30-Year-Old James K. Polk First Arrives in Washington DC and Launches his Political Career

It is the earliest letter of Polk we found having reached the market, let alone the first of his political career

The published papers list no letters written by Polk from the time of his first election in late 1825, until January 26, 1826

In the 1824 United States presidential election, Andrew Jackson got the most electoral votes (he also led in the popular vote) but as he did not receive a majority in the Electoral College, the election was thrown into the U.S. House of Representatives, which chose Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who had received the second-most of each. Polk, like other Jackson supporters, believed that Speaker of the House Henry Clay had traded his support as fourth-place finisher (the House may only choose from among the top three) to Adams in a “corrupt bargain” in exchange for being named the new Secretary of State.

Polk had in August 1824 declared his candidacy for the upcoming election to the House of Representatives from Tennessee’s 6th congressional district. The district stretched from Maury County south to the Alabama line, and extensive electioneering was expected of the five candidates. Polk campaigned so vigorously that his wife Sarah began to worry about his health. During the campaign, Polk’s opponents said that at the age of 29 Polk was too young for the responsibility of a seat in the House, but he won the election with 3,669 votes out of 10,440 cast and took his seat in Congress later that year.

When Polk arrived in Washington, D.C. in December 1825 for Congress’s regular session, his first time in public service, he roomed in Benjamin Burch’s boarding house with other Tennessee representatives, including Sam Houston.

In the early 19th century Spain controlled most of Florida, but Britain had an active base at Pensacola in West Florida. From there the British often incited Seminoles against American settlers who were migrating south into Seminole territory. This, combined with the safe-haven the Seminoles were providing to escaped slaves, led to the U.S. Army making increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory to attack the tribe and recapture the slaves. These skirmishes, led by forces under General Andrew Jackson between 1817–1818, became known as the First Seminole War. These campaigns attacked several key Seminole locations and forced the tribe farther south into Florida. Following the war, the United States effectively controlled east Florida. By 1821, the territory was brought under full U.S. control as Spain formally ceded Florida to the United States as part of the Adams-Onis Treaty.

Peter Hagner was a clerk in the accounting office of the United States War Department and Third Auditor of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1817-1849; he served during the administrations of every president from George Washington to Zachary Taylor and was known as the “watchdog of the Treasury.”

Autograph letter signed, two long pages, Washington city, December 10, 1825, to John A. Mairs, who was the overseer on his plantation, apparently a copy he retained for his records. “When on the eve of setting out from Shelbyville early in November, on my way to this place, I received your note of the 7th of Nov. enclosing to me the claim of Joseph Crawford, for property lost in the Seminole campaign, with a request from you to attend to it and advise you off the disposition of it. Accordingly, a short time after my arrival at this I presented your papers enclosed to me to the Treasury Department for examination and decision and have received for answer the enclosed letter of the 7th inst. from Peter Hagner, 3rd auditor of the Department, from which you will discern that the claim has been presented to the Department and rejected and the reason for such rejected communicated in a letter to the Hon. Jonathan H. Eaton on the 5th of June 1824, an extract of which forwarded to me by the 3rd auditor I enclose to you for your examination and satisfaction. The claim having been examined and rejected, and no additional proof attained to support it, on second application, it has of course shared the same fate. You will observe that the third auditor in his letter enclosed to you says ‘The body of the certificate of loss has it is observed undergone alteration in two places, as to the time at which happened and as to the cause of it.’ Under what circumstances these alterations have been made, by whom and for what purpose you perhaps can explain. If I had known when at Shelbyville that you had any business to transact at that city, I should with pleasure have called on you and received any explanation or information in citation to it, which you might have thought it proper to give. And I regret that you did not make it convenient to see me personally upon the subject. Having received the papers in the way I did without explanation, all I could do was to present them as I received them, leaving them to explain themselves, which I have done. The enclosed letters from the Third auditor will give you all the information which I have received in relation to them. Your papers have been returned to me and are retained to await your answer in relation to them. If you wish them forwarded by mail, be so good as to direct.

“The above is a true copy of a letter this day mailed to John A. Mairs, Shelbyville TN. The letters of P. Hagner attended to enclosed.”

“The Correspondence of James K. Polk”, published by Vanderbilt University Press, shows no letters written by Polk from the time of his first election in late 1825, until January 26, 1826. This highlights the profound scarcity of early Polk letters, and is confirmed by American Book Prices Current, which shows no letters earlier than 1826 reaching the public sale market in the last forty five years. Thus this letter from December 1825 clearly appears to be the first letter he ever wrote while in public service, and probably the earliest ever to reach the marketplace.