As a boy James Knox Polk led a life that would please a good ma-ny
of the boys of to-day. He was born in Meck-len-burg County, North
Car-o-li-na, on No-vem-ber 2d, 1705; but in 1806 his fa-ther went to
Duck Farm, Ten-nes-see, and lit-tle James, e-lev-en years old, was of
much help in the new home. Where the day's work took the big, strong
fa-ther, there went the small son; if there was a long ride to get food
or clothes from some big town, lit-tle James could help care for the
hors-es and when his fa-ther and oth-er men, for weeks at a time, were
in the great, wild woods, hunt-ing, mak-ing new roads, or helping each
oth-er build the log cab-ins, which were the homes of these ear-ly
set-tlers, James would be there too, cook-ing meals and keep-ing the
camp neat and bright for the men who came back tired and hun-gry at
night.
So years passed by with much work in the o-pen air and lit-tle of stud-y
or books; but when James was four-teen years old it was time that he
should earn mon-ey.
He was not a big, strong boy; he could not stand rough, hard work on
a farm; he did not love to hunt; he had no taste for war; so he was put
in a small store, that he might learn to man-age a big store when he
grew old.
Here he first saw some books, and his love for them a-woke; for weeks
and months he worked a-lone with an-y book or pa-per he could find.
At last his fa-ther took him from the store and sent him to school; he
was now eight-een, but he was so quick to learn, so bright and smart,
that five years from this time he left the U-ni-ver-si-ty of North
Car-o-li-na at the head of his class.
When he came back to Duck Riv-er, not on-ly was his fa-ther proud of his
boy, but all Ten-nes-see knew that he was one of the bright-est young
men in the state.
Now, just at this time, Gen-er-al Jack-son was fight-ing so brave-ly
a-gainst the In-di-ans and all the boys of Ten-nes-see were as proud of
this great he-ro as the boys of Vir-gin-i-a had been of Wash-ing-ton. In
1819, when young James Polk went to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see, to take up
law, he was near Jack-son's home; and he and the great Gen-er-al be-came
fast friends. It was ow-ing to Jack-son's help that, in 1824, Polk, then
a bright young law-yer, took his first pub-lic step and was sent to the
state leg-is-la-ture.
He a-rose so fast in the love and trust of his state that he was sent to
Con-gress when on-ly thir-ty years old; and here he stayed for thir-teen
years.
In 1840 he went back to his home at Grun-dy's Hill in Nash-ville,
hav-ing made a great name in Wash-ing-ton; not once did he lose his hold
on the great ques-tions of the day, e-ven while here at home; and in
1845 he was chos-en pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States.
While he was in of-fice, once more the U-nit-ed States was at war, and
this war is known as the "Mex-i-can War." Its cause was this:--
Our peo-ple in Mex-i-co said that a big tract of land down there was
theirs; the Mex-i-cans laid claim to it too; so Gen-er-al Tay-lor went
down to see that our rights were looked af-ter.
In the first fight he won, and lost but nine men; then he laid siege to
their great cit-y of Mon-te-rey, and af-ter a hard fight took the town.
That same year Gen-er-al Scott took the cit-y of Ve-ra Cruz; on
Sep-tem-ber 14th, 1847, the A-mer-i-can troops took the cit-y of
Mex-i-co, and the long war was at an end.
In 1848 came the news of great gold mines in Cal-i-for-ni-a; and men
went in such num-bers to this state that the "Gold Fe-ver of 1849" is
a well known term to-day.
While Polk was in the chair, three new states came in; and two of them
were free states; that is, no slaves could be kept there; just at this
time some men formed a band, and said that no slaves should be kept in
an-y new state which the U-nit-ed States should gain.
In 1849 Polk went home to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see; he was on-ly
fif-ty-eight years old; but was so worn out with years of work that he
lived but a few months af-ter he got home; he died on the 15th of June,
in the same year.