Preview

President James Polk's 'Sacred Scripture'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
801 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
President James Polk's 'Sacred Scripture'
In Sacred Scripture, the book of Joshua was an account of invasion and rewarded promise by God to His set-apart people to inhabit Canaan, the Holy Land. The twelve tribes of Israel reached the Jordon River with a Divine charge to move forward into Canaan, God’s land. This became Israel’s manifest destiny. Almost three thousand years later, America acted likewise in response to God’s gift of freedom under the leadership of President James Polk and his military confidant Andrew Jackson. Thus began the American westward movement, both toward the Southwest and Northwest, to take over God’s land in the New World up to the Pacific Ocean. As well, this was the American manifest destiny that was driven by a national, spiritual fervor, which neither …show more content…

No one will be able to stand their ground against you as long as you live. For I will be with you, as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

In America, it was President James Polk, a deeply religious Christian, who led God’s manifest destiny in the middle of the 19th century AD. It was he who politically transformed and doubled the landscape of America. James Polk and his wife, Sarah, were staunch bible-reading Presbyterians who honored the Sabbath above politics. Polk was raised on the frontier in Columbus, Tennessee just south of Nashville. As a young boy he suffered a serious urinary, aliment and remained childless. Polk frequently referred to God when making difficult political decisions. One of his closest friends was Andrew Jackson who helped him spark the manifest destiny theme that became Polk’s signature accomplishment. James Polk died a month after
…show more content…

Sarah, his wife, lived as a widow on their Hermitage plantation in Nashville TN for 42 more years. As a ardent “manifest destiny” proponent, President Polk, who occupied the White House for only one term from 1845-1849, added Texas to the Union, diplomatically outfoxed the British and Russians out of the Oregon territory, and gained California as well as most of the Southwest during the Mexican War. These annexations of the West awakened the travel urge for thousands of settlers to relocate by way of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, extending from Independence, Missouri to the Columbia River in Oregon, and south toward New Mexico. To this day, it remains an historic enigma that President Polk is considered one of the most underrated Presidents in American

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    During his presidency, Polk added many acres to the American territory. For instance, the most famous is Texas, which originally had been part of Mexico. A critical review of his controversial actions, as well as the philosophy of Manifest Destiny, attempts to present a review of his presidency, whose leadership led to various changes in the US topography. Thus, the memory of Polk’s…

    • 1271 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between the title and the contents of the book being divided into “old testament” and “new testament,” Walter McDougall’s book Promised Land, Crusader State looks to be a book on a religious topic at first glance. Published in 1997, it is actually the subtitle “The American Encounter with the World Since 1776” that hints at the book’s actual direction and purpose. This is a book that dives into how America has participated in the world since the birth of our nation and how our views and actions on interacting with the rest of the globe have changed over time to shape us into the country we are today. Walter McDougall won the Pulitzer Prize for history for his book The Heavens and The Earth: A Political History of The Space Age in 1986. Although Promised Land, Crusader State is also included…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This widely-known American president started out in a small log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, along with his mother, Nancy, father Thomas, older sister Sarah, and younger brother Thomas, who died at a young age. When he was a young boy, his mother died, leaving him with his abusive father, who accustomed him to hard labor on their estate. However, due to a land dispute on their property, the family was forced to move to Perry County, Indiana. They were expected to make a living on the public land before Abraham’s father was able to buy it. There, His father eventually married Sarah Bush Johnston, a Kentucky widow, who had three children of her own. An affectionate woman, she encouraged Abraham to read, despite the lack of books in the Indiana…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    James Knox Polk was born in Pineville and graduated with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. Leaving his law practice behind, he served in the Tennessee legislature, where he became friends with Andrew Jackson. Polk moved from the Tennessee legislature to the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1825 to 1839 and speaker of the house. He left the house of representatives to become governor of Tennessee.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Polk wanted California for America before anyone else could get it and many didn't want war, but war was the only answer to Polk…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James K. Polk was the president of the United States of America during the Mexican-American War. Congress agreed upon James K. Polk declaring war on Mexico. The war was fought over the possession of Texas. In 1836 Texas won their independence from Mexico. The United States of America wanted to annex Texas then, but did not because they wanted to avoid a war with Mexico. President Polk supported the annexation of Texas, regardless of the war that it could potentially start. Therefore, with James K. Polk’s support Texas was admitted into the union on December 29, 1845. After this event, tension rose between the United States and Mexico over border disputes. In July of 1845, James K. Polk ordered troops into the land between the Rio Grande Rivers…

    • 292 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Knox Polk was a slave-owning Tennessee Democrat who devoted his private life to profit from plantation slavery and his public career to his party and his section. He was, in short, a fierce Southern partisan. Yet this reality has been masked by generations of shallow scholarship or outright Southern apologetics. Biographies of the eleventh president have gloried in his aggressive territorial expansionism with little thought to motive or context; they have celebrated his strong leadership as chief executive without understanding his principles, goals, or personal ideology; they have taken his words as a Democratic partisan and successful planter-politician at face-value, failing to sufficiently explore party agenda and mechanics. Moreover, studies of the Mexican War or the broader antebellum era do not adequately uncover the partisan Polk, though several do a fine job of placing him the context of party and section.…

    • 9597 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Polk knew better than to start a war over it, though. He suggested to the British that they split the Territory at the 49th parallel (White House). He annexed Texas and, after a 2-year war, forced Mexico to sell the land that is now Utah, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming (White House). He kept his campaign promise of only serving one term in office (A+E). During his presidency, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of the Interior were all formed, and Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin joined the Union (A+E). He was extremely dedicated to the presidency. His health poor from overwork, Polk died in June 1849 at the age of 53 (White House).…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although James Knox Polk doubled the size of the nation, he is rarely acknowledged by modern historians because of his machinations in initiating the start of the Mexican War. Without his efforts, however, America would be cut off at the Missouri River, exclude Texas, and have a disparate legacy of slavery and race relations as known today (Merry 17). Polk’s presidency was characterized by rapid expansion of American territory through war and treaties, as was William McKinley's. In McKinley’s period, as a consewuence of the Spanish American War, the United States acquired dominance of Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Of course, while there were significant differences between Polk’s and McKinley’s presidencies, it’s nevertheless…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Failures Like all Presidents, both prior to and after 1849, James K Polk made some decisions that had a great impact on the country and shaped it in defining ways. One of his earliest mistakes was the engaging of Mexico in war. Despite running on the platform of possible Mexican-American tensions, nearly half of the American population was against annexing Texas for fear of Mexican retaliation. The Mexican American war was substantially detrimental to the populations, despite its clear victory. It resulted in over 13 000 American deaths.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    But, it is also said by Democrats that Polk was, “the candidate who stood for expansion.” At first, many, especially by those in Congress or his own party, questioned the wisdom of Polk’s major policies. In early 1846, the people of Congress and the people of the nation were agitated with the Oregon territory in question. In response, “Mr. Polk set up the claim for the whole of the territory. This met a warm response from his political friends.” As his presidency progressed, he received the support of many. Before and throughout Polk’s presidency, he always had support from his loyal friend, Andrew…

    • 2152 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Wicked War Analysis

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On the other hand Americans hold on to a belief that was popular with one candidate. John O’ Sullivan focused on a concept, manifest destiny. The idea of this concept was that Americans had a God given right to take the land in the west, eventually the land between the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. In the election of 1844 James K. Polk used manifest destiny to resolve the issue that many had to make Texas a part of the United States. He would later annex Oregon a s a free state so the their would be no strange dynamic between free and slave states. Unfortunately, this solution had a…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James K. Polk

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    James K. Polk had a large contribution to the history of the United States, especially its growth. He added more than a million square miles to the existing land of the United States. He got all of this land through treaties and war. The territories of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon, Idaho, Washington, much of New Mexico, Parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado were all acquired by the United States during his presidency. This is mostly because Polk strongly supported Manifest Destiny. Polk obtained most of the United States…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a young man Lincoln opposed the church, openly showing his disapproval of the church. He read and learned from deists like Thomas Paine, eventually writing his own pamphlet. However, due to repercussions from these beliefs almost lost him a place in Congress, Lincoln became quieter about voicing his thoughts. Lincoln as Preston and Herndon puts it was closer to deism or Universalism, but nothing close to evangelical (Preston, 2012). The religious one belief that he held was in God’s providence, which is the lens that he would view the Civil War with; the idea of the doctrine of necessity.…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manifest Destiny, the belief that the Americans were to expand to the Pacific Coast, was started in the 1840s. It is no secret that Polk won the election largely because of his radical expansionist views. Shortly after Polk's win, he sent a few representatives to protect the border of Texas and bargain for the land, not long after Congress passed Texas to become a state. Due to the men "protecting" the border of Texas, Mexico became angry and refused to accept Polk's compromise, offering only a partial recognition. Polk declined, and American troops proceeded to the Rio Grande. Polk later claimed that the Mexico-American War was a last resort to Mexico's lack of cooperation and attack on the Americans, and that "American blood had been shed on American soil." This is inaccurate. At that time, the land was neither said to belong solely to the Americans, or solely to the Mexicans. Each side thought the land belonged to them. Polk had also already planned the steps to lead to the control of Texas, even before the war. If not for imperialist goals, why would Polk have already planned the steps leading up to the war, if war itself was a "last resort?" This shows the Americans illustration of imperialism by the fact that President Polk would not accept Mexico's terms for partial recognition probably because Polk had a dream of owning all the land to the coast. In fact, during this time the Anglo-Saxons believe that the God they worshiped had given them a right to all the land on this continent, and that they were to spread their…

    • 559 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays