It is said he never missed a single recitation, or avoided a single duty during the whole course of his collegiate term.  After graduating, he returned to Tennessee, his father’s adopted state, commenced the study of law in the office of the Hon. Felix Grundy, and was admitted to the bar in 1820.  In 1823, he entered the stormy sea of politics, in which he was destined to achieve a brilliant career.  In 1825, he was elected to Congress, and in 1835, was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, which honorable position he held for five sessions.  After serving fourteen years, with distinguished ability and impartiality, he declined a re-election.  During this long and laborious service, he was never known to be absent, for a single day, from the House.  In 1839, after an animated contest, he was elected Governor of Tennessee.  In May, 1844, he was nominated as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  His majority in the Electoral College over Henry Clay for this high office was sixty-five votes.  The great labor he performed at a period of unexampled danger to the republic, and of difficulties with foreign nations, operated seriously upon his debilitated system, and hastened his end.

In May, 1844, in accepting the nomination, he declared in advance, that, if elected, he would only serve one term.  And in a letter addressed to the Convention, through Dr. J.G.M.  Ramsey, of Knoxville, he re-iterated his determination, and voluntarily declined, when many of his friends deemed his name the only available means of success.  His precarious and constantly declining state of health, forcibly admonished him of his early departure from the scenes of earth.  He calmly met his approaching end, and died at Nashville, on the 15th of June, 1849, in the forty-fourth year of his age.

When the mists of party and prejudice shall have subsided, and the dispassionate verdict of posterity be given, the services of James K. Polk will be acknowledged as unsurpassed in the annals of our nation; and his noble and disinterested example of only serving one term, will be regarded by all pure-minded occupants of the Presidential Chair, as worthy of imitation.

Mecklenburg county is proud of her son!

In the old “Polk Graveyard,” nine miles from Charlotte, is the tombstone of Mrs. Maria Polk, a grand-aunt of President Polk, containing a lengthy eulogy, in poetry and prose, of this good woman.  The first sentence, “Virtus non exemptio a morte"[H] is neatly executed on a semicircle, extending over the prostrate figure of a departed female saint, sculptured with considerable skill on the soapstone slab, but now scarcely visible on account of the over-spreading moss and lichen.  Immediately beneath the sainted figure is the expression, Formosa etsi mortua.[I] From the lengthy eulogy, the following extracts are taken: 

     “Here, unalarmed at death’s last stroke,
     Lies in this tomb, Maria Polk;
     A tender mother, virtuous wife. 
     Resigned in every scene of life.