Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, James K. Polk was raised on farms in North Carolina and Tennessee. He began practicing law in 1820. In 1825 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with the support of Andrew Jackson. Ten years later, he was elected speaker of the house, a position he held until 1839. Polk served as governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841. He supported U.S. expansion and worked to annex Texas and take the Oregon Territory from Great Britain. Nominated as the Democratic candidate for president, Polk won the election of 1844. Two years later, he reached an agreement with Great Britain on a boundary between the United States and Canada. That same year, he declared war on Mexico. In 1848 the United States acquired California and much of the present-day Southwest from Mexico with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Polk lost popular support largely because he refused to support either side of the slavery issue. In 1849 he retired from the presidency to Nashville, Tennessee, where he died three months later.
