James K. Polk, by Paul Raymond Audibert, Paris.

Additional information on Audibert pending.

James K. Polk, Eleventh President of the United States, Born Mecklenburg County, NorthCarolina, November 2, 1795, died Nashville, Tenn., June 15, 1849. The following is excerpted from the coverleaf of the engraving:

"Brought up as a Jeffersonian, and early taking an interest in politics, Mr. Polk was frequently heard in public as an exponent of the views of his party. So popular was his style of oratory that his services soon came to be in great demand, and he was not long in earning the title of the "Napoleon of the Stump." He was, however, an argumentative rather than a rhetorical speaker, and convinced his hearers by plainness of statement and aptness of illustration, ignoring the ad-captandum effects usually resorted to in political haranques."***

"One of the special qualities of Mr. Polk's mind was his clear perception of the character and doctrines of the two great parties that then divided the country. Of all our public men--I say, distinctly, of all--Polk was the most thoroughly consistant representative of his party. He had no equal. Never fanciful or extreme, he was ever solid, firm, and consistent. His adminstration, viewed from the standpoint of results, was perhaps the greatest in our national history, certainly one of the greatest. He succeeded because he insisted on being its center, and in overruling and guiding all his secretaries to act so as to produce unity and harmony."

"Mr. Polk was a patient student and a clear thinker, steadfast to opinions once formed, and not easily moved by popular opinion, labored faithfully from his entrance into public life until the day when he left the White House, to disseminate the political opinions in which he had been educated, and which commended themselves to his judgment. His private life was upright and blameless. Simple in his habits to abstemiousness, he found his greatest happiness in the pleasure of the home circle rather than in the gay round of public amusments. A frank and sincere friend, courteous and affable in his demeanor with strangers, generous and benevolent, the esteem in which he was held as a man and a citizen was quite a high as his official reputation. In the words of his friend and associate in office, Vice President Dallas, he was "temperate but not unsocial, industrious but accessible, punctual but patient, moral without austerity, and devotional though not bigoted."--GEORGE BANROFT (1800-1891), in The Presidents of the United States (1883)", D. Appleton & Company. Effective published copyright, ©Mickey Cox 2002, All Rights Reserved.