James K. Polk Quotes

We must ever mandate the principle that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny.

There are four great measures for my administration - a reduction of tariff, an independent treasury, settlement of the Oregon boundary and acquisition of California.

No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

Under the blessings of Divine Providence... It becomes us, in humility, to make our devout acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored.

All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection.

Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between church and state.

It is confidently believed that our system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits.

There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S.

With me it is exceptionally true that the Presidency is no bed of roses.

Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.

The gratitude ... should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy.

Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government.

The Presidency is not a bed of roses.

I cannot, whilst President of the United States, descend to enter into a newspaper controversy.

No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the government myself rather than entrust the public business to subordinates, and this makes my duties very great.

If a man . . . would shake and not be shaken, grip and not be gripped, taking care always to squeeze the hand of his adversary as hard as it squeezed him, then he suffered no inconvenience from it.

The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.

Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.

Although in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a part only, but of the whole people of the United States.

No union exists between church and state, and perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds.

I am heartily rejoiced that my term is so near its close. I will soon cease to be a servant and will become a sovereign.

Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the sovereign arbiter of all human events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy. Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.

The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard of our federative compact, the offspring of concession and compromise, binding together in the bonds of peace and union this great and increasing family of free and independent States, will be the chart by which I shall be directed.

General Taylor is, I have no doubt, a well-meaning old man. He is, however, uneducated, exceedingly ignorant of public affairs, and I should judge, of very ordinary capacity.