Walter Borneman
Appearances
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, in the broadest sense, it really is a referendum on Manifest Destiny and that Polk is going to be given free reign, not only in the Southwest, but also in Oregon. But I think in terms of focusing on how narrow the margin, 5,000 votes in the state of New York determined this election and made Polk instead of Henry Clay president.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And there's a third party candidate, James Burney of the Liberty Party, which is an abolitionist party in the state of New York, who takes about, oh, two to three percent of the vote. And There's always been the debate about, well, where would those votes have gone? But here's a guy that's getting tens of thousands of votes, and Polk's only winning by 5,000.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Now, what happens, because New York has so many electoral votes, the final result, Polk gets 170 electoral votes to something like 105, looks pretty big. But again, 36 of those votes are from New York State. But for 5,000 votes, it would have swung the other way. Henry Clay would have been president.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And, you know, I think Bob and I both definitely agree that if Henry Clay had been president, I'm not sure how the slavery question would have necessarily come out in the short term. But certainly Clay had no expectations of taking Oregon to the fold, California like Polk wanted, or... You know, Texas, I think the issue might have ridden with him for a while.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
I think the two words that we start with are fur trade. I mean, it's been an area that both the Americans and the British have been in. In 1818, there is a treaty that basically sets the boundary between Canada and the United States along the 49th parallel, all the way out to the Rockies. Now, beyond that, to your point, is this territory, Oregon.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
the big picture, all the way from the northern border of what's now California to the 5440 line of Alaska. Most of the activity and most of the interest, I think, as the years go by, focuses along the Columbia River and the Columbia River access to that country, as well as Puget Sound area. Now, in a nutshell, in 1818, the Americans and the British agree to a 10-year period of joint occupation.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
They're going to focus on the fur trade. They're not going to build forts. There's not going to be any armed warfare. Let's see what happens. Well, 10 years goes by, and what does indeed happen is that they can't agree in terms of an additional 10-year period. They decide to go from... a situation where either party can give one-year notice of termination.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And basically, that's what Polk wants to do in terms of saying, look, we're not going to do joint occupation anymore. The United States wants all of Oregon, all the way up to the 54-40 southern boundary of Alaska. 1843,
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
first caravan of the oregon trail settlers that multiplies by additional wagon trains in 1844 and suddenly the united states and this is going to be played out a number of times in this western expansion but suddenly the united states by 1844 has the one thing on the ground in oregon that Great Britain does not. Settlers. Settlers basically farming and building towns and building communities.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
It's not this transitory fur trade. So that sort of sets up who's going to control all of Oregon.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
So the short story is that the United States and Great Britain, James Buchanan is Polk's Secretary of State at this point, leading some of these negotiations, kind of go back and forth of, well, what can we do with this central area? There's really very little settlement north of Puget Sound to be had between there and Alaska.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
The big stuff that the United States really wants is the rich farmland that's being developed by these Oregon train companies. Oregon Trail folks into the Willamette Valley and other places. So Polk's genius really is, as these negotiations go back and forth, and he finally ends up with a proposal from the British
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And he's very adamant in wanting them to make sort of the first offer of the most recent round of negotiations, at least. What Polk says to the Senate is, I'm not just going to come to you for advice and consent and say, do this treaty. I'm going to say, what's your advice first? And by doing that, they approve and say, this is a good idea to strike the compromise at the 49th parallel.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And then, of course, Polk comes back and says, well, fine, having given your advice, give your consent to the treaty as well. So the point is, is that Polk becomes the guy who acquires the better part of the Oregon territory and
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And by giving advice to the British offer of making that division rather than standing firm and asking for all of it, the Senate's sort of on the hook for the fact that the northern part of the territory remains with Great Britain. But Polk has gotten the better part of the territory. The Senate's taken responsibility for at least some of that.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And to the point that we're about to get into, Polk's kept us out of a two-front war because while all of this is going on, things are simmering in Texas.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, to Bob's earlier point, Texas really, in the last couple of days of John Tyler's administration, is on the road to American statehood. Few hoops to jump through and everything before it's actually admitted as a state.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
But being on that road, James K. Polk, who really owes his election, certainly owed his nomination to standing firm on acquiring Texas, is bound and determined to protect Texas. So by the spring of 1846, we have American troops in Texas. And the issue really is, where's the boundary of Texas? Is it the Nueces River or is it the Rio Grande?
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, Polk and many people in the American government and military, for long historical reasons, really feel that it's the Rio Grande. Mexico, of course, is not recognizing Texas independence anyway, but if they were to, they would say the boundary was at an oasis.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
So the long and the short of it is that Polk sends Zachary Taylor and American troops to the border of the Rio Grande on what's today the Texas side of the Rio Grande, and basically puts them out there, almost like pushing a pawn, if you will. See if Bob agrees with that analogy. But putting them out there in a place where there's a likelihood there's going to be some level of confrontation.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
That confrontation with Mexican cavalry patrols that crossed the Rio Grande or on the Texas side occurs in April of 1846. And Zachary Taylor is able to report that military conflict back to Polk. And we can talk about the war powers and declaration of war in a second. But basically, Polk's message to the American Congress is that
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
American blood has been spilt on American soil, meaning all of that ground north of the Rio Grande.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, I think Bob's correct in his analysis of the deaths and the fact that the Mexican government itself is pretty dysfunctional. I mean, over the course of Polk's administration, it's almost going to be a revolving door of... Mexican leaders, and Santa Ana is going to go through that door more than once.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
To your point about Texas after basically the Alamo in 1836, you know, Texas really does be, of course, it does become an independent nation, but it's got some issues too in terms of debt and solvency and really wants to be, I would say the majority of people there want to be part of of the United States.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
So in terms of being able to support that claim, and there certainly are historic claims and reasons why the Rio Grande is the appropriate boundary, I feel that Polk was justified in terms of putting troops out there and maybe pushing the envelope a little bit and going after not only the commercial claims,
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
But territory, and I would suggest, we haven't talked a lot about California yet, but I would suggest that Polk, in kind of pushing this pawn on the Rio Grande, recognizes that the northern part of Alta California, certainly, is something that he desires. And it's kind of interesting.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
You know, there are some negotiations before this goes to outright warfare by a man named Slidell that Polk sends down to to Mexico. And they're actually talking about in part of.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
way of resolving these commercial claims that Bob talks about, that perhaps California north of a certain parallel, that would certainly include San Francisco, wouldn't necessarily include the southern part of Los Angeles, might in fact be concluded, recognize the Rio Grande, give California north of that line to the United States and all's well and good. So that amount of
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
territory that the United States is desiring in terms of those negotiations is, of course, much less than what's going to be the end result of peace treaty at the end of the war.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, I guess I would say the gold rush may prove up Polk's interest and reasons for taking California. The gold rush occurs much after Polk has done his – maneuvers in terms of getting, and this is 1846, 1847, getting California to fall into the American orbit.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And it's not until, I think, December of 1848 that someone comes to the Oval Office, or it's not the Oval Office yet, but it's the White House. Someone comes to the White House and basically shows him glimmers of gold from the initial discoveries in California. So what happens is that with the great rush to California in 1849, there's this huge flow of population.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
California becomes a state by 1850. And in those short two years from the discovery of gold two years later, I mean, my goodness, think back to Henry Clay saying, no, I don't really think that we ought to acquire more land or, you know, that's a long term deal.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
The California gold rush really proves up Polk's claims and interest in why California should become part of the United States and puts that window on the Pacific.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, I would just agree with that and say to some of the ifs that you posed before, Derek, I mean, what if gold had been discovered in California a couple of years earlier? Mexico, I'm not sure they would have been successful, but might have tried an awful lot harder militarily to hold on to that territory.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And do remember, just as a footnote, that Russia has a presence in California at this point, at Fort Ross, north of San Francisco. It's pretty far removed, and eventually they're going to sell all of Alaska. But Russia's a player in this too at that point.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And when we talk about self-determination at that point, the interesting thing is that the numbers of people who are involved who are pro-American and lead, for example, the bear flag revolt in California, in Sonoma, literally numbers in the dozens, or at least 100 or so. So there's not, to Bob's point, I agree, there's not much population.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And it's amazing to think of today, but a few hundred people make a determination in California.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
I think the first point is really about war powers. You know, the only prior declaration of war has been in the War of 1812, where James Madison, who, of course, is an author of the Constitution, basically says to Congress, well, you know, what do you think we ought to do? He understands that the power to declare war is is lodged in Article I with Congress.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
By the time Polk comes to send a war message, he basically says, as we've discussed before, that a state of war exists. And that pendulum, I think, in terms of war powers and presidents, even when they go to Congress after Polk and ask for a declaration of war, really puts the president ahead of where certainly James Madison would have argued the presidency was. He is a micromanager.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
It's hard to believe today, but in the sixth Six cabinet officers that he had at that particular point, they met twice a week. He was the one directing each of those cabinets. And we're talking about a handful of people at State and likewise in those other six departments that are State, Treasury, War, Navy, Attorney General, and Postmaster General. And he really confers with that cabinet.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
We haven't talked about his diary. He begins to keep a diary in the summer of 1846, and it's really insightful in terms of the interactions with his cabinet, how much he relies on them, but more to the point, how much he instructs them on what to do. We haven't talked about the issue of one of his goals was basically being like Andrew Jackson against the National Bank.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
He wants to establish an independent treasury, essentially the forerunner of the Federal Reserve System. He does that. I think there are a lot of critics who would say, oh, my gosh. You know, Andrew Jackson was going to be this military chieftain. Well, the truth of the matter is, is that Polk comes into office.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And as I write, I think really outdoes Jackson, not only in terms of his war power stand, but also when war is declared. He's really giving instructions to Zachary Taylor in the North and Winfield Scott after Scott lands at Veracruz. And, you know, we can contrast that with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. It really, I think, takes Lincoln a while to
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
to get into the point where he's directing a little bit more. He gives McClellan pretty free reign, and Polk was determined not to do that from the very beginning, in part because Taylor and Scott are Whig generals, and he keeps looking for a good Democrat general to lead the campaign. So those are some of the things why I think Polk's certainly the strongest executive of the early 19th century.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, I agree about that inevitability of expanding across the North American continent. I think maybe one of the intriguing what-ifs, and Polk kind of went back and forth on this a little bit, is what would the United States look like today if, in fact, Polk had... basically supported some of the folks who wanted, quote, all of Mexico as part of the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
I mean, if all of Mexico had become part of the United States, or even if the northern tier of provinces, like some people were advocating, had become part of the United States, What would that say today to some of the issues of where we are? And, of course, there are other people at the same time who are wanting Polk to acquire Cuba.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
So there's the inevitable expansion, which I definitely agree with Bob on in terms of across the continent, but there's sort of the intriguing what-ifs of what if Polk had gone even farther?
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, you know, I actually started thinking I was going to write a book about the election of 1844 because I think it really is a pivotal election in American history. And then, you know, how things go when you develop a book. One thing leads to another, and suddenly I'm writing a full-blown biography of James K. Polk.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
But certainly he's front and center in that election and all of the policies of the four years of his presidency. And Bob, same question to you.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
I think that's a key point to the 1844 election. And let me back up just one second and say that the leading candidates for both parties' nominations in 1844, on the Whig side, Henry Clay, Henry Clay is opposed to the annexation of Texas.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And on the Democrat side, the leading candidate at that point in the spring of 1844 is, in fact, Martin Van Buren, who would like to be back in the White House for a second term. Well, sitting at the Hermitage in Nashville, here's Andrew Jackson basically saying, we've got to have Texas. And when Clay says, I don't want Texas, Old Hickory is ecstatic.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
He thinks that this is the Democrats' ticket to electing Van Buren again. But then almost on the same day that Henry Clay says he and the Whigs are not in favor of annexing Texas. And, you know, to your question specifically, there are a lot of reasons for that in terms of uncertainty about how Mexico is going to react, because as
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
As Bob has just said, Mexico never recognizes the independence of Texas. So what happens in the spring of 1844, having Henry Clay said, no, we don't want Texas, Martin Van Buren of the Democrats says the same thing. He says, no, our policy should be that we don't want to annex Texas either. So suddenly both parties have said no on Texas.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
Well, setting up our man, James K. Polk, who is infuriated the most by this? It's Andrew Jackson.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
I think to your point about dark horse, certainly what I would say is that, yes, perhaps James K. Polk was a dark horse in coming from behind at the convention that was held in Baltimore. But James K. Polk is a very astute politician. Just the thumbnail history. He spent 14 years in Congress, four of them as Speaker of the House. He was elected governor of Tennessee once, strangely enough.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
He lost reelection once and then tried to regain it twice. So here he is twice defeated for governor of Tennessee. But he stalked the vice presidency in 1840, and he really sees himself—remember, Martin Van Buren is from New York—he really sees himself as the logical vice presidential candidate for the Democrats in 1844 to balance the ticket geographically.
Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain History: The Astonishingly Successful Presidency of James K. Polk
And then when Van Buren says no to Texas, suddenly Polk gets to thinking, well, you know, maybe we can do a few things a little bit sooner than 1848 or 1852, whenever he might have seen the presidency.