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