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SARAH CHILDRESS, of Tennessee, when nineteen years old married James Knox Polk, a member of the Legislature of that State. next year he was elected to Congress, continuing fourteen sessions in Washington, and Mrs. Polk held a high social position there owing to her courteous manners, dignity and many accomplishments. When she returned to Washington as the wife of the President, having no children, she devoted herself exclusively to her duties in that position. At her weekly receptions the custom of serving refreshments to guests was abolished. As she was a strict Presbyterian, dancing also was forbidden; nevertheless, she was very popular. She was a handsome woman of the Spanish ge dressed with refined and elegant taste, and was anted as a conversationalis, beside railing Year the centres of her station She

If the public had not had its attention so sharply drawn to the great acquisitions in the South and Southwest, as a result of the Mexican War, Polk and his administration would have met overwhelming condemnation for the surrender of the Northwest.

So President Polk will be remembered not only for the war that he did fight and the great and valuable territory acquired as a result of it, but will each year, as time goes on, be remembered more and more for the war that he did not fight and the territory he did not acquire, or rather fight to hold.

Even at this day it is hard to tell whether or not future generations will fully justify Mr. Polk as a man who did the true, wise, and great thing in perpetrating the war with Mexico and afterward pushing it to a war of conquest. At the same time it seems clear that future generations will blame Mr. Polk more and more for his needless surrender of the Oregon territory between the forty-ninth degree and fifty-four forty. Polk will also be remembered as a Jeffersonian Democrat. In his mode of life he was plain; in his dealings and speech, straightforward and honest. In his convictions he was strong and preferred rather to stand for the right as he saw it than to curry popular favor as a trimmer. He stood for a strict construction of the Constitution and held that great compact in the utmost reverence. He was a friend and follower of Jackson, and his career resembles that of the great Democrat in many ways. An honest man and of humble parentage, he arose from obscurity to the highest station in the gift of the American people. Like Jackson he stood unalterably opposed to the National Bank which monopolists of his day were trying to fasten on the American people. As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House, and later as Speaker of the same body, and as Governor of the State of Tennessee, his course calls for little adverse comment, and for general commendation.

However historians and posterity may differ about his course as President with reference to the two great questions before him for solution, no man will question that Polk believed he was right in the course that he pursued, and ever and anon the immortal words of the great Kentuckian, whom Polk defeated for the Presidency, will recur to the impartial student of history: "I would rather be right than be President."

Manon Bustie

James K. Polk

JAMES KNOX POLK was born in Mecklenburg County, N. C., November 2, 1795. He was a son of Samuel Polk, a farmer, whose father, Ezekiel, and his brother, Colonel Thomas Polk, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, were sons of Robert Polk (or Pollock), who was born in Ireland and emigrated to America. mother was Jane, daughter of James Knox, a resident of Iredell County, N. C., and a captain in the War of the Revolution. His father removed to Tennessee in the autumn of 1806, and settled in the valley of Duck River, a tributary of the Tennessee, in a section that was erected the following year into the county of Maury; he died in 1827. James was brought up on the farm; was inclined to study, and was fond of reading. He was sent to school, and had succeeded in mastering the English branches when ill health compelled his removal. Was then placed with a merchant, but, having a strong dislike to commercial pursuits, soon returned home, and in July, 1813, was given in charge of a private tutor. In 1815 entered the sophomore class at the University of North Carolina. As a student he was correct, punctual, and industrious. At his graduation in 1818 he was officially acknowledged to be the best scholar in both the classics and mathematics, and delivered the Latin salutatory. In 1847 the university conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. In 1819 he entered the law office of Felix Grundy, then at the head of the Tennessee bar. While pursuing his legal studies he attracted the attention of Andrew Jackson, and an intimacy was thus begun between the two men. In 1820 Mr. Polk was admitted to the bar, and established himself at Columbia, the county seat of Maury County. He attained immediate success, his career at the bar only ending with his election to the governorship of Tennessee in 1839. Brought up as a Jeffersonian and early taking an interest in politics, he was frequently heard in public as an exponent of the views of his party. His style of oratory was so popular 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." His first public employment was that of principal clerk of the senate of the State of Tennessee. In 1823 was elected a member of that body. In January, 1824, he married Sarah,