THE Speaker of the House of Commons
is called the “first gentleman of England,” and it is characteristic
of the sturdy love of
popular liberty, which that nation has transmitted to us, that such a
title is more honored and respected than all the chartered peerages
in the land. The Speaker of the American House of Representatives, though, unlike the
British functionary, from the glorious
privilege of our institutions, which make every man his equal
not heading the people, or directly representing their constitutional
rights, is, nevertheless, in the dignity and duties of his office, the
symbol and representative of those unalienable rights of free
opinion and popular supremacy, which have made our country
all that it is in the scale of nations. He is at the head of the
purest representative body in the world, and directs the business
and guides the deliberations of that proud assembly which is at
once the heart, and hand, and voice, of the whole American people.
If a just self-respect will permit a pride in situation, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives may always feel honored in his
nobly distinguished position.
In these characteristic portraits, of which the design is to give
our readers, whom we love to consider as rooted to the soil, a correct
idea of those distinguished public men, who live for and before
heir country, as they are seen from day to day in their ordinary
avocations, the present sketch of Mr. Polk will be found equally
spirited as a drawing, and happy as a likeness. He is represented
in his place as Speaker, and standing up to address the House on a
point of order, a part of his duty which Mr. Polk discharges with
singular dignity and effect. The “Speakers chair” is situated on
a semicircular platform in the curve of that magnificent Hall in
which the House of Representatives meets. A railed desk runs
round the whole, at which are seated the Clerk of the House and
his assistants; raised above this a few steps, is a similar desk, behind
which the Speaker is seated. An ample crimson drapery is
suspended above it between two of the lofty, and wondrously beautiful
marble pillars by which the Hall is supported, and which is
justly inveighed against as incompatible with the Grecian simplicity
and massive richness of the architecture around. Two large
candelabras, are placed on either side of the chair, as represented
in the drawing.
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Mr. Polk’s manner in the chair is courteous, dignified,
and attentive, and his entire impartiality in giving the floor has been
frequently admitted by the Opposition side of the House. His knowledge of
parliamentary law, and of precedents attained by an unremitting attention
since his first election, is so conspicuous that no difficulty ever finds
him at a loss, and has completely won for him the
confidence and respect of the House, composed as it is of a large
number of violent political opponents. In the narrative of his life,
as given in the subsequent pages, the reader will have an opportunity
of judging how justly this has been merited on general grounds.
Mr. Polk, who is the oldest of ten children, was born in Mecklenburg
county, North Carolina, on the second of November, 1795,
and is consequently in the forty-third of his age. His ancestors,
whose original name, Pollock, has, by obvious transition, assumed
its present form, emigrated, more than a century ago, from Ireland,
a country from which many of our most distingufshed men arc
proud to derive their origin. They established themselves first in
Maryland, where some of their descendants still sojourn. The
branch of the family from which is sprung the subject of this memoir,
removed to the neighbourhood of Carlisle, in Pennsylvania,
and thence, to the western frontier of North Carolina, some time
before the commencement of the Revolutionary war. Its connection
with that eventful struggle is one of rare distinction. On the
twentieth of May, 1775, consequently more than a twelvemonth anterior
to the declaration of the Fourth of July, 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, which have become
“familiar as household words” to the American people. Col. 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 present Speaker, who is also connected with the
Alexanders, Chairman and Secretary of the famous meeting, as well
as with Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the author of the Declaration itself. *
_______
* Tradition ascribes to Thomas Polk the principal agency in bringing about the
Declaration, lie appears to have given the notice for the election of the Convention
and (being the colonel of the county) to have superintended the election in each of
the militia districts. He had been for a long time engaged in the service of the
province as. a surveyor, and as a member of the Assembly; and was thus intimately
acquainted, not only in Mecklenburg, but in the counties generally. His education
had been acquired, not within the classic walls of an English university, hut among
his own native hills, and amidst the passions and feelings of his countrymen. Dr.
Ephraim Brevard (the author of the Declaration) and Wraightstill [Waightstill] Avery, (the first
attorney-general of North Carolina) were men of the highest classical attainments,
and contributing their enlightened resources to the shrewd native enthusiasm of
Thomas Polk, produced a Declaration. at that time unrivalled, not only for the
neatness of its style, but for the moral sublimity of its conception.
Jones’s North Carolina
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Mr. Jefferson having, sincerely, no doubt, but upon merely negative grounds,
questioned the authenticity of this interesting piece
of history, the Legislature of North Carolina, with a becoming
pride of patriotism, caused the evidence establishing its validity to
be collected in a complete shape, and deposited in the archives of
the State. The people of Mecklenburg were, almost to a man,
staunch Whigs, in the genuine, revolutionary, acceptation of the
term, and have been up to the present day remarkable for their
unwavering adherence to democratic principles. As an evidence
of the sturdy independence which characterizes them, it is often
pleasantly observed that, at the last war, they took up arms six
months before, and did not lay them down until twelve months after,
he government. In the contest for independence several of Mr.
Polk’s relatives distinguished themselves, even to the peril of life.
To be allied to such a people and lineage, is a fit subject for honorable pride.
Liberty does not frown upon the indulgence of a sentiment so natural.
She does not reject the heritage of honor, while
refusing to add to it, social or political distinctions subversive of
equal rights. The American people have always manifested an
affectionate regard for those who bear the names of the heroes or
martyrs of the revolution. They furnish not a proof of the alleged
ingratitude of republics.
The father of Mr. 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 consistent republican.
In the autumn of 1800 he removed to Tennessee, where he was among the first pioneers
of the fertile valley of
Duck river, then a wilderness, but now the most flourishing and populous portion of
the State. The magical growth of a country which
was but yesterday redeemed from the sole dominion of nature, is a
phenomenon of great moral and political interest, and cannot fail to
impress a character of strength and enterprise upon the authors and
participators of the wonderful result. How can man languish or
alt, when all around him is expanding and advancing with irrepressible energy ?
In this region Mr. Polk still resides, 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 affliction,
from which, after years of suffering, he was finally relieved
by a surgical operation he acquired the elements of a good English
_______
*
Finally, the whole proceedings were read distinctly and audibly, at the court
house door, by Col. Thomas Polk, to a large, respectable, and approving assemblage
of citizens, who were present, and gave sanction to the business of the day.--Memoir
of Rev. Humphrey Hunter.--Ibid.
_______
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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 of him a commercial man; and with this view actually placed
him with a merchant. Upon what slender threads hang the destinies of life! A
little more, and the uncompromising opponent of the Bank of the
United States, the democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, might have been at
this day, in spite of his origin and early
tendencies, a Whig preacher of panics, uttering jeremiad for the
fate of that shadowy and intangible thing yclept “Credit System,”
“If shape it might be call’d, that shape had none,
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call’d, that shadow seem’d,
For each seemed either.”
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. It will be seen from this
hasty sketch, that the history of the Speaker
furnishes an interesting example of talent and perseverance triumphing over disheartening
difficulties in early life. So frequent
are such instances, that it would almost seem that true merit requires
the ordeal of adverse circumstances, to strengthen its temper and
distinguish it from unsubstantial pretension.
Mr. Polk s career at the University was distinguished. At each
semi-annual 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 characterized 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 even
been defined the faculty of application. The latter is, at least,
something better, and more available. So carefully has Mr. Polk
avoided the pedantry of classical display, which is the false taste
of our day and country, as almost to hide the acquisitions which
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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 shallow admirers of flashy declamation.
The worst of all styles is the florid and exaggerated. It is that of
minds which are, as it were, overlaid by their acquisitions. They
break down beneath a burden which they have not strength to bear,--
“Deep versed in books, but shallow in
themselves.”
The mind should rather be fertilized by culture than encumbered
with foreign productions. Pedantry is at once the result and proof
of sciolism.
Returning to Tennessee, from the State which is, in two senses,
his alma mater, with health considerably impaired by excessive
application, Mr. Polk, in the beginning of the year 1819, commenced the study of the
law in the office of Senator Grundy, and
late in 1820 was admitted to the bar. He commenced his professional career in the county of
Maury, with great advantages, derived from the connection of his family with its early settlement.
To this hour his warmest friends are the sharers of his fathers 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 preparation, 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. Such prompt success in a
profession where the early stages
are proverbially slow and discouraging, falls to the lot of few.
Mr. Polk continued to devote some years exclusively to the laborious 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
Gen. Jackson, he was one of those who, in the session of 1823, 4
called that distinguished man from his retirement by electing him
to the Senate of the United States; and he looks back with pride
to the part he took in an act which was followed by such important
consequences. In August, 1825, being then in his thirtieth year,
Mr. Polk was chosen to represent his district in Congress, and in
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the ensuing December took his seat in that body, where he has remained ever since.
He brought with him into the national councils those fundamental principles to which
he has adhered through
all the personal mutations of party. From his early youth he was
a republican of the “straitest sect.” He has ever regarded the
Constitution of the United States as an instrument of specific and
limited powers, and that doctrine is at the very foundation of the
democratic creed. Of course, he has ever been, what is termed, a
strict constructionist, repudiating, above all things, the latitudinarian
interpretations of federalism, which tend to the consolidation of all
power in the central government. He has signalized his hostility
to these usurping doctrines in all their modes. He has always refused
his assent to the appropriation of money by the Federal Government for
what he deems the unconstitutional purpose of constructing works of internal
improvement within the States. He
took ground early against the constitutionality as well as expediency
of a National Bank; and in August, 1829, consequently several
months before the appearance of Gen. Jackson’s first message, announced
then his opinions in a published letter to his constituents.
He has ever been opposed to an oppressive tariff for protection,
and was, at all times, the strenuous advocate of a reduction of the
revenue to the economical wants of the Government. Entertaining
these opinions, as we shall have occasion to illustrate, and entering
Congress, as he did, at the first session after the election of the
younger Adams, he promptly took his stand against the broad and
dangerous doctrines developed in the first message of that Chief
Magistrate, and was, during the continuance of his administration,
firmly and resolutely, but not factiously, opposed to its leading
measures.
When Mr. Polk entered Congress, he was, with one or two
exceptions, the junior member of that body. But capacity like
his could not long remain unnoticed. In consequence of the palpable
disregard of the public will manifested in the election by
the House of Mr. Adams, together with the means by which it
was effected, a proposition was brought forward, and much discussed at the
time, to amend the Constitution in such manner as to
give the choice of President and Vice President immediately and
irreversibly to the people. In favor of this proposition, Mr. Polk
made his first speech in Congress, which at once attracted the attention
of the country by the force of its reasoning, the copiousness
of its research, and the spirit of honest indignation by which it was
animated. It was at once seen that his ambition was to distinguish
himself by substantial merit rather than rhetorical display, the rock
upon which most young orators split. At the same session, that
egregious measure of political Quixotism, the Panama mission,
which was proposed in contempt of the sound maxim, to cultivate
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friendship with all nations, yet engage in entangling alliances with
none, gave rise to a protracted debate in both Houses of Congress.
The exploded federal doctrine was, upon this occasion revived, that,
as under the Constitution, the President and Senate exclusively are
endowed with the treaty-making faculty, and that of originating
and appointing to missions, their acts under that power become the
supreme law of the land, nor can the House of Representatives
deliberate upon, much less, in the exercise of a sound discretion,
refuse, the appropriations necessary to carry them into effect.
Against a doctrine so utterly subversive of the rights and powers
of the popular branch of Congress, as well as of the fundamental
principles of democracy, Mr Polk strenuously protested, embodying his views
in a series of resolutions, which reproduced, in a tangible shape, the
doctrines, on this question, of the republican party
of 98. The first of these resolutions which presents the general
principle with brevity and force, runs thus: “that it is the
constitutional right and duty of the House of Representatives, when
called upon for appropriations to defray the expenses of foreign
missions, to deliberate on the expediency or inexpediency of such
missions, and to determine and act thereon, as in their judgment
may seem most conducive to the public good.”
From this time Mr. Polk’s history is inseparably interwoven with
that of the House. He is prominently connected with every important question,
and upon every one, as by an unerring instinct of
republicanism, took the soundest and boldest ground. From his entrance
into public life, his adherence to the cardinal principles of
the democratic creed has been singularly steadfast. During the
whole period of Gen. Jackson’s administration, as long as he retained a
seat on the floor, he was one of its leading supporters, and
at times, and on certain questions of paramount importance, its
chief reliance. In the hour of trial he was never found wanting,
or from his post. In December, 1827, two years after his entrance
in the House, Mr. Polk was placed on the important committee of
Foreign Affairs, and some time after was appointed, in addition,
chairman of the Select Committee to which was referred that portion of
the Presidents message calling the attention of Congress
to the probable accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury, after the
anticipated extinguishment of the National Debt. As the head of
this committee he made a lucid report, replete with the soundest
doctrines, ably enforced, denying the constitutional power of Congress
to collect from the people, for distribution, a surplus beyond
the wants of the Government, and maintaining that the revenue
should be reduced to the exigencies of the public service.
The session of 1830 will always be distinguished by the death
blow which was then given to the unconstitutional system of internal
improvements by the General Government. We have ever
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regarded the Maysville Road Veto as second in importance to none
of the acts of Gen. Jackson’s energetic administration. It lopped
off one of the worst branches of the miscalled American System.
Mr. Polk had assailed the bill before its passage with almost solitary energy;
and one of his speeches, (On the Buffalo and New Orleans Road Bill.) in which
he discusses the
general policy of the American System in its triple aspect of
high prices for the public lands, to check agricultural emigration
to the West, and foster the creation of a manufacturing population, -- of high
duties or taxes for protection, and excessive revenue, -- and of internal
improvements, to spend this revenue in corrupting the country with its own
money, should be perused by
every one who wishes to arrive at sound views upon a question
which has so much agitated the public mind. When the bill was
returned by the President unsigned, a storm arose in the House,
in the midst of which the veto was attacked by a torrent of passionate
declamation, mixed with no small share of personal abuse. To
a member from Ohio, whose observations partook of the latter
character, Mr. Polk replied in an energetic improvisation, vindicating the
patriotic resolution of the Chief Magistrate. The friends
of States Rights in the House rallied manfully upon the veto. The
result was that the bill was rejected, and countless ‘log-rolling’
projects for the expenditure of many millions of the public treasure,
which awaited the decision, perished in embryo.
In December, 1832, he was transferred to the Committee of Ways
and Means, with which his connection has been so distinguished.
At that session the Directors of the Bank of the United States were
summoned to Washington, and examined upon oath, before the committee just named.
A division of opinion resulted in the presentation of two reports. That of the
majority, which admitted that
the Bank had exceeded its lawful powers, by interfering with the
plan of the government, to pay off the three per cent. stock, was
tame, and unaccompanied by pertinents facts, or elucidating details.
Mr. Polk, in behalf of the minority, made a detailed report, communicating
all the material circumstances, and presenting conclusions utterly adverse
to the institution which had been the subject
of inquiry. This arrayed against him the whole bank power,
which he was made to feel in a quarter where he had every thing at
stake, for upon his return to his district he found the most formidable
opposition mustered against him for his course upon this question. The
friends of the United States Bank held a meeting at
Nashville to denounce his report. The most unscrupulous
misrepresentations were resorted to in order to prove that he had destroyed
the credit of the West, by proclaiming that his countrymen were
unworthy of mercantile confidence. The result, however, was, that
after a violent contest, Mr. Polk was re-elected by a majority of
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more than three thousand. Fortunately for the stability of our institutions,
the panics which frighten cities from their propriety,
do not sweep with the same desolating force over the scattered
dwellings of the country.
In September, 1833, the President, indignant at the open defiance
of law by the Bank of the United States, and the unblushing corruption which it
practiced, determined upon the bold and salutary measure of the removal of the
deposites, which was effected in the fob
lowing month. The act produced much excitement throughout the
country, and it was foreseen that a great and doubtful conflict was
about to ensue. At such a crisis it became important to have at the
head of the Committee of Ways and Means, a man of courage to
meet, and firmness to sustain, the formidable shock. Such a man
was found in Mr. Polk, and he proved himself equal to the occasion.
Congress met, and the conflict proved even fiercer than had been
anticipated. The cause of the Bank was supported in the House
by such men as Mr. McDuffie, Adams and Binney, not to mention
a host of other names. It is instructive to look back in calmer
times, to the reign of terror known as the Panic Session. The
Bank, with the whole commerce of the country at its feet, alternately torturing
and easing its miserable pensioners as they increased or
relaxed their cries of financial agony; public meetings
held in every city with scarcely the intermission of a day, denouncing the President
as a tyrant and the enemy of his country;
deputations flocking from the towns to extort from him a reluctant
submission; Whig orators traversing the country, and stimulating
the passions of excited multitudes, without respect even to the
sanctity of the Sabbath; inflammatory memorials poured into Congress
from every quarter; the Senate almost decreeing itself into
a state of permanent insurrection, and proclaiming that a revolution had
already begun; all the business of legislation in both
wings of the Capitol postponed to that of agitation and panic; an
extrajudicial and branding sentence pronounced upon the Chief
Magistrate of the nation, in violation of usage and of the Constitution, --
these features present but a faint picture of the alarm and confusion
which prevailed. Consternation had almost seized upon the
the republican ranks, thinned by desertions and harassed by distracting
doubts and fears. But the stern resolve of him whose iron arm
guided the helm of State, conducted the perilous conflict to a successful
issue. Nor should we forget the eminent services of the
individual who presided over the Committee of Ways and Means.
His coolness, promptitude, and abundant resources were never at
fault. His opening speech in vindication of the Presidents measure,
contains all the material facts and reasons on the republican
side of the question, enforced with much power and illustrated by
great research. To this speech almost every member of the
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Opposition, who spoke upon the question, attempted to reply, but the
arguments which its author brought forward to establish the power
of the President under the Constitution, as elucidated by contemporaneous
or early exposition, to do the act, which had been so boldly
denounced as a high-handed and tyrannical usurpation, could neither
be refuted nor weakened. Mr. McDuffie, the distinguished leader
of the Opposition in this eventful conflict, bore testimony, in his
concluding remarks, to the boldness and manliness with which Mr.
Polk had assumed the only position which could be judiciously
taken. The financial portion of his speech, and that in which he
exposed the glaring misdeeds of the bank, were no less efficient.
When Mr. McDuffie had concluded the remarks to which we have
alluded, a member from Virginia, after a few pertinent observations,
demanded the previous question. A more intense excitement was
never felt in Congress than at this thrilling moment. The two
parties looked at each other for a space, in. sullen silence, like two
armies on the eve of a deadly conflict. The motion of Mr. Mason
prevailed, the debate was arrested, and the division proved a triumphant
victory for the republican cause. The Bank then gave up
the contest in despair.
The position of Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means,
at all times a most arduous and responsible one, was doubly so at
this session, which will form an epoch in the political annals of the
country. Mr. Polk occupied it for the first time. From its organization and
the nature of its duties, this committee must be at all
times the chief organ of every administration in the house. At
this session it was for obvious reasons peculiarly so. To attack it,
then, was to strike at the government; to embarrass its action was
to thwart the course of the administration. Extraordinary and indiscriminate opposition was accordingly made to all the appropriation bills.
It was avowed in debate, that it was within the scope
of legitimate opposition, to withhold even the ordinary supplies
until the deposites were restored to the Bank of the United States;
that this restitution must be made, or revolution ensue. The Bank
must triumph, or the wheels of government be arrested. The peo[ple] should
never forget the perils of a contest, in which they were
almost constrained to succumb. The recollection should warn
them not to build up again a power in the State of such formidable
faculties. The tactics which we have just described, threw great
additional labour upon the committee, and particularly upon its
chairman. Fully apprised of the difficulties he had to encounter,
he maintained his post with sleepless vigilance and untiring activity. He was always
ready to give the House ample explanations upon every item,
however minute, of the various appropriations. He was ever prompt to meet any
objections which might
be starte4 and of quick sagacity to detect the artifices to which
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factious disingenuousness is prone to resort. All the measures of
the committee, including those of paramount importance, relating
to the bank and the deposites, were. carried in spite of the most immitigable
opposition. The true-hearted republicans who conducted this critical conflict
to a successful issue, among whom Mr. Polk
occupies a distinguished rank, deserve the lasting gratitude of the
country.
Towards the close of the memorable. session of 1834, Mr. Speaker
Stevenson resigned the chair, as well as his seat in the House.
The majority of the democratic party preferred Mr. Polk as his
successor, but in consequence of a division in its ranks, the Opposition,
to whom his prominent and uncompromising course had rendered him less
acceptable, succeeded in electing a gentleman, then.
a professed friend, but since, a decided opponent of the President
and his measures. Mr. Polk’s defeat produced no change in his,
course. He remained faithful to his party, and assiduous in the
performance of his arduous duties. In December, 1835, he was
elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and chosen again
in September last, after an animated contest. The duties of this
difficult situation, it is now conceded, he has discharged with rare
fidelity and fairness. In the beginning unusual difficulties were
thrown in his way by an animosity which was sometimes carried to
an extent that called forth general animadversion. During the first
session in which he presided, more appeals were taken from his decision
than had occurred in the whole period since the origin of the
Government; but he was uniformly sustained by the House, and by
many of his political adversaries. Strangers of all parties who visit
Washington are struck with the dignity, promptitude, and impartiality
with which he presides over the deliberations of the House.
It was with great pleasure that we heard, but the other day, an eminent
member of the Opposition in that body, bear the same testimony.
Notwithstanding the violence with which he had been assailed,
Congress passed, at the close of the session in 1837, an
unanimous vote of thanks to its presiding officer, from whom it
separated with the kindest feelings; and no man, now, could enjoy
its confidence and friendship in a higher degree. His calmness
and good temper have allayed the violence of opposition, in
a station for which his quickness, coolness, and sagacity eminently
qualify him.
Few public men have pursued a firmer or more consistent course
that Mr. Polk. Upon several emergencies, when the current of
popular opinion threatened to overwhelm him, he has sternly adhered
to the convictions of duty, preferring to sink with his principles,
rather that rise by their abandonment. This, we have noticed, was the case
after his bank report in 1833, and he incurred
the same hazard, when in 1835 he avowed his unalterable
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purpose not to separate from the democratic party in the presidential
election. On each of these occasions, the popular excitement in
his district, would have appalled and driven back a timid and time-
serving politician. Had he been governed by selfish motives; had
he consulted his own personal ease and looked to his re-election
alone; had be, in short, regarded success more than principle, he
would have yielded his own convictions to the indications, not to be
mistaken, of popular opinion. But he took counsel of nobler sen
timents, and with a fearlessness characteristic of his whole public
course, avowed and persisted in his well-matured determinations.
He succeeded in carrying truth home to an enlightened constituency,
was sustained by increasing majorities, and is now so strong in the
good will of his district, that at the last election no opposition was
attempted. Nothing can be more false than the charge of subserviency
which has been brought against him, in common with the
prominent supporters of the late administration. It is true, that
despising the cant of no party, which has ever been the pretext
of selfish and treacherous politicians, and convinced that in a popular
government nothing can be accomplished by isolated action, he
has always acted with his party, as far as principle would justify.
Upon most of the prominent measures of the late administration,
however, his opinions were not only generally known, but he had
actually spoken or voted, before the accession of Gen. Jackson to
power.
Mr. Polk is a ready debater, with a style and manner forcible and
impressive. In discussion, he has been always distinguished by
great courtesy, never having been known to indulge in offensive
personality, which, considering the prominence of his course, and
the ardor of his convictions, is no small merit. As a proof of his
exemplary assiduity, he is said never to have missed a division,
while occupying a seat on the floor of the House, his name being
found upon every list of the yeas and nays. His ambition was to
be a useful member as well as a prominent actor, and accordingly he
always performed more than a full share of the active business of
legislation. In person he is of middle stature, with a full, angular
brow, and a quick and penetrating eye. The expression of his countenance
is grave, but its serious cast is often relieved by a peculiarly
pleasant smile, indicative of the amenity of his disposition. The
amiable character of his private life, which has ever been upright
and pure, secures to him the esteem and friendship of all who have
the advantage of his acquaintance.
Bibliography
Source: United States Magazine and Democratic Review. “Political
Portraits with Pen and Pencil.” No. VI. James K. Polk. May 1838, Volume 2, Issue 6, pp.197-208
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