Speaker James K. Polk Gives James Gordon Bennet, Publisher of the New York Herald, a Seat in the Reporters Gallery in the House of Representatives
An apparently unknown letter from Polk’s waning days as Speaker, as not in “The Correspondence of James K. Polk”.
In May 1835, James Gordon Bennett began the New York Herald. He was ambitious and explored territory no newspaper had done before. He conducted the first ever newspaper interview for the Herald soon after it got underway. In 1839, he was granted the first exclusive interview with a U.S. president, when Martin...
In May 1835, James Gordon Bennett began the New York Herald. He was ambitious and explored territory no newspaper had done before. He conducted the first ever newspaper interview for the Herald soon after it got underway. In 1839, he was granted the first exclusive interview with a U.S. president, when Martin Van Buren met with him. Bennett was also at the forefront of using the latest technology to gather and report the news, and added illustrations produced from woodcuts. He held the titles of founder, publisher and editor of the paper, which he built into the most important newspaper of the Civil War era. By 1866 it had the highest circulation in America.
The 26th U.S. Congress was set to commence on March 4, 1839. With the nation in its first Depression, there was widespread uncertainty about what measures, if any, the President and Congress would take to counter it. Bennett determined to attend the opening sessions of Congress himself, and applied to the Speaker of the House, future president James K. Polk, for a seat in the reporter’s gallery.
This is Polk’s letter of acceptance, assigning Bennett a seat. It is apparently unknown and unpublished, as it is not in “The Correspondence of James K. Polk” nor otherwise revealed by a search.
Letter signed, House of Representatives, Washington, January 15, 1839, to Bennett, whom he addresses as “Editor and Reporter”. “I have received your letter of yesterday’s date, applying ‘as Reporter for your own newspaper, the New York Herald’, for a seat in the Hall. Your request is granted, and you are hereby assigned one seat in Reporters Box No. 4.” The letter is signed “James K. Polk, Sp. Ho. Repts.” A fascinating and unusual letter, in which the publisher of what was to become the most important American newspaper is associated with a future president.
That session of Congress passed the Independent Treasury bill, providing Van Buren with a tool he thought would help end the economic recession – the separation of government from banking. It did not work. As for Polk and Gordon, the Herald supported Polk in his 1844 successful presidential bid. In fact, New York, carried by Polk by just 5,000 votes, provided Polk with his margin of victory. So it might be speculated that Bennett made Polk president.
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