Autograph letter signed

POLK, James Knox. Autograph letter signed ("James K Polk") as Democratic nominee for President, to Vice-Presidential nominee George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864), Columbia, Tennessee, 17 September 1844. 6 full pages:

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The party's expansionist platform proved popular, while the Whig nominee, Henry Clay, suffered from divisions within his own party. Here, an exuberant Polk reports to Dallas: 
"As far as I can judge...our prospects of success have at no period of the canvass been so good as at the present. It is certain that in this section of the Union there has been a slow but steady & progressive increase to the Democratic strength." In Tennessee, he observes, "we have a contest of unexampled violence & excitement...[the Whigs] are making a desperate struggle to stay the current of popular sentiment which...is running against them. Not half a dozen cases are known in the whole state of Democrats who have abandoned their party, whilst it is certain that hundreds of Whigs have joined the Democratic ranks...if the election were to come out now, the state is ours beyond all doubt." Polk adds that he has favorable reports from Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana and Louisiana, but in Ohio "the result will probably depend upon the course of the abolitionists. If they maintain their distinctive organization, we will carry the state with ease." Polk warns Dallas that the Whigs are attempting to win voters in Pennsylvania: "I discern that the Whig press of this state and our Governor (who by the way is a most reckless and unscrupulous partizan) have been operating with a view to affect the vote of Pennsylvania...judging from the past course of the party here, I have no doubt they are filled with perversions and misrepresentations of my course."
In an interesting commentary on antebellum politics, Polk cautions Dallas to be alert for fraud: 

"There is I think reason to apprehend that great frauds will be attempted and especially at doubtful points. A few illegal votes for example might decide the result in states so closely contested as New JerseyDelaware, & Connecticut...I make the suggestion to you, not that you can attend to it personally, but that through confidential Democratic friends you may cause it to be done...It may be prevented by taking timely precautions and by having every poll guarded." 
In fact, Polk asserts, "many hundred illegal votes were polled at the Kentucky border in our election in 1843."

Polk makes it clear that he will not refrain from discussion of policy questions with the "gentlemen of New York" [influential newspaper editors]

"My present impression is...that I may well rest upon the resolution of the Baltimore Convention without further answer...unless you shall be of opinion and shall so advise me, that an answer is necessary...I will not do so. Should anything be said in the newspapers about my failure to answer, it may be well to have an article inserted in the Democratic papers, calling public attention to the Resolution of the Baltimore Convention, as expressing my views and opinions." In line with that policy, "I have written no letter for the public upon any subject, since the one to Mr. Kane, and as a general rule I have been of opinion that the less I write the better. My opinions upon all the great questions are I presume sufficiently known to the public; and I could add nothing upon any of them which would not be subjected to be perverted and misrepresented...were I now to write letters illustrating or enforcing [my views], I would perhaps be justly subject to the imputation of electioneering or seeking to make votes by a modification of them."
Polk's decision to avoid public statements during a campaign which centered upon volatile issues such as the annexation of Texas, saved him from the fate of Henry Clay, whose vocal stance against expansion may have cost him the election.  


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Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents 
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776


September 5, 1774
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May 20, 1775
May 24, 1775
May 25, 1775
July 1, 1776

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George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783



Continental Congress of the United States Presidents 
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July 2, 1776
October 29, 1777
November 1, 1777
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Declined Office
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United Colonies and States First Ladies
1774-1788


United Colonies Continental Congress
President
18th Century Term
Age
09/05/74 – 10/22/74
29
Mary Williams Middleton (1741- 1761) Deceased
Henry Middleton
10/22–26/74
n/a
05/20/ 75 - 05/24/75
30
05/25/75 – 07/01/76
28
United States Continental Congress
President
Term
Age
07/02/76 – 10/29/77
29
Eleanor Ball Laurens (1731- 1770) Deceased
Henry Laurens
11/01/77 – 12/09/78
n/a
Sarah Livingston Jay (1756-1802)
12/ 10/78 – 09/28/78
21
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
09/29/79 – 02/28/81
41
United States in Congress Assembled
President
Term
Age
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794)
03/01/81 – 07/06/81
42
07/10/81 – 11/04/81
25
Jane Contee Hanson (1726-1812)
11/05/81 - 11/03/82
55
11/03/82 - 11/02/83
46
Sarah Morris Mifflin (1747-1790)
11/03/83 - 11/02/84
36
11/20/84 - 11/19/85
46
11/23/85 – 06/06/86
38
Rebecca Call Gorham (1744-1812)
06/06/86 - 02/01/87
42
02/02/87 - 01/21/88
43
01/22/88 - 01/29/89
36

Constitution of 1787
First Ladies
President
Term
Age
April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797
57
March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801
52
Martha Wayles Jefferson Deceased
September 6, 1782  (Aged 33)
n/a
March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817
40
March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825
48
March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829
50
December 22, 1828 (aged 61)
n/a
February 5, 1819 (aged 35)
n/a
March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
65
April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842
50
June 26, 1844 – March 4, 1845
23
March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849
41
March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850
60
July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853
52
March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857
46
n/a
n/a
March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865
42
February 22, 1862 – May 10, 1865
April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
54
March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877
43
March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881
45
March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881
48
January 12, 1880 (Aged 43)
n/a
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
21
March 4, 1889 – October 25, 1892
56
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889
28
March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
49
September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909
40
March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913
47
March 4, 1913 – August 6, 1914
52
December 18, 1915 – March 4, 1921
43
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923
60
August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929
44
March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933
54
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
48
April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953
60
January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961
56
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963
31
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969
50
January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974
56
August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977
56
January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
49
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
59
January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993
63
January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001
45
January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009
54
January 20, 2009 to date
45



Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America

Philadelphia
Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 24, 1774
Philadelphia
May 10, 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776
Baltimore
Dec. 20, 1776 to Feb. 27, 1777
Philadelphia
March 4, 1777 to Sept. 18, 1777
Lancaster
September 27, 1777
York
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Philadelphia
July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783
Princeton
June 30, 1783 to Nov. 4, 1783
Annapolis
Nov. 26, 1783 to Aug. 19, 1784
Trenton
Nov. 1, 1784 to Dec. 24, 1784
New York City
Jan. 11, 1785 to Nov. 13, 1788
New York City
October 6, 1788 to March 3,1789
New York City
March 3,1789 to August 12, 1790
Philadelphia
Dec. 6,1790 to May 14, 1800       
Washington DC
November 17,1800 to Present




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