James Knox Polk is the best one term president, and a top 10 overall president. Lets consider his presidency on several issues:

Goals: One of the main ways to judge whether a president is a good one, is whether or not he accomplished what he set out to do. Polk set four goals for his presidency:
1. reestablish the independent treasury system.
2. reduce the tariffs
3. acquire some or all of the Oregon Territory
4. acquire New Mexico and California from Mexico
---Another big part of his goal was to acquire Texas, but that was done a week before he was inagurated, so that is not included.

He accomplished all of these goals with the Walker Tariff, and restored the independent treasury system. So on these he is two for two.

The big issue with James Knox Polk is the Mexican War and the idea of manifest destiny.

Polk was such a huge Jacksonian Democrat that he earned the name "Little Hickory" to Andrew Jackson's "Old Hickory". I believe though that Polk was a far better president than Jackson. Andrew Jackson was personally responsible for the deaths of many Native Americans on the "Trail of Tears". Also though, his personal fight with the Bank of the United States had a direct effect on Panic of 1837.

The annexation of Texas was strongly supported by Polk, and the people of the independent Republic of Texas. As such, Texas was added to the United States in 1845. Mexico has no say in whether Texas becomes part of the United States or not, Texas won their independence from Mexico almost 10 years earlier and governed themselves. Mexico threatened war if Texas was annexed, despite having no say in the matters of Texas or the US. When Polk sent a representative down to Mexico to negotiate the peaceful purchase of New Mexico and California(which Mexico had severely neglected), he was not allowed entry. They thought that the US was going to compensate Mexico for the "loss" of Texas. As such, he is seen as starting a "pre-emptive" war with Mexico. In reality, the war with Mexico was going to be inevitable, it was just a matter of who started it first. And when the US won, they took California and New Mexico, but still paid Mexico a fair amount of money. Polk later peacefully negotiated the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico to set the southwest boundary where it is today.

Contrary to popular belief, Polk was not a warmongerer in the vein of Napoleon and Hitler. This is illustrated in his purchase of the Oregon Territory, the Gadsden Purchase, and fighting the clamoring in his own party to annex all of Mexico and Cuba, which he refused. He merely knew what it took to protect the United States from other aggressors in the area. Unlike in Europe, where boundaries for those nations had been set for hundreds of years, the North American continent was still very unorganized and in a lot of places, there were conflicts of who owned what. For example, the Rio Grande was claimed by both the US and Mexico, and the entire Oregon Territory was claimed by Britain and the US. These were going to come into conflict eventually it was just a matter of time. Polk merely carved out what was to be the US and what was not. If that sounds unreasonable, it is really not. Not only could he have taken all of Mexico, at least all of the Oregon Territory, and Cuba, but there was significant numbers of Democrats that were demanding that that be what he do, just as a start. He showed his strength in resisting these overtures.

He is widely recognized as the last strong president before Lincoln. But he is also known as the first strong US war president. His taking of the reigns for the Mexican War also set the precedent that Lincoln would follow in the Civil War.

For that, it is my opinion that he is a top 10 president in my opinion. The only thing that he may have been able to do that would have made him a top 5 or even top 3 would have been to take a stronger stance on slavery. But hey, you can't win them all I guess.

My top 10 presidents:

1. Lincoln 2. FDR 3. Washington 4. T. Roosevelt 5. Jefferson 6. Eisenhower 7. Polk 8. Wilson 9. Truman 10. Adams

Most underrated president in our nation's history. By the time Polk left office, our country expanded from sea to sea. He accomplished everything he set out to do. In My Opinion, the greatest first-term president we ever had and definitely a top 10 president.

I think all the Polk idolatry is ridiculous; a narrow-minded workaholic and humorless, he did accomplish all he set out to do in one term and kept all his political promises. It's what he accomplished that's controversial, and I find him the hardest president to evaluate; he obviously didn't have much respect for human rights or equality, yet he did some good things. I have to rate him "OK;" to rate him higher is absurd.

By many accounts a narrow minded and difficult man in personal life, he was a competent administrator, and left behind a lasting legacy in
American policy - Manifest Destiny.

Judged in the context of the time, his foreign policies, particularly the war with Mexico are more defensible than some might see them today.

Polk may have taken a bigger fall among the historians than just about any U.S. president. In the late nineteenth century, a few historians ranked him as the very greatest American president. But when we look back nowadays, he seems completely unscrupulous. The major event of his administration was the war he provoked with Mexico. Let's consider that war: it was started by a president from the South who felt that the regime in Mexico was corrupt, undemocratic, and unable to control its most fanatical citizens; that that regime controlled resources crucial to the U.S. economy; that its strength was a direct threat to U.S. national security; and that it had engaged in killing American citizens. Sound familiar?

He presided over the greatest land theft in USA history. I guess that bumps him up a notch.   He only needed one term to do it.

When I had learned the basic facts about Polk a year ago, I also found that he is extremely difficult to evaluate. The Mexican War troubled my mind so much that I began to study the man who fought it. It took me months to read and digest lots of favourable and adverse comments on him in the web and in history books, some biographies, his diary and a good deal of his letters and speeches. The information on Polk is full of contradictions and it was very hard to decide what to believe. Even when I had sorted out what I found most probably true it did not seem to fit together. At last I managed to arrange the pieces of the puzzle to form a picture in my mind. This picture is not exactly hard to understand, but I find it very hard to describe. Anyway it showed Mr. Polk as a great President, perhaps even a great man, despite all his errors, blunders and sins. Considering all I learned, I deem that Polk's somewhat dry, and partly awkward oratory and writing is misleading. I found his intelligence underrated, as well as his religiousness and even his physical stamina. His intellect was indeed not brilliant. It needed sobriety and unemotional calm to work. It was a powerful tool for turning precise perceptions into well-founded decisions and effective action, rather than a source of creativity and self-expression. Throughout his life Polk developed his IQ and his intuition at the expense of other mental functions and got more and more unable to explain what he understood. He had the makings of obtaining superior know-how, but not the means of expressing it. Thats what made him act single-handedly so often. In my opinion Polk would never have started a war without having figured out carefully why and how he should fight it and that his chances of winning it were a good deal better than fifty/fifty. We cannot tell what would have happened without Polk's determination to complete the westward expansion in one huge effort. Polk could not tell either, but some of the scenarios that he and we could imagine look still more disagreeable than the Mexican War, don't they? I think his decisions were appropriate on the whole and that he had a rare ability of making up for blunders in time. Polk's business-like and calculating approach is somewhat repelling at first sight, and his social behaviour had indeed some ridiculous and annoying features. He wasn't a saint - neither a martyr of hard work nor a selfless philanthropist. Nevertheless he was not selfish either, just rather egocentric. I found him a righteous man who was willing to be taken responsible for what he did and who took great pains to prepare and enact his decisions diligently. Polk was despised and detracted for his austerity, but just this austerity enabled him to be a great President. Sadly it prevented him from looking like one, and even from looking amiable or interesting at all. Seems he could bear it, but I think he deserves a bit more sympathy and compassion than he usually receives. Studying Polk got me into the classical dilemma between the head and the heart, between head-ethics and heart-ethics. Must I be ashamed that my head won?

Broodinghen's contribution vividly illuminates the dilemma which misleads so many scholars into dismissing Polk as a "lightweight" or somehow inferior President. Those who go beyond an easy approach and try to see the man in the context of his time instead of from our bird's eye view will discover that many - not all of course - of his attitudes, actions, and decisions appear very sound indeed, and that he must have been more agreeable a person than some biographers are willing to concede. To come to a sustainable assessment of Polk it is essential not to rely on just one of his biographers, but to study the contemporary political situation and go into his own writings. Thank you, Broodinghen, for doing just that.

James Polk was a punk but in a great way. All the presidents know the score on this guy. Constant White House parties. Drinking during his Inaugural Address. This party animal of the 1840's was one wild guy. I remember the time he came over to my house, and said "let's go throw eggs at Andrew Jackson's house." I was like "awesome." I also remember the time that he stole money from the orphanage and blamed it on Martin Van Buren. There was no end to James Polk's antics. Truly, an amazing American. 5 stars!!!!!!!!!!

A recent retrospective of Polk puts him in higher esteem. He is remembered by the US Mexican war- however he made many under rated decisions that helped the country in the pre civil war period.

Survived gall bladder surgery at the age of 17... sedated only by brandy.

I'd argue that Polk was probably one of the most successful and hard-working US Presidents of the 1800's. He had a very ambitious domestic agenda largely based on expanding US borders to the Pacific by incorporating British and Mexican territory. Britain wasn't willing to put up a fight against the United States for the Pacific Northwest, but Mexico didn't exactly go quietly into the night. The Mexican American war was fought largely because of the US annexation of Texas into the Union in late 1845 right before he got into office. Basically the border wasn't clearly established, and without a diplomatic or financial solution, war was all but inevitable. The war ended up lasting nearly all of Polk's entire term. However it was also highly successful with minimal US causalities. In the final peace agreement, Polk did manage to get much of what he wanted: Texas down to the Rio Grande along with the right to buy California and New Mexico. Manifest Destiny was his primary legacy, but he was also a very hard-working President who was an honest and able administrator. He reformed the post office and lowered tariffs. Like his political hero, Thomas Jefferson, he believed in a small, efficient government that met the needs of the people well. He only served one term, for the job literally had exhausted him to death. Polk believed in the final analysis that he had carried out everything he had wanted to accomplish, and he probably did. He died shortly after leaving office.

A good, solid president. He expanded the boundaries of the United States and settled the border between Canada and the US. The war with Mexico led to the aquisition of California. If I were to put a ranking on him out of the forty-two presidents, I'd likely rank him around fourteenth or fifteenth.

First off on the last 3 comments, you are all judging Polk based on your dislike for Bush. I am as big of an anti-Bush anti-Iraq person as there can be, but I don't understand how you can vote him down based on your views about Bush. First off OneHungryMan, don't write innacuracies. He did not avoid war with Britain because they gave us the Oregon Country. He compromised (which is ironic as he defeated Henry Clay, The Great Compromiser, for president) to avoid war. The Oregon Country included what is now British Columbia, which he gave to Britain. Yes, you are right about his fighting Mexico as unnecesary to an extent as he was fighting over something like 8 miles of land, but the country was recovering from an economic downfall and he got California and Nevada, along with parts of Arizona and New Mexico while paying Mexico $15,000,000. He also set up the national treasury. You cannot judge a president based on your views of the current president (except the current president). A valid point you could have made was to bring up that history did not come kind on Polk until the 1900s as people blamed him for the Civil War for 50 years. But bringing up that he almost went to war with Britain is a pointless argument. He avoided war and he did not get everything he wanted. Learn the facts before you speak. drbowler, your assessment is way off and ignorant and stupid. Mexico could have been annexed without invasion and the Mexicans has legitamite claims to that land, considering that the U.S. only had something like 2000 settlers in the disputed lands.

Only president that I'm related to. Increased the size of the US. Also a horrible racist, but he wasn't alone at that time.

drbowler, you certainly know what you are talking about, but one addition to the part about Mexico: a small garrison of Mexican troops invaded the U.S. in April of 1846

We split the Oregon Territory with Britain. Texas wanted to be annexed and the Mexicans were being a-holes for saying the boundery was at the Nuches instead of the Rio Grande. Anyway the U.S. would have invaded Mexico eventullay. Polk annexed the place where I live. Texas rocks!!!!!!!

While P.C. doctrine may decry the Mexican War, then and now, as an illegal imperialist land grab, the annexation of California, Texas, and the rest has really been great for this country.

Unfairly underrated- well said bsd987!

We think Bush is bad for invading Iraq. He is, but, compared to Polk, that was nothing. Polk almost went to war with Britain to take Oregon (he didn't because Britain gave it to us), WENT to war with Mexico to take half their land, and pressed greatly to have Texas. Thanks for Texas, Polk!

It must've been fun whuppin' up on the Injuns!

Does the fact that we got more land really justify what he did? He basically provoked a war. He did something worse than Bush ever did.

A very good president. Had very good domestic policies, and he believed in expansion, which for better or worse, helped shaped what our country is today.

A useless one. A crap president who today was lucky enough to have a bunch of idiots or geezers who like the dildo enough to vote him above even FDR on this list. One of our very worst.

The best of the one-term presidents. Remember that he did not seek a second-term and made it clear while he was running for office that he would not seek one. He clearly outlined his major goals for his presidency, and he achieved them. Some may knock him for matters he did not confront during his presidency such as slavery, but let's be honest, no president confronted this issue nor had the political courage to do so until Linciln entered the national stage. Polk should be rated for what he did, and that was everything he campaigned on. He should be rated among the top ten presidents in the history of this country.

James K. Polk and his Presidency is much like that of George Washington. Both Polk and Washington had similar attitudes toward slavery, and it showed in the decisions they made. And both Washington and Polk left the White House having accomplished the goals that they set upon entering. Ironically enough, I said that George Washington was the one man who if he had taken a strong stance against slavery in the United States would have been able to avert Civil War. Well, only a little over a decade after the Presidency of Polk, who was extremely popular, the Civil War broke out. His narrow minded views on slavery only furthered the sectionalist movement and led us closer to Civil War. He personally supported the ban of slavery in all lands acquired by Mexico, but never stood fully behind it. Texas became a state in December of 1845, but Mexico refused to accept the Rio Grande as the border. They believed that Texas's border was further north. Polk sent American troops to the Rio Grande. Tensions mounted when the Mexican Army crossed the border and killed over a dozen American soldiers. At Polk's urging, Congress declared war. The war was won in short time with minimum American casualties. While whether the war was worth fighting is debateable, his leadership was very bold. Meanwhile, border disputes with Great Britain in Oregon were intensifying, and Polk was more than willing to use military force to get what he wanted. In the end, though, Polk compromised with the British and finally settled the border dispute. As a result of the war with Mexico, much land was acquired from Mexico. The treaty which granted the United States the land did nothing to address slavery in these new territories. Meanwhile, Polk lowered tariffs, which he promised to do while running for President. The Independent Treasury Act had been repealed in 1841. Polk attempted to revive this, and signed the Independent Treasury Act of 1846. It entrusted the federal government with the exclusive management of government funds and required that disbursements be made in hard specie like gold or silver, or in paper backed by gold or silver. So in the final analysis, Polk was definately a President who had a significant impact on the office. He left office having successful acquired California and New Mexico and settled the Oregon and Texas border disputes. He strengthened the Executive Office. The United States increased 25% in size as a result of the war with Mexico and the agreement with Britain over Oregon. He masterfully kept open lines of communication with Congress, established an administrative press, and conducted himself as a representative of the whole people. He left the office the most successful president since Washington in the accomplishment of his goals. Sadly, Polk was the last president popular enough to have had any hope of successfully addressing the slavery issue. However, at that point in time, I do not believe that any man had a chance of preventing the Civil War that occured just a decade after Polk left office. Nonetheless, his ruthless pursuit of expanding American borders was not guided with much consideration for the divisions that it would cause in the country. "In truth, though I occupy a very high position, I am the hardest working man in this country."--- James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States.

stop with the polk fun sh*t

This might be common knowledge, but we believe that repetition brings true knowledge, so please bear with us. Polk was the forerunner of the communistic party. Prior to running for president he advocated a new social class he wanted to call "dukes of polk", but was stopped by the early peta and retired homeowners association. He was so mad he became a radical republican and joined the crazy fascist/minimalist/socialist weekend retreat in Waco, Texas. This was his prime reason for acquiring texas. He brought with him his sudanese mistress and practiced mormonism with numerous inuit wives. The legacy he left is quite a debacle in itself. On another note, he holds several patents for the milking of sheared black sheep.

Kept his campaign promises.

Polk was lousy. He allowed the Mexican-American War to happen, and basically swindled Mexico out of tons of land. He did nothing alleviate the north/south tensions, and he certainly did nothing in terms of slavery.

Best Dem president. Actually kept his word.

He wanted to expand America from sea to shining sea (Manifest Destiny).

Unknown and alien president. Right up there with George Washington. Definitely in the top five. Polk was the best of the first termers. Why like him? Well, for one he is the only US president (and maybe only international president of a democracy) to keep ALL HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES--yes, ladies and gentlemen, ALL HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES! Quite a miracle... He wanted to 1) lower the tariff, 2) acquire Oregon, 3) acquire California, and 4) set up a loose national treasury system. In just four years (1844-1849) he did indeed lower the tariff, acquire Oregon through treaty with the British, acquire California plus ALL Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and "revoted" into power the Independent Treasury which was set up by Van Buren in 1837 but voted down in the early 1840's by the Whigs. Such served as a semi-stable and needed basis for national monetary needs before Wilson's Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created our modern banking system. Without Polk's Independent Treasury our government might well have suffered grievous economic problems that would have crippled the country. Added to his, Polk gave us a great campaign slogan--Fifty-four Fort or Fight! He virtually died for our country by being the hardest working president (12 hours PLUS a day). He died not long after leaving office in 1849 in his early fifties of overexhaustion. Also, a dedicated first-termer from day one--a brave fellow! Sad to see how so many on this page "polk" fun at him. Really a terrific man and a terrific influence on American history. Be grateful, America.

polking fun

His rating is too high.

Stop Polking around in here.