Correspondence of James K. Polk (review)

BOOK REVIEWS349 Correspoiulence of James K. Polk. Volume II, 1833-34. Edited by Herbert Weaver and Paul H. Bergeron. (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1972. Pp. xxxvi, 645. $15.00.) The first volume of this series was reviewed in the June 1970 number of this journal, and most of my comments regarding editorial method and general usefulness continue to apply. Now for the first time selectivity becomes an important matter. The editors found 850 letters from this period and selected 664 for inclusion—512 in full and 152 in summary . The remainder seemed "too routine and inconsequential." Perhaps so—but the pattern already revealed in Polk's correspondence leaves this editorial judgment somewhat adrift. He was very meticulous about his duties; he apparently kept no letterbooks yet, although he did save incoming envelopes; and he had in Volume I a large number of "routine" exchanges with other government officers. Now that he is Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, "routine" correspondence may derive significance from its very quantity, especially for those probing administrative history. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how many of the excluded 186 deal with his committee work, nor even how many of them Polk himself wrote. Excluded items should probably be calendared at the end of each volume, or at least more thoroughly described in the preface. Only forty-four of the letters in this volume are by Polk. And only a handful of them reveal much about his own political views and plans. Several written to House colleague Cave Johnson during the summer recess of 1833, when Polk was up for reelection, are significant, as are four more in the summer of 1834 (to Jackson and others), and two to James Walker, brother-in-law and political confidant, at Christmas. Polk thus plays the title role from the shadows, while being addressed by the other actors. And the stage is crowded and cacophonous. Through the din, which is by turns flowery, cryptic, and ungrammatical , comes one constant refrain: The Bank is Beelzebub! Out with the deposits! Down with the Bank! One can detect other political leit-motifs. Arkansas Territory, soon to be a state, must not send Bank-men to the Senate. The press, particularly in Nashville, must be rescued from Bank control. The Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1834 must be kept in friendly hands. The party must not be split by putting up Hugh Lawson White in competition with Van Buren for the 1836 presidential canvass. John Bell, elected Speaker over Polk with Whig assistance though nominally a Jackson man, must be carefully watched. This volume is more heavily political, and more politically useful, than the first; but it also contains the usual family letters, pension requests , complaints about mail service, pleas for patronage, and gossipy reports from Maury County. A misspelled request datelined "Ultima Thule, Sevier Co., Arkansas Territory" typifies the rural Jacksonian's view of a congressman's duties: "I would be glad to hear from you & 350civil war history if you have any public documts that you think I would like to see pleose send them. I like to read anything against the Damd Bank." Aspiring soldier William H. Stephens urged, "Exercise half the zeal for me that I did distributing Circulars for you, and I can go to West Point." Aspiring poet Robert Mack wanted Polk to peddle to fellow congressmen a volume of his poems including an "irregular Ode" describing Napoleon 's battle of Marengo. Aspiring politician and lover Terry Cahal concluded a long political letter, "I am out as a beau about the 27th time & am actually courting two girls at this very time. . . . Marriage should be effected in a business like style upon reflection and not perpetrated in a passion." Aspiring student Williamson Haggard (term paper hucksters take note) asked Polk to compose him a "tolerable lengthy" speech against nullification, to be read at an "exhibition." In addition to these lighter bits there is a series of letters from a plantation overseer, illustrating well the travails of working for an absentee landlord. Totally absent are the crank letters we would expect in a modern statesman's papers, or even many letters of reasoned criticism, which is...