Future President James K. Polk Sets His Campaign Schedule for His Reelection Bid for Tennessee Governor in 1841

James K. Polk was a Congressman and supporter of Andrew Jackson, who became Speaker of the House in 1835. He remains the only president to have been Speaker. Polk left Congress to run for governor of Tennessee in 1839 and was elected. Up for reelection in 1841, he put together a campaign schedule and sent it to Col. Joseph Powell, Jr., who had been the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1839 election and was now canvassing for Polk.

Autograph letter signed, Huntingdon, Tenn., July 8, 1841, to Col. Joseph Powell, Jr., in Elizabethtown, Tennessee. “I have determined to spend the two weeks immediately preceding the election in the Eastern division of the state. The appointments which I propose to are hereto answered. I will thank you to give notice of them at Taylorsville, The Fish Springs, and Elizabethtown. ’The Fish Springs’ is, I am informed, on the road from Taylorsville to Elizabethtown and about midway between them. If my information is incorrect and you know of no such place, I must request you to make an appointment at some suitable place for the same day. I have been unwell for a few days, but have recovered and am here pursuing the canvass. I am very respectfully your friend, James K. Polk.” He adds as a PS: “I address this letter jointly to yourself and your brother who is a candidate for the Senate, but cannot at this moment remember his Christian name. Will you hand it to him? I have given notice of these appointments to Maj. Jones. J.K.P.”

On the verso, Polk lists his campaign schedule:
“At Kingston, Roane County, Thursday, July 23rd
Blaine & Roads, Grainger County, Saturday, July 24th
Blountsville, Sullivan County, Tuesday, July 27th
Taylorsville, Johnson County, Thursday, July 29th
Fish Spring, Carter County, Friday, July 30th
Elizabethtown, Carter County, Saturday, July 31st
Jonesborough, Washington County, Monday, August 2nd
Panther Spring, Jefferson County, Wednesday, August 4th”

ALSs of Polk are uncommon, and we have never before seen a detailed campaign schedule like this in the hand of a president.

Polk lost in 1841, and then again in 1843. These two defeats by small majorities convinced him that he should return to Washington. He was a dark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1844, hoping to receive the vice presidential nod. But he emerged as a compromise to head the ticket when no presidential candidate could secure the necessary two-thirds majority. In the general election, Polk defeated Henry Clay. With political forcefulness and savvy, President Polk tirelessly pursued his ambitious goals. Texas joined the country as the 28th state during his first year in office. Tense negotiations with Great Britain concluded with American annexation of the Oregon Territory south of the 49th Parallel. Following a controversial two-year war, Mexico ceded California and what is now the Southwest U.S. to the United States. During Polk’s term of office, the United States acquired more than 800,000 square miles of western territory and extended its boundary to the Pacific Ocean.