the same on the great ques-tions of the day and were
ev-er at strife. One of his first acts was to put down a state war
in Mis-sou-ri. A Mor-mon, by the name of Smith, and a band of men who
thought as he did went down there to live; folks there did not like this
and tried to drive them out of the state, but this was a hard thing to
do, for there were a-bout 12,000 Mor-mons. At last, Ty-ler sent troops
there to put down the strife, and the Mor-mons were sent to Il-li-nois.
They were here but a short time when the same old strife a-rose, and
then they fled to the lands in the far west--where they are to-day,
in the state of Utah. War broke out in Tex-as while Ty-ler was in the
chair, and af-ter fierce fights be-tween the Tex-ans and Mex-i-cans the
Tex-ans won, and were at the head of the state. They asked at once to
come in-to the Un-ion, and in 1845 this great state came in. In the last
year of Ty-ler's rule Sam-u-el F. B. Morse found out how to send words
in just a flash of time through miles and miles of space; and you
chil-dren know well that the fine wire stretched from one great pole to
the next on which the quick news was sent was called the "tel-e-graph."

At the end of Ty-ler's first term, James Knox Polk had the most votes,
and so took the pres-i-dent's chair; and this news was the first that
was sent o-ver the tel-e-graph wires.

[Illustration: JOHN TYLER.]

[Illustration: JAMES K. POLK.]

JAMES KNOX POLK.

As a boy James Knox Polk led a life that would please a good ma-ny
of the boys of to-day. He was born in Meck-len-burg County, North
Car-o-li-na, on No-vem-ber 2d, 1705; but in 1806 his fa-ther went to
Duck Farm, Ten-nes-see, and lit-tle James, e-lev-en years old, was of
much help in the new home. Where the day's work took the big, strong
fa-ther, there went the small son; if there was a long ride to get food
or clothes from some big town, lit-tle James could help care for the
hors-es and when his fa-ther and oth-er men, for weeks at a time, were
in the great, wild woods, hunt-ing, mak-ing new roads, or helping each
oth-er build the log cab-ins, which were the homes of these ear-ly
set-tlers, James would be there too, cook-ing meals and keep-ing the
camp neat and bright for the men who came back tired and hun-gry at
night.

So years passed by with much work in the o-pen air and lit-tle of stud-y
or books; but when James was four-teen years old it was time that he
should earn mon-ey.

He was