[EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES]

Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1833 - 1834. First Edition. Hardcover. Occasional foxing and toning to the text. The signature is strong and clear, the binding Fine. Thick (3") octavo recently bound in brown morocco leather-backed marbled boards with matching morocco corners and a red morocco spine label. Documents from the 23rd Congress, First Session, 1833-4 containing approximately a thousand pages with each document paged individually. James Polk's copy with his full SIGNATURE including middle initial on the top of the first page, the Index. At the time of publication, Polk was a member of the House of Representatives from 1825 to 1839, serving as Speaker of the House from 1835 to 1839, the only Speaker eventually to be elected president. He was a staunch supporter of President Andrew Jackson and supported Jackson's positions on a number of bills included here, most notably leading the fight in the House against the recharter of the Bank of the United States, exposing its financial weakness. Polk was appointed chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in December 1833, when these documents begin. The first "dark horse" candidate in presidential history, Polk was nominated on the 9th ballot at the Democratic convention and narrowly defeated Henry Clay in the Presidential election of 1844 becoming, at the age of 49, the youngest president to date. Vowing to serve only one term, he was possibly the least corrupt and most effective president in American history, having established an independent treasury, confronted the British, conquered Mexico, and seized the western third of the North American continent creating the land mass that would ultimately become the contiguous United States. Included is a 1992 letter from the Executive Director of the Tennessee Historical Society de-accessioning the volume. Books from Polk's library are quite uncommon.