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,
daughter of Joel Childress, a merchant of Rutherford County, Tenn. In
August, 1825, he was elected to Congress from the Duck River district,
and reelected at every succeeding election till 1839, when he withdrew
from the contest to become a candidate for governor. With one or two
exceptions, he was the youngest member of the Nineteenth Congress. He
was prominently connected with every leading question, and upon all he
struck what proved to be the keynote for the action of his party. His
maiden speech was in defense of the proposed amendment to the
Constitution giving the choice of the President and Vice-President
directly to the people. It at once placed him in the front rank of
Congressional debaters. He opposed the appropriation for the Panama
mission, asked for by President Adams, contending that such action would
tend to involve the United States in a war with Spain and establish an
unfortunate precedent. In December, 1827, he was placed on the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and afterwards was also appointed chairman of the
select committee to which was referred that portion of President Adams's
message calling attention to the probable accumulation of a surplus in
the Treasury after the anticipated extinguishment of the national debt.
As the head of the latter committee he made a report denying the
constitutional power of Congress to collect from the people for
distribution a surplus beyond the wants of the Government, and
maintaining that the revenue should be reduced to the requirements of
the public service. During the whole period of President Jackson's
Administration he w