James K. Polk: Life Lessons
Life lessons from the eleventh president: what a leader who named his aims, kept them, and then stepped aside can teach us about promises, and about telling the whole cost of a victory. James K. Polk promised to serve one term and to extend the nation. He left office having met his major pledges. The way he kept those promises, and the costs that came with them, still offer three useful lessons for everyday life. Lesson 1: Name what you will do, then do it Polk was born in 1795 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, became a Tennessee lawyer, and served as Speaker of the House and as governor of Tennessee. The Polk Home in Columbia is the house tied to his name. He took office in 1845, pledged to a single term. In 1846 he settled the Oregon boundary with Britain at the 49th parallel, a diplomatic close rather than a new war in the Northwest. That same year he restored the Independent Treasury, first set up under Van Buren and lat...