Summary Of Met His Every Goal By James K. Polk

Book Review
Being the President of the United States is a leadership position like no other. For those rare few chosen, being the president offers a rare opportunity to mold the country’s future. Over the course of the 241 year history of the United States 44 presidents have come and gone, and some were indisputably more successful at the job than others. In Tom Chaffin’s Met His Every Goal? James K. Polk and the Legends of Manifest Destiny, Chaffin asserts that overall, despite his moments of controversy, Polk was a successful president. He goes on to argue two critical points within the book: Polk’s successes as president came with major consequences (both good and bad), and the self-proclamation of his legendary anecdote never actually occurred.

Chaffin makes a compelling comparison of the anecdote to the mystery surrounding Babe Ruth’s called shot in the 32’ World Series. Through his extensive research, Chaffin came to the conclusion that Polk himself never made this claim. He instead asserts that it was invented by the “Massachusetts-born teacher, politician, and historian George Bancroft” (Chaffin 50). He found that the earliest recording of the anecdote was written in the late 1880s by Bancroft in a biographical typescript of Polk. After this first recording, the anecdote was copied again and again by various historians over the next century until the legend became fact. Chaffin delves into an analysis of Polk’s relationship with Bancroft that ultimately leads the reader to believe that Bancroft was somewhat obsessed with his commander in chief. He then discovered several sources in which Bancroft changes his story about not only whether or not Polk ever said the “four great measures” but also when they were said. Chaffin appropriately comments that “Bancroft’s cageyness about the source of the anecdote, forty years after the fact, seems odd” (58). Chaffin is indefinitely right about that. One of the clearest ways to tell someone is lying, such as in a court of law, is when their story keeps changing. He dedicates at least two chapters of the book to debunking the myth and is successful in doing so. If Polk really had made the thigh-slapping statement there would be a record of it somewhere, especially considering how memorable that would be if it had taken place. Even more interesting than the myth itself is how bancroft’s attempts to glorify Polk seem to have backfired on the president’s reputation. Chaffin points out