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James K. Polk Dbq

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As the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk was often considered the last strong president before Civil War. Despite that he is not as well-known as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, no one can deny that his contributions to the United States was tremendous. During his term in the White House, the United States gained more than 800,000 square miles of territory which equals to one-third of land the US had by that time and extended across the continent for the first time. Also, James reduced tariff in order to stimulate trade and created an independent US treasury.
James K. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on November 2nd, 1795. He was the eldest children in Polk family. When he was 11 years old, he moved to Columbia, Tennessee with his whole family where his father operated a prosperous farm and became a businessman and slaveholder. Right before his seventeenth birthday, he survived a major operation for stones in his urinary bladder when modern antiseptics and anesthesia had not been invented yet. Perhaps the surgery left him not only sterile, but also encouragement. In 1816, James successfully fulfilled the entrance requirement of University of North Carolina and became a sophomore there. In 1818, he graduated with top honors in bother mathematics and classics and then returned to …show more content…

In 1823, he entered politics and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. Two people who influenced the rest of his life appeared in 1824. One was the US seventh president and his mentor, Andrew Jackson. The other one, Sarah Childress, became his wife and his close advisor throughout his political career. James moved from the Tennessee House of Representatives to the United States House of Representatives one year later and served until 1839. He left Congress and became governor of Tennessee in 1839 and lost next two

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