Graduated from the University of North Carolina (1818).
            
	Studied law with Felix Gundy, who was a delegate to the Kentucky State 				Constitutional Convention, Member of the Kentucky House of Representatives,.
            
		Justice of the Kentucky State Supreme Court and later, U.S. Attorney General.
            
III.  Occupations.
            
	A.	Admitted to the bar in Tennessee (1820).
            
	B.	State Legislator of Tennessee (1823-1825).
            
	C.	U.S. Representative (1825-1839).
            
	D.	Speaker of the House (1835-1839).
            
	E.	Governor of Tennessee (1839-1841).
            
IV.  Term of Presidency.
            
	A.	1845-1849.
            
V.  Important issues of the election.
            
	A.	The re-annexation of Texas.
            
	B.	Threatening war with Great Britain over the Oregon Boundary.
            
VI.  Major Opposition of the election.
            
	A.	Henry Clay (Whig).
            
VII.  Vice President.
            
	A.	George M. Dallas.
            
VIII. Political Party.
            
	A.	Democrat.
            
IX. Major Domestic Happenings:.
            
	A.	Texas entered the Union in 1845.  Signed as a joint annexation under the Tyler 			administration made all of Texas U.S. property.  Mexico did not recognize this 			annexation.
            
	B.	Wilmot Proviso (1846) David Wilmot, a Democratic Congressman, presented the 			amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the 			Mexican War.  It provided an appropriation of $2 million to enable President Polk 			to negotiate a territorial settlement with Mexico. The bill also stipulated that none 			of the territory acquired in the Mexican War should be open to slavery.  The 			amended bill was passed in the House, but the Senate adjourned without voting on 			it. Then in the next session of Congress, in 1847, a new bill providing for a $3- 			million appropriation was introduced, and Wilmot again tried to attach an 				antislavery amendment to it.  The amended bill passed the House, but the Senate 			drew up its own bill, which did not include the proviso.  The Wilmot Proviso 			created bitterness between the North and the South and helped crystallize the 			conflict over the extension of slavery.