The diary of James K. Polk during his presidency, 1845 to 1849

Front matter

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Preface

THE considerations which induced Polk to keep a diary are sufficiently set forth by the President himself in the entry for August 26, 1846.^ He adhered to the resolution there described to preserve a daily record of the events of his administration with a fidelity which seems at times, in view of all the circumstances, little short of marvelous. The record thus made, covering the period from August 26, 1845, to June 2, 1849, comprises twenty-five closely written volumes of uniform size and style, containing each, with the exception of the last, which is incomplete, from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pages. Together with a mass of letters and miscellaneous papers preserved by the President, the Diary remained in the possession of the Polk family until 1901, when it was purchased by the Chicago Historical Society.

It had been Mrs. Polk's desire that some friendly contemporary of her husband should make use of the papers left by him to write an account of his life and administration, but this wish was never realized. Mr. R. H. Gillet of New York, Register of the Treasury under Polk and author of the Life and Times of Silas Wright, declined the task on the ground of the inadequacy of his knowledge of Tennessee politics; and George Bancroft, who, late in life, took up the project, went no farther than to have transcripts made of the Diary and of a considerable number of the letters and miscellaneous pa-

^ Diary, II, lOl.

viii PREFACE

pers placed at his disposal by Mrs. Polk. These transcripts passed at his death to the Lenox Library of New York. But very little use has been made of the Diary itself thus far, although some scholars have consulted the Bancroft transcript.

After the Diary came into the possession of the Chicago Historical Society various obstacles arose to delay its publication until, in the year 1908, the matter was taken in hand by the late Professor Charles W. Mann, of the Lewis Institute of Technology. He devised a plan whereby provision was made for meeting the cost of the enterprise and undertook the work of editing the Diary. To his efforts its publication at this time is primarily due. To this work his time and strength were given unstintingly, and he was stricken down with his last Illness while in the Society library engaged upon It. At the time of his death, in May, 1909, he had outlined the task of editing the Diary and had prepared tentative notes for approximately one-third of it. The present editor has adhered to the general plan of the work which he adopted and has made as much use as possible of the notes and other material collected by Professor Mann.

Li preparing the Diary for publication the principle has been carefully observed that the printed copy should reproduce literally the original manuscript. Errors of spelling, of grammar, and of composition have therefore been allowed to stand just as the President, who wrote sometimes In haste, sometimes in excitement, often when beset with weariness or Illness, made them. In the application of the principle Indicated, however, certain problems have arisen, the editor's solution of which should be explained to the reader.

1st. Repetitions of words or phrases, plainly inadvertent and meaningless, sometimes occur in the manu-

PREFACE ix

script. These have not been reproduced in the printed copy,

2nd. It is often impossible to determine from the manuscript whether or not words were intended to be capitalized. In such cases of doubt Polk's customary usage in similar cases, if known, has been followed; in the absence of any such indication of the writer's probable intention, the correct form has been employed.

^rd. In the case of doubtful words or passages the uncertainty has been indicated by the use of the bracketed interrogation. Where the passage is incomplete or faultily constructed, if the omission could be supplied or the construction readily remedied, this has been placed in brackets. The reader can always see at a glance, however, what has been added to the original manuscript, and may ignore the editorial interpretation if it fails to meet his approval.

4th. The reproduction of errors in spelling can occasion no confusion except, perhaps, in the case of names of persons. As far as it was possible to do so all such names have been verified and the correct spelling employed in the notes and the Index. The reader can ascertain it, when desired, by reference to the Index.

^th. In the manuscript the heading of the daily entries is sometimes abbreviated and the order of the words used is varied from time to time. It seemed desirable to secure uniformity in this respect in the printed book and therefore the heading has in each case been written in full with a uniform order of words employed, regardless of the form of heading used in the manuscript from day to day.

6th. In the matter of punctuation the usage of the manuscript has been followed whether it accords with present practice or not, except in the following cases:

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Polk, like many penmen of his time, made a very free use of dashes; ordinarily their presence on the page has no significance, and their reproduction in print would serve only to obscure the meaning and bewilder the reader. They have, therefore, not been reproduced. In similar fashion, Polk habitually underscored nouns, and sometimes phrases; for a similar reason, likewise, no attempt has been made to reproduce the underscoring in the printed book. Likewise the President's style of comma-punctuation differed widely from the present usage; to reproduce it would operate only to obscure the sense of the text; accordingly the manuscript has not been followed in this respect, and the editor is responsible for the comma-punctuation of the printed Diary.

No labor or pains has been spared to secure accuracy, both in the reproduction of the Diary and in the explanatory statements and references given in the notes. The editor is fully conscious, however, of the fact that the attainment of absolute accuracy in the reproduction of so voluminous a work is impossible. For such errors as occur, therefore, he asks the lenient consideration of the reader. Numerous friends, some of whom he has never had the pleasure of meeting, have assisted him, by giving information or otherwise, in the preparation of the Diary for publication. To all of these he wishes to express his obligation and his grateful appreciation of their kindness.

M. M. Q.

Chicago,

April 75, igio.