USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -A workaholic, America’s new chief executive set an ambitious agenda with four major goals: cut tariffs, reestablish an independent U.S. Treasury, secure the Oregon Territory and acquire the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico. Polk eventually achieved all his goals.

Detailed explanation-2: -Polk has spoke out strongly for the annexation of Texas and the “occupation” of the Oregon Territory. This was enough to help get him elected. After he was elected, He spoke up and said that he believed that the Oregon Territory should be divided along the 49th parallel.

Detailed explanation-3: -James K. Polk wanted to acquire Oregon in order to fulfill Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was sanctioned by god to control North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Polk believed that the United States had a right to acquire Oregon.

Detailed explanation-4: -Polk supported immediate annexation of Texas because he argued it was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase but was unjustly lost with the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Polk ran on an expansionist platform where his main promises consisted of the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory.

Detailed explanation-5: -James K. Polk’s first State of the Union Address, on 2 December 1845, promoted the concept that the US should encompass all of North America. James Polk was the first president to vocalise the concept that the US should stretch ‘from sea to shining sea’.