If you think I like to beat up on all the presidents, you're wrong. There were a few good ones. Not surprisingly, most of the good ones didn't have a hyperactive PR machine. They were too busy accomplishing things. Indeed, it is said that Polk worked himself to death.

James Knox Polk was born on his family farm in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on Nov. 2, 1795. Young James moved west into Tennessee with his family, where they settled on land purchased from Polk's grandfather. At age 16, Polk developed severe gallstones which were removed without the benefit of modern technology, sterilization, or anesthesia. Remarkably, he survived the procedure, performed by celebrated Kentucky surgeon Dr. Ephraim McDowell.

His health restored, an invigorated Polk graduated at the head of his class at the University of North Carolina, in 1818.

Polk returned to Tennessee to study law with the prominent Nashville criminal lawyer Felix Grundy. While he was there, the Panic of 1819 plunged the state into unprecedented economic distress. As people cried out for relief from the hard times, a new style of politics developed, with Grundy emerging as the prototype of the politician who rises to power by championing, or seeming to champion, the cause of the distressed. Thus, Polk learned politics as well as law from the best teacher he could have found.

In 1819, Grundy helped Polk secure the clerkship of the state Senate, which he held until his election to the lower house of the legislature in 1823.

Polk served in the Tennessee House from 1823 until 1825, and the U.S. House of Representatives from 1825 to 1839. He was Speaker of the House for the last four years of this term.

Polk attended the 1844 Democratic Party convention as a supporter of President Martin Van Buren. Van Buren was the likely choice for the party nomination, with Polk the favored choice for the vice-presidential nomination. Van Buren failed to gain the two-thirds majority vote required for the nomination on the first vote, and other contenders gained more votes in the subsequent balloting. Polk received one delegate vote for the presidential nomination during the eighth round of voting, and won the nomination with 233 votes in the next round, making him the first dark-horse candidate to win his party's nomination.

The 1844 campaign centered upon the annexation of Texas and the re-occupation of Oregon. Also important was the concept of "Manifest Destiny," the belief that the United States should span the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.

Polk made it clear where he stood.

He endorsed both the annexation of Texas and American control of the entire Oregon Territory, while his opponents waffled on these issues. Polk also promised if elected not to seek a second term. He was running against Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, and James G. Birney, an abolitionist who drew votes away from Clay. Polk defeated Clay and Birney to become the eleventh president of the United States.

Hard to believe by today's standards, his administration actually lived up to its campaign promises.

In 1846, Polk reached an agreement with Great Britain over the disputed Oregon Territories. True, we didn't get our 54-40 (the international boundary that prompted the phrase 54-40 or fight!), but we DID get the 49th parallel, and avoided a war.

Resolving the Texas matter was stormier.

The US government wanted to establish its southern border at the Rio Grande, while Mexico favored the Nueces River. In 1845, Polk sent federal emissaries to offer compensation for the disputed area of Texas, as well as the territories of New Mexico and California (just in time for the gold). When the Mexican government rejected the offer, Polk sent troops under General Zachary Taylor into the Texas Territory. Mexican troops attacked Taylor's force, and Polk claimed this action as a provocation of war.

Congress approved Polk's decision, and the Mexican War began. After the famous stand at the Alamo and many American victories, including the occupation of Mexico City, the combatants signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 ending the Mexican War.

Although he likely would have been re-elected, Polk remembered his campaign promise and did not seek a second term, retiring from office in 1849.

He purchased a home, renamed Polk Place, in Nashville, Tennessee, planning to retire there following a vacation. After traveling down the Atlantic seacoast and along the Gulf of Mexico, Polk returned to Nashville in ill health. He died in his home in Nashville on June 15, 1849, three months after departing the White House.

Could he have done more to resolve the slavery issue? Tough call. In those days, the wisdom of Solomon may not have sufficed. Let's face it. Lincoln's "house divided" tragically did come true.

As one historian put it: The office of chief executive under Polk was well filled--maintained with dignity, integrity, and an extraordinary sense of duty. His great influence over Congress was due to the justness of his policies and his persistence in having the members see questions not as interests of district or section but as matters of national welfare. His sturdy character and unblemished reputation gave weight to his counsels and strengthened his pleas.

Such a leader we could use today.