James K. Polk
From Turtledove
| James K. Polk | |
| | |
| Historical Figure | |
| Timeline: | OTL |
| Nationality: | United States |
| Religion: | Methodists |
| Date of Birth: | 1795 |
| Date of Death: | 1849 |
| Cause of Death: | Natural Causes |
| Occupation: | Lawyer, Politician |
| Spouse: | Sarah Childress Polk |
| Affiliations: | Democratic Party |
| Timeline: | Southern Victory |
| Appearance(s): | In at the Death (posthumous reference) |
James Knox Polk (1795-1849) was the eleventh President of the United States. He was responsible for the second-largest expansion of the nation's territory. Polk secured the Oregon Territory (including Washington, Oregon and Idaho), then purchased most of what became the Southwest United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican War.
Prior to his Presidency, Polk had served as Governor of Tennessee and, before that, as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is the only alumnus of either office ever to be elected President, though Andrew Johnson, an unelected President who succeeded the late Abraham Lincoln to the office, had served as appointed military governor of Tennessee during the American Civil War.
[edit] James K. Polk in Southern Victory
James K. Polk was born in what became Pineville, North Carolina. A monument erected on the spot of his birth was site of the 1944 meeting between U.S. General Irving Morrell and Confederate President Don Partridge at which Partridge signed away Confederate sovereignty and ended the Second Great War. Both men deemed it a fit location for the meeting because Polk had been President before the United States was divided by the War of Secession.
| Office | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Tyler | President of the United States 1845-1849 | Succeeded by Zachary Taylor |
