James K. Polk and Christmas
Let's face it, James K. Polk is not best remembered for fun frivolity and mirth. He was a serious workaholic who rarely took a holiday. One Christmas season in which the affairs of state especially took precedence over holiday festivities was the Christmas of 1848, Polk's last in the White House.
On December 11th of 1848, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill calling for all territories recently acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War to be organized into a single state in which a popular vote would decide the issue of slavery. This idea didn't sit well either with southerners (who wanted the territory split, leading to representation of a greater number of slave states in the senate) or with northerners (who did not want to permit slavery in any of the newly acquired territories.) Two days later, an alternate bill introduced in the House of Representatives called for the admission of California and New Mexico territories as separate free states.
A few days before Christmas, Representative Daniel Gott, a Whig from New York, offered a resolution condemning the slave trade in Washington D.C. This further agitated southern politicians. The resolution passed by a vote of 98-88. In his diary, President Polk wrote about how he called a pre-Christmas meeting to address the fears of these representatives.
On December 22, three days before Christmas, Polk wrote in his diary that he viewed the politicians and activists of the growing antislavery movement as “mischievous & wicked,” only hoping to “promote their own prospects for political promotion.” He complained that they did so at the peril of “disturbing the harmony if not dissolving the Union itself.” The next day, on the day before Christmas Eve, he wrote about meeting with South Carolina Senator Butler and assuring him that he would support organizing the formerly-Mexican territories into at least two states and not ruling out the possibility of allowing slavery in the southern portion of the region.
On Christmas Day, Polk wrote in his diary about how he spent the holiday as a leisurely day off from work and calling it “perhaps the most quiet day of my Presidential term.” He mentioned that Mrs. Polk attended church with some relatives and their children, but he did not accompany them. His presidential diary entries for previous Christmases also fail to mention the distribution of any White House Christmas cards activities. The day after Christmas, he wrote of meeting with Senator Douglas and convincing him to allow the Mexican-ceded territories to be split and to table the question of the expansion of slavery for the time being. Polk spent the remainder of Christmas week modifying recently enacted laws regarding how the U.S would collect duties on merchandise imported into Mexican ports under American control as a result of the recent war.
On December 11th of 1848, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas introduced a bill calling for all territories recently acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War to be organized into a single state in which a popular vote would decide the issue of slavery. This idea didn't sit well either with southerners (who wanted the territory split, leading to representation of a greater number of slave states in the senate) or with northerners (who did not want to permit slavery in any of the newly acquired territories.) Two days later, an alternate bill introduced in the House of Representatives called for the admission of California and New Mexico territories as separate free states.
A few days before Christmas, Representative Daniel Gott, a Whig from New York, offered a resolution condemning the slave trade in Washington D.C. This further agitated southern politicians. The resolution passed by a vote of 98-88. In his diary, President Polk wrote about how he called a pre-Christmas meeting to address the fears of these representatives.
On December 22, three days before Christmas, Polk wrote in his diary that he viewed the politicians and activists of the growing antislavery movement as “mischievous & wicked,” only hoping to “promote their own prospects for political promotion.” He complained that they did so at the peril of “disturbing the harmony if not dissolving the Union itself.” The next day, on the day before Christmas Eve, he wrote about meeting with South Carolina Senator Butler and assuring him that he would support organizing the formerly-Mexican territories into at least two states and not ruling out the possibility of allowing slavery in the southern portion of the region.
On Christmas Day, Polk wrote in his diary about how he spent the holiday as a leisurely day off from work and calling it “perhaps the most quiet day of my Presidential term.” He mentioned that Mrs. Polk attended church with some relatives and their children, but he did not accompany them. His presidential diary entries for previous Christmases also fail to mention the distribution of any White House Christmas cards activities. The day after Christmas, he wrote of meeting with Senator Douglas and convincing him to allow the Mexican-ceded territories to be split and to table the question of the expansion of slavery for the time being. Polk spent the remainder of Christmas week modifying recently enacted laws regarding how the U.S would collect duties on merchandise imported into Mexican ports under American control as a result of the recent war.