farmers' sons of that period, full of work, and yet not without much that was most pleasant and delightful. Moreover he was the eldest son of the family and this gave him many opportunities of kindly helpfulness to his mother and the younger members of the household, which opportunities he used to the uttermost. He was studious and reflective, and though this fact did not make him in any sense discontented with his lot; still the more he read and the more he learned, the more he felt that there was something more before him than

"To plow and to sow,

And to reap, and to mow,

And to be a farmer's boy."

These early years on the banks of the Catawba River, were happy years; the beauties of nature, the varied splendors of mountain, wood and river, and the sanctities of a joyful home, filled his young life with sunshine. When he was eleven

years of age, the family removed from Mecklenburg and the Hornets' Nest, to the banks of a branch of the Cumberland River in Tennessee, and here the future president spent the major portion of his life.

Young Polk received a fair English education; he studied successively under the Rev. Dr. Henderson, at the Academy of Murfreesburg, and in the autumn of 1815 he entered the University of North Carolina from which he graduated with highest honors in 1818. The whole college course of James K. Polk was most honorable, and in the exact and conscientious discharge of all his duties, there was the foreshadowing of the future man, He loved his alma mater through all his days, and the University of North Carolina was equally proud of her illustrious pupil. In the year 1847 she conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon him as a token of her esteem. At one time it seemed as if a commercial pursuit was the most likely path for him to pursue, but this was not to be, and in the beginning of 1819 he began the study of law under Felix Grundy, at Nashville. Before the next year, he had been called

to the bar and gave large promise of being one of the ablest lawyers of his time. He had suffered feeble health from childhood, but the energies of his mind overcame the infirmities of his body, and he soon pressed his way to the front rank of his profession. His talents won him many admirers, but his kindness of heart and genial manners won him many friends.

In 1823 Mr. Polk was elected to a seat in the Legislature of Tennessee. He remained two years a member of this chamber, and during his term of office he procured the passage of a law against the brutal practice of dueling. He regarded this unmanly and cruel "code of honor," as a relic of barbarism from a brutal past. To take this high moral ground touching an immoral practice, in a community which had approved it, and among leading men like Andrew Jackson, his personal friend, who thought they were honored by its practice, was a fine demonstration of the moral courage and character of the man. Hardly anything in his whole life speaks better for his head and heart, or reveals more clearly the richness of his moral nature.

On New Year's day, January, 1824, Mr. Polk was married to Miss Sarah Childress, daughter of Joel Childress, a wealthy commercial gentleman of Rutherford County, Tennessee.

In August, 1825, Mr. Polk, then only thirty years of age, was elected a representative in the Federal Congress where he was distinguished for his faithfulness to the trust reposed in him. He was known as a Democratic-Republican of the very strictest order. He was elected to Congress the same year John Quincy Adams was inaugurated President, whose policies he felt it his duty to oppose. For fourteen years he held the honored position of Representative by the suffrages of an admiring and enthusiastic constituency. He was a hard worker, and the value set upon his judgment may be seen in the fact, that he was placed upon every committee where practical wisdom was needed to direct the affairs of State. In 1835 Mr. Polk was made Speaker of the Twenty-fourth Congress; in 1837 he was re-elected to this high office.

In 1839 Mr. Polk declined re-election to Congress, and became the Democratic candidate for the governorship of Tennessee. After an unusually severe contest, in which Mr. Polk bore his own banner in the fight, he was elected, and on the 14th of October, 1839, entered on his duties. He was eminently successful in this office and became the acknowledged leader of his party in the State of Tennessee. After a brief period of privacy Mr. Polk once more emerged to public view, and on the 4th of March, 1845, he was inaugurated the eleventh President of the United States. Stormy times were coming, and the new President had tough work cut out for him. The annexation of Texas awoke the Mexicans to arms, and so in the next year, 1846, came the Mexican War. The war lasted two years, and the result was that victory sat upon the American banners. "Nothing succeeds like success," and this new State, with its countless acres added to the domain of the Republic, was of course a feather in the cap of Polk. But Polk had many bitter enemies, and they did not fail to make his path anything but "a primrose path with dalliance trod." After the Mexican War came the question of the Oregon boundary. Gold was discovered in California. The dreadful potatorot in Ireland was driving thousands from Erin's Isle to seek bread, and work, and life, in the New World. The term of Polk's administration was crowded with big events. Polk died of cholera at the early age of fifty-four. Whatever critics may have to say of him, this at least is true, he did good service to his country, better than he knew, but not better than he hoped for. James Knox Polk deserves to be well and kindly remembered; he was a scholar, a gentleman, and a patriot.

OF VIRGINIA. BORN 1784; DIED 1850. PRESIDENT,

M

1850.

Twelfth President of the United States.

UCH as we may rail against hero-worship, much as we may proclaim that we are a people loving peace, there is a magic power in the clash of arms, and all our hearts turn warmly toward a military hero. The pathway to the White House had led more than once through the battle field. And if Zachary Taylor had never been the hero of Mexico, he would never have been the President of the United States. He fought his country's battles bravely and well, and his country crowned him, as he deserved to be crowned, with her highest honors.

Zachary Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1784; he was the third child of Colonel Richard Taylor, who was an active patriot and soldier of the Revolution. In the year after Zachary's birth his father removed with his family into what was then a wilderness, but what is now the site of the city of Louisville. Here young Zachary grew up and of the influence of the wilderness and the woods we will let Dr. Weaver speak:

"Zachary Taylor grew up in the wilderness.

He was educated

to the use of the axe, the hoe and the plow; to the use of the rifle, the capture of the wild beast, and the defense against the Indians. This education of the forest is far greater than many suppose. It de

velops strength, resolution, fortitude, shrewdness, sagacity, courage, foresight, independence of judgment, promptness of action, anticipation of danger; in a word, all the qualities of mind necessary to a frontiersman, to a remarkable degree.

"To a quick, bold, hardy, clear-headed boy like Zachary Taylor this education of the woods was not without its grand results. If it did not give polish, it gave strength; if it did not acquaint him with the world, it gave him a knowledge of the forces of nature and of himself, and of that part of mankind that he came in contact with. It was an education that made him a man mighty in his field of action. When about six years old he had a private teacher by the name of Ayers, who instructed him in the rudiments of English learning. Something, no doubt, was gained from the rude schools of his neighborhood, while a youth. The help of his parents added something, and the books brought from Virginia contributed something; but, in the main, his was the education of face to face contact with things. The work and business of his father's large plantation and the contact with the wild world around him were his principal schools."

In 1808, when Zachary Taylor was twenty-four years of age, his father secured the commission of lieutenant in the United States army made vacant by the death of his brother Hancock. When we next hear of him he has joined the army at New Orleans as lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment of the United States infantry. Two years later he married Margaret Smith, a young lady of good family from Maryland.

In 1811 Lieutenant Taylor was given the command of Fort Knox on the Wabash River. When the war against Great Britain broke out in 1812, Taylor, who had proved his valor in other fields, now came to the front and the lieutenant was breveted major. During the whole war he was one of the most vigorous and patriotic soldiers of the Northwest. When the war was

over and the army had to be reduced, Taylor was deprived of his commission as major and re-commissioned to captain. This was more than his proud spirit could bear, and he retired from the service of his country. He was soon however reinstated in his old position as major, by President Madison. Two years