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50 free James K. Polk trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
James K. Polk is the president most people forget and historians keep ranking near the top. In a single term from 1845 to 1849 he settled the Oregon boundary with Britain, annexed Texas, won a war with Mexico that delivered California and the Southwest, cut tariffs and rebuilt the Independent Treasury. He promised to serve one term, kept the promise, and died of cholera just over three months after leaving the White House. This quiz covers the whole arc: the sickly North Carolina boy operated on with only brandy for anesthetic, the Jackson protégé nicknamed Young Hickory, the only Speaker of the House ever to reach the presidency, the dark-horse nomination on the ninth ballot, and the generals, diplomats and treaties of the Mexican War. It also asks about his slaveholding, his cabinet and the odd afterlife of his remains. Fifty questions run from easy to genuinely hard. Every answer is sourced, and each explanation adds one more detail, so you leave knowing more about Polk than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Polk was which number president of the United States?
11th
He served from 1845 to 1849, between John Tyler and Zachary Taylor.
Q 02In which state was Polk born, in a log cabin in 1795?
North Carolina
He was born in Pineville, the first of ten children, and moved with his family to the Duck River area in 1806.
Q 03Polk was known as "Young Hickory" as a protégé of which president?
Andrew Jackson
Jackson was "Old Hickory"; Sarah Polk and her siblings are said to have called him "Uncle Andrew".
Q 04Polk is the only president to have also held which office?
Speaker of the House
He became Speaker in 1835 and served two terms before leaving Congress to run for governor.
Q 05Which Whig did Polk narrowly defeat in the 1844 presidential election?
Henry Clay
Polk won 49.5% of the popular vote and 170 of 275 electoral votes.
Q 06Before the White House, Polk served as governor of which state?
Tennessee
He won the governorship in 1839 but lost it in 1841 and again in 1843 before his surprise presidential nomination.
Q 07On which ballot did the 1844 Democratic convention nominate Polk?
Ninth
He got only 44 votes on the eighth ballot, then 233 on the ninth once Van Buren's name was withdrawn.
Q 08Who served as Polk's vice president?
George M. Dallas
Dallas, a Pennsylvanian, later broke a Senate tie to pass Polk's tariff cut despite his protectionist home state.
Q 09As a boy, Polk had surgery for urinary stones with what as the only anesthetic?
Brandy
Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Kentucky performed the operation, which may have left Polk sterile; he had no children.
Q 10The 1846 Oregon Treaty divided the territory mostly along which parallel?
49th
Britain kept all of Vancouver Island, which dips below the line, plus temporary navigation rights on the Columbia.
Q 11Expansionists wanted all of Oregon Country, which extended north to what latitude?
54°40′
The demand gave rise to the slogan associated with the dispute, though Polk never claimed the whole territory in his inaugural.
Q 12Which 1848 agreement ended the war with Mexico?
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
It was signed in a small town near Mexico City at the Mexicans' request; Polk declared it in effect on July 4, 1848.
Q 13Who negotiated the peace with Mexico despite being recalled by Polk?
Nicholas Trist
Trist, Buchanan's chief clerk, ignored his recall in November 1847 and kept talking; Polk grudgingly accepted the result.
Q 21Which 1846 amendment sought to ban slavery in land bought from Mexico?
Wilmot Proviso
It passed the House attached to Polk's $2 million appropriation but died in the Senate, and cost Democrats the House in 1846.
Q 22Who was Polk's Secretary of State?
James Buchanan
Polk wanted no presidential hopefuls in his cabinet but made an exception for the ambitious Pennsylvanian.
Q 23Polk's 1846 tariff cut bore the name of which Treasury Secretary?
Robert J. Walker
The bill needed the vice president's tie-breaking Senate vote and substantially undid the Whig Tariff of 1842.
Q 14How much did the United States pay Mexico under the 1848 peace terms?
$15 million
Trist had been authorized to offer up to $30 million and to let Mexico keep Baja California, which it did.
Q 15In late 1845 Polk sent which envoy to Mexico to buy New Mexico and California?
John Slidell
President Herrera refused to receive him; Polk called the snub an "ample cause of war".
Q 16Which April 1846 skirmish prompted Polk's war message to Congress?
Thornton Affair
Polk told Congress Mexico had "shed American blood on the American soil"; the Senate vote was 40–2.
Q 17What was the first major engagement of the Mexican–American War?
Battle of Palo Alto
Taylor's troops lost only four dead against hundreds of Mexican casualties, and routed Arista's army again the next day.
Q 18Which Whig congressman introduced the "exact spot" resolutions challenging Polk?
Abraham Lincoln
The resolutions demanded Polk identify exactly where American blood had been shed; the House refused to consider them.
Q 19Which general landed at Veracruz in 1847 and went on to capture Mexico City?
Winfield Scott
Polk and Scott disliked each other; the president feared giving a Whig general wartime glory.
Q 20Which general, a hero of Buena Vista, succeeded Polk as president?
Zachary Taylor
Polk thought Taylor had poor judgment but still hosted him at a gala White House dinner before the inauguration.
Q 24In what year did Polk sign the Independent Treasury Act?
1846
The system kept federal funds in the Treasury and sub-treasuries rather than banks, and lasted until the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
Q 25How old was Polk at his inauguration, making him the youngest president to that point?
49
He took office on March 4, 1845, in a steady rain, and referred to "28 states" to signal Texas was already in.
Q 26Polk's 1845 inauguration was the first to be reported by what means?
Telegraph
It was also the first inauguration shown in a newspaper illustration, in The Illustrated London News.
Q 27Polk died in June 1849, most likely of which disease?
Cholera
He had dodged the disease on a riverboat tour home, where several fellow passengers died of it.
Q 28How many days did Polk live after leaving office, the shortest such retirement?
103
At 53 he also had the shortest lifespan of any president who was not assassinated.
Q 29What was the maiden name of Polk's wife, Sarah?
Childress
Unusually well educated for a frontier woman, she helped write his speeches and advised on policy.
Q 30Polk's oratory earned him which nickname?
Napoleon of the Stump
He earned it in his first 1823 campaign, where he also provided voters with alcoholic refreshments at the polls.