James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. Historians have praised Polk for having met during his four-year term every major domestic and foreign policy goal he had set. After a negotiation fraught with risk of war, he reached a settlement with Great Britain over the disputed Oregon Country, the territory for the most part being divided along the 49th parallel. A slaveholder for most of his adult life, he owned a plantation in Mississippi and bought slaves while president. A major legacy of Polk's presidency is territorial expansion, as the United States reached the Pacific coast and became poised to be a world power. However, sectional divisions in the U.S. were exacerbated by the territorial expansion and the Civil War is considered a direct consequence of Polk's policy.
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