granting lands to the state of Indiana, to enable the state to extend and complete the Wabash and Erie canal; to reduce the rates of postage, and to limit the use, and correct the abuse, of the franking privilege; allowing drawback upon foreign merchandise exported by the interior to Mexico and the British North American provinces; for the construction and improvement of roads in Wisconsin; making appropriations for fortifications; and an act for the admission of the states of Iowa and Florida into the Union. Florida complied with the terms of the last act, and was, consequently, admitted into the Union; but the people of Iowa rejected the terms, principally on account of the boundary defined by Congress, and, therefore, Iowa remained a territory.

A bill forbidding the president to build revenue-cutters at his own discretion, which had been vetoed by President Tyler, was again passed by

the senate, and by the house, by more than a two-third vote (in the latter by 126 to 31), and thus became a law, notwithstanding the veto. A bill making appropriations for certain harbors and rivers, passed both houses, near the close of the session, but was retained by the president, and thus failed to become a law, in consequence of what was called a "pocket veto," which was the last act of Mr. Tyler's administration, as a similar act had been that of President Jackson's, in 1837.

Thus ended the administration of John Tyler; of whom it may be said, that he retired without the regret of either of the two great political parties of the country; as by his course he had lost the confidence of that party by which he was elected, without gaining that of their political opponents. Many important matters, however, were accomplished by this administration, the credit of which was bestowed upon others, instead of the president. Thus the protective tariff act of 1842 was accomplished by a whig Congress, although approved by the executive; and the settlement of the northeastern boundary question, by the treaty with Great Britain, was accredited to the energy and skill of the secretary of state, Mr. Webster; while the annexation of Texas was a measure which was mainly pushed to completion through the ability and exertions of another secretary of state, Mr. Calhoun; and any benefits that were derived from it as forming political capital, were seized upon and used by the democratic party, for the purpose of coming into power, by the election of Polk and Dallas. It wonld be unjust, however, to deny to Mr. Tyler whatever merit is his due from the circumstance of having used every exertion to carry through the Texas measure during his administration. Nor is it to be denied that the foreign relations of the United States were ably managed during his presidential term, and that he generally surrounded himself with able counsellors in his cabinet.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

JAMES KNOX POLK.

JAMES KNOX POLK, the eleventh president of the United States, is the oldest of ten children, and was born on the second of November, 1795, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina. His ancestors, whose original name, Pollock, has, by obvious transition, assumed its present form, emigrated in the early part of the eighteenth century, from Ireland. The family traces their descent from Robert Polk, who was born and married in Ireland; his wife, Magdalen Tusker, was the heiress of Mowning hill. They had six sons and two daughters; Robert Polk, the progenitor of James Knox Polk, was the fifth son; he married a Miss Gullet, and removed to America. Ezekiel Polk, the grandfather of James K. Polk, was one of his sons.

The Polk family settled in Somerset county, on the eastern shore of Maryland, where some of their descendants still sojourn. Being the only democrats of note in that county, they were called the democratic family. The branch of the family from which the president is descended, removed to the neighborhood of Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and thence to the western frontier of North Carolina, sometime before the commencement of the revolutionary war. Some of the Polk family were honorably distinguished in that eventful struggle. On the twentieth of May, 1775, consequently more than twelve months anterior to the declaration of independence of the fourth of July, 1776, the assembled inhabitants of Mecklenburg county publicly absolved themselves from their allegiance to the British crown, and issued a formal manifesto of independence, in terms of manly eloquence, similar to some of the expressions in the declaration of the American Congress adopted more than a year afterward. Colonel Thomas Polk, the prime mover in this act of noble daring, and one of the signers of this first declaration of independence, was the great uncle of the president; and the family is also connected with the Alexanders, chairman and sec

retary of the meeting which adopted the declaration, as well as with Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the author of the declaration itself.

The father of James K. Polk was a farmer of unassuming pretensions, but enterprising character. Thrown upon his own resources in early life, he became the architect of his own fortunes. He was a warm supporter of Mr. Jefferson, and through life a firm and undeviating democrat. In the autumn of 1806 he removed, with his family of ten children, from the homestead in North Carolina, to Tennessee, where he was one of the pioneers of the fertile valley of Duck river, a branch of the Cumberland, then a wilderness, but now the most flourishing and populous portion of the state. In this region the subject of this sketch resided, until his election to the presidency, so that he may be said, literally, to have grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength. Of course, in the infancy of its settlement, the opportunities for instruction could not be great. Notwithstanding this disadvantage-and the still more formidable one of a painful affection from which, after years of suffering, he was finally relieved by a surgical operation—he acquired the elements of a good English education. Apprehending that his constitution had been too much impaired to permit the confinement of study, his father determined, much, however, against the will of the son, to make him a commercial man; and with this view placed him with a merchant.

He remained a few weeks in a situation adverse to his wishes, and incompatible with his taste. Finally, his earnest appeals succeeded in overcoming the resistance of his father, and in July, 1813, he was placed, first under the care of the Rev. Dr. Henderson, and subsequently at the academy of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, then under the direction of Mr. Samuel P. Black, justly celebrated in that region as a classical teacher. In the autumn of 1815 he entered the university of North Carolina, having, in less than two years and a half, thoroughly prepared himself to commence his collegiate course, being then in the twentieth year of his age.

Mr. Polk's career at the university was distinguished. At each semiannual examination, he bore away the first honor, and finally graduated in 1818, with the highest distinction of his class, and with the reputation of being the first scholar in both the mathematics and classics. Of the former science he was passionately fond, though equally distinguished as a linguist. His course at college was marked by the same assiduity and studious application which have since distinguished him. His ambition to excel was equalled by his perseverance alone; in proof of which, it is said that he never missed a recitation, nor omitted the punctilious performance of any duty. Habits of close application at college are apt to be despised by those who pride themselves on brilliancy of mind, as if they were incompatible. This is a melancholy mistake. Genius has ever been defined the faculty of appreciation. The latter is, at least, something better, and more available. So carefully has Mr. Polk avoided the ped

antry of classical display, which is the false taste of our day and country, as almost to hide the acquisitions which distinguished his early career. His preference for the useful and substantial, indicated by his youthful passion for the mathematics, has made him select a style of elocution which would perhaps be deemed too plain by the admirers of flashy declamation.*

From the university he returned to Tennessee, with health impaired by application, and, in the beginning of the year 1819, commenced the study of the law (that profession which has furnished nine of the eleven presidents of the United States), in the office of the late Felix Grundy, for many years a representative and senator of Tennessee in Congress; under whose auspices he was admitted to the bar, at the close of 1820. He commenced his professional career in the county of Maury, with great advantages, derived from the connexion of his family with its early settlement. His warmest friends were the sharers of his father's early privations and difficulties, and the associates of his own youth. But his success was due to his personal qualities still more than to extrinsic advantages. A republican in habits as well as in principles, depending for the maintenance of his dignity upon the esteem of others, and not upon his own assumption, his manners conciliated the general good will. The confidence of his friends was justified by the result. His thorough academical education, his accurate knowledge of the law, his readiness and resources in debate, his unwearied application to business, secured him, at once, full employment, and in less than a year he was already a leading practitioner.

Mr. Polk continued to devote some years exclusively to the prosecution of his profession, with a progressive augmentation of reputation, and the more solid rewards by which it is accompanied. In 1823, he entered upon the stormy career of politics, being chosen to represent his county in the state legislature, by a heavy majority over the former incumbent, but not without formidable opposition. He was for two successive years a member of that body, where his ability in debate, and talent for business, at once gave him reputation. The early personal and political friend of General Jackson, he was one of those who, in the session of 1823-24, called that distinguished man from his retirement, by electing him to the senate of the United States.

In August, 1825, being then in his thirtieth year, Mr. Polk was chosen to represent his district in Congress, and took his seat in the national councils in December following. He brought with him those fundamental principles to which he has adhered through all the mutations of party. From his early youth he was a democratic republican of the strictest sect. He has ever regarded the constitution of the United States as an instrument of specific and limited powers, and he was found in opposition to * For a part of this sketch we are indebted to the Democratic Review of May, 1838.