Non-fiction: Fourth Annual Message to Congress (1848)

Overview
Polk’s fourth annual message surveys a transformed republic at peace after a successful war with Mexico. He frames 1848 as a pivot from conflict to consolidation, underscoring the ratified Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the enlarged national domain, and the practical work of instituting civil government, managing finances, and securing commerce. The tone balances triumph, territorial acquisition and commercial vitality, with cautions about constitutional limits, sectional tensions, and the urgency of orderly administration in newly acquired regions.

Peace with Mexico and Territorial Gains
Polk heralds the restored peace and details the treaty’s terms: U.S. title to New Mexico and Upper California and the establishment of a new boundary, paired with American payment and the assumption of claims. He requests appropriations to run and mark the line and to fulfill treaty obligations. The war’s end, he argues, delivered strategic harbors on the Pacific and a continental breadth that reorients American trade and power. He praises the Army and Navy, regulars and volunteers alike, for discipline and valor, and memorializes the fallen while stressing that national objects were achieved.

California, Gold, and Civil Order
Reports from officers and territorial authorities confirm extraordinary deposits of gold in California. Polk predicts sweeping economic effects, an influx of people and capital, a sudden rise in commerce, and the rapid development of Pacific ports. Precisely because of this rush, he urges Congress to establish territorial governments in California and New Mexico without delay, replacing provisional military rule with civil institutions, courts, and revenue systems. He recommends measures to secure customs collection, protect persons and property, and regulate mining and land titles amid the tumult of migration.

Slavery Question and Territorial Organization
Addressing the most volatile political issue, Polk counsels against injecting slavery agitation into territorial bills. He argues that existing local law and constitutional principles provide a framework and indicates willingness to accept a practical compromise such as the Missouri line extension, while opposing the Wilmot Proviso as needless provocation. His aim is swift organization of governments to meet pressing social and legal needs, leaving abstract controversy aside and allowing the people and the judiciary to operate within established constitutional bounds.

Finances, Trade, and the Independent Treasury
Polk highlights robust revenues under the lower Walker Tariff of 1846, claiming it has broadened imports, stimulated exports, and filled the Treasury even through wartime expenditures. He points to the Independent Treasury as a hard-money, nonbank mechanism that proved its worth under strain by keeping public funds safe and payments punctual. With peace restored, he anticipates continued growth, rising land sales, and manageable public debt, provided Congress resists extravagant appropriations and unconstitutional subsidies.

Oregon, Indians, and the Pacific Outlook
He notes the organization of the Oregon Territory and ongoing efforts to quell hostilities there, urging adequate protection and humane, firm administration of Indian affairs across the frontier. On the Pacific, he connects California’s harbors to a larger commercial strategy: regular mail and passenger steamship lines, protection of the New Granada transit across the Isthmus of Panama, and a naval presence to encourage trade with Asia.

Internal Improvements, Post, and Administration
Polk upholds a strict construction view, warning against federal funding for local works while consenting to clearly national objects such as lighthouses, harbors of refuge, and ocean mail service. He reports on postal reforms and urges further efficiency, including reliable ocean routes linking the Atlantic, the isthmus, California, and Oregon. He renews support for a Home Department to consolidate domestic functions now scattered across the government, promising better oversight of public lands, patents, pensions, Indians, and the census.

Closing Emphasis
The message fuses celebration of continental expansion with a program of sober governance: survey the boundary, install civil authority, manage the gold rush, maintain fiscal discipline, and preserve the constitutional balance. Peace, prosperity, and union, he argues, will depend on prompt, moderate legislation equal to the scale of the nation’s new responsibilities.