Polk Administration - Domestic Issues
Domestic Issues
The domestic setting in which James K. Polk emerged and governed was a challenging one for the nation. The country was on the move again, successfully emerging from the traumatic economic depression that had begun in 1837 and had lasted for several years. Optimism about the United States's future, bolstered by expansion of the country's railways, western settlement, technological innovations like the telegraph, and large population increases, fostered a renewed sense of nationalism. The social and political reforms begun in the 1820s and 1830s gained momentum in the 1840s as well. In the North in particular the temperance (or anti-alcohol) and antislavery movements began to take on crusade-like features, the latter exacerbating sectionalism and fomenting cleavages within the Democratic Party.
As a Jackson protégé, President Polk launched a full-scale attack on the very principles of the "American System" of...
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