OF JAMES KNOX POLK. Late President of the luited States. BY JOHN S. JENKINS, 11 AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO," ETC., ETC. "EQUAL TO HIS DUTY-NOT ABOVE IT." HUDSON: P. S. WYNKOOP. E417 Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, by JAMES M. ALDEN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of New York. TO THE HON. WILLIAM L. MARCY, AS A TOKEN OF HIGH PERSONAL ESTEEM, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE life of any American President, I feel confident, would not need to be specially commended to the attention of his countrymen,—and certainly not that of James K. Polk,-for whatever may be the opinions entertained in regard to the administration of which he was the head, it must be conceded that great and important measures were submitted to their consideration and action, and that interests of the deepest magnitude were confided to their hands. Mr. Polk could not have said, with Augustus Cæsar, that he found the capital of the republic built of brick, and left it constructed of marble; but he might have claimed that he found her territories bounded on the south by the Sabine and the 42d parallel, and her authority west of the Rocky Mountains existing only in name,—and when he transferred the government to other hands, New Mexico and California were annexed to her domain, and her flag floated in token of sovereignty on |