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born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
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Polk was home schooled
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He later lived in and represented Tennessee
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Polk joined the Tennessee militia as a captain in the cavalry regiment of the 5th Brigade
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Polk courted Sarah Childress, and they married on January 1, 1824 in Murfreesboro.
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In 1824, Jackson ran for President but was defeated. Though Jackson had won the popular vote, neither he nor any of the other candidates (John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford) had won a majority of the electoral vote.
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In 1825, Polk ran for the United States House of Representatives for the Tennessee's 6th congressional district.
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Polk made his first major speech on March 13, 1826, in which he said that the Electoral College should be abolished and that the President should be elected by the popular vote.
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In 1827 Polk was reelected to Congress
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In 1828, Jackson ran for President again and during the campaign Polk and Jackson corresponded, with Polk giving Jackson advice on his campaign.
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In August 1833, after being elected to this fifth term, Polk became the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
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in 1835, Democrats had lost the governorship for the first time in their party's history—persuaded Polk to return to help the party at home.
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In June 1834, Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson resigned, leaving the spot for speaker open. Polk ran against fellow Tennessean John Bell for Speaker, and, after ten ballots, Bell won. However, in 1835, Polk ran against Bell for Speaker again and won.
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The two major issues during Polk's speakership were slavery and the economy, after the Panic of 1837.
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Leaving Congress in 1839, Polk became a candidate in the Tennessee gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Whig, Newton Cannon by about 2,500 votes, out of about 105,000.
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He challenged Jones in 1843, campaigning across the state and publicly debating against Jones, but was defeated again, this time by a slightly greater margin of 3,833 votes.
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Polk initially hoped to be nominated for vice president at the Democratic convention, which began on May 27, 1844.
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In 1844 the U.S. Democratic Party, appealing to expansionist sentiment and the popular theme of manifest destiny, asserted that the U.S. had a valid claim to the entire Oregon Country up to Russian America at parallel 54°40′ north.
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Polk's Whig opponent in the 1844 presidential election was Henry Clay of Kentucky.
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Polk won the popular vote by a margin of about 39,000 out of 2.6 million, and took the Electoral College with 170 votes to Clay's 105. Polk won 15 states, while Clay won 11.
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When he took office on March 4, 1845, Polk, at 49, became the youngest man at the time to assume the presidency.
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Acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico.
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In 1846, Congress approved the Walker Tariff (named after Robert J. Walker, the Secretary of the Treasury), which represented a substantial reduction of the high Whig-backed Tariff of 1842.
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Reestablish the Independent Treasury System.
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Polk left on March 4, 1849, exhausted by his years of public service.
