Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Sarah Polk’s Power Behind the Presidency

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Sarah Polk was one of the most politically powerful women of her era. From running her husband’s political operation behind the scenes to mastering the art of influence, she knew exactly how power worked. She shaped her husband’s presidency, set social rules in the White House, and proved that ambition didn’t have to be loud to be effective. This is the story of a woman who changed American politics. If you’d like to submit a question for Sharon to answer, head to ThePreamble.com/podcast – we’d love to hear from you there. And be sure to read our weekly magazine at ThePreamble.com – it’s free! Join hundreds of thousands of people who still believe understanding is an act of hope. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends. Welcome. I am so glad you're here. Today we are talking about Sarah Polk. And she was not your typical first lady. I don't just mean she was unusual for her time. Even by today's standard, Sarah Polk would be considered unique, which is exactly what makes her years in the White House so fascinating. So today I'm going to give you five reasons why Sarah Polk stands apart in the constellation of America's first ladies. Let's dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is the preamble podcast. Now back to our story. In 1839, a letter was sent from a man in Washington, D.C. to a woman in Nashville, Tennessee. The opening line was, I miss you more here than any living person and profit more by your information in regard to most things. What sounds like a love note was actually a sincere note of respect from a United States Supreme Court Justice to his friend, Sarah, the wife of Tennessee governor, James Polk. One of Sarah's biographers describes her as a woman who managed the trick of excelling in the male sphere of politics without seeming to threaten anyone. Women would write that she was very impressive and made them feel at ease, and men were willing to tell Sarah things that they wouldn't tell other men.

And so here's my reason number one, to borrow biographer Amy Greenberg's phrase, men were willing to tell Sarah things, they wouldn't tell other men, and women felt she was impressive. To say that this is a difficult needle to thread in the modern era is an understatement. But imagine it in 19th century America, a time and place where gender roles were deeply entrenched. Women and children under the legal doctrine called Coverture, which we learned about in the last episode, were the property of their husbands. Social culture in the 1800s dictated that a woman's highest calling was a life of homemaking and raising children. Sarah Polk was born Sarah Childress in 1803 to Elizabeth Joel Childress, to early settlers in Tennessee.

Joel Childress, through the work of enslaved labor, grew his prosperous plantation and gained notoriety by regularly inviting other settlers in the area to social events at their home. Forget six degrees of Kevin Bacon. If you really want to talk about a national celebrity who was connected to everyone in the south, you don't have to look any further than old hickory, Andrew Jackson. Sarah's parents were no surprise. Close friends of Rachel and Andrew Jackson who lived nearby at their plantation called the hermitage. Young Sarah likely grew up calling the future president Uncle Andrew.

Sarah's brothers attended the school that would eventually become the, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, while Sarah and her sister were sent to the region's most elite schools for girls. This served as useful preparation for a woman who would eventually become the keeper of men's secrets. While at college, Sarah's brother Anderson met a man named Jimmy. And so when Jimmy took a jab as the secretary of the Tennessee Senate, it was only natural that Sarah would be introduced to him. Andrew Jackson, again, he knows everyone in the South it seems, told Jimmy that Sarah Childress would be an asset to him

because she was wealthy, pretty, ambitious, and intelligent. Jimmy, of course, was future president James Polk. Few women of the time, even if the adjectives were deserved, would be described as ambitious and intelligent by other men. And it would be even more unusual for that to be understood as a compliment. There's some evidence that says that Sarah told Jimmy she would only marry him after he'd been elected to political office, which she did. They married at her family's plantation on New Year's Day in 1824. After they married, they relocated to James Polk's family property, where Sarah and James lived

in a small cottage on the larger homestead. Living in this cottage on her in-law's property absolved her of the responsibility of entertaining. Her mother-in-law did that at the larger house. And this set her up for my reason, number two, why Sarah was unique among first ladies. She didn't want to be a wife, mother, and homemaker. What she wanted was to be involved in politics. We know Sarah didn't want to be like other women because she wrote in a diary entry that if I should be so fortunate as to reach the White House,

I will neither keep house nor make butter. You can see both this naked ambition and her lack of interest in what were considered the roles of women from an early time in her adulthood. Children were not part of Sarah and James' story. There's no historical evidence that suggests she was ever pregnant. So historians don't think she suffered from recurrent pregnancy loss, which was common at the time. What we do know is that James had surgery for a bladder issue as a child or a young adult, and it is quite possible that that surgery rendered him sterile.

Also, side note, isn't it interesting that a fair number of America's early presidents had no biological children? Right? I mean, especially during a time when having a family was a societal expectation and other presidents like Tyler had huge numbers of children. Isn't that interesting? Washington, Madison, Jackson, and now Polk? All had no biological children. I just find that interesting. It wasn't long, though, before the Polks took their next political step. James was sworn in to the United States House of Representatives in 1825. At that time, Congress met part-time, and when congressmen left home to go live in Washington, D.C. during sessions, it was not customary for their wives to join them.

There was usually a home front to tend to and children to take care of, but not so for the Polks. And when James left Tennessee, Sarah anxiously joined him the following year. When elected officials came to the Capitol for congressional sessions, their living quarters were often at a boarding house, and the Polks were no exception. Boarding houses were part fraternity, part hotel, and the cramped quarters encouraged social interactions, which Sarah used to her advantage. Boarding houses, by the way, also had the extra benefit of providing housekeeping services, so Sarah did not have to waste her precious time turning butter. We've already established.

She doesn't want to do the butter. The Polks were so successful in the boarding house social scene that they eventually moved to a larger boarding house location where they could have several rooms. This gave them more space to entertain. It was right on Pennsylvania Avenue and the Supreme Court was actually meeting in part of the building, which gave Sarah access to the most powerful people in the judicial branch. Storians have remarked that Sarah's drawing room was always crowded and that she became famous friends with the wives of the Supreme Court justices. Of course, the Supreme Court later moved into its iconic building. It did not exist at the time. James's congressional office

was run by Sarah. She handled his correspondence and scheduling, made sure that he got the right meetings with the right people, and James rose to be Speaker of the House. It was especially advantageous to both him, nicknamed a young Hickory, and President Andrew Jackson called old Hickory. This political alliance would be long and fruitful, and Polk is now regarded by historians as being the last of the Jacksonian Democrats in office. Jackson and Polk wanted to keep these populist slave-owning principles in place, in the south. And Jackson encouraged Polk to leave his high-profile position as Speaker of the House

to run for Governor of Tennessee, which both Sarah and James viewed as a step toward their shared, broader political ambitions. When James was elected governor, the Polk's left Washington and relocated to the newly constructed governor's mansion in Tennessee. Despite having the same address, this marked the first time since the beginning of their marriage that Sarah and James spent a great deal of time apart. While James traveled the state inspecting the growing cities of the region, Sarah remained at the state capital masterfully handling James' political affairs and keeping him informed of every piece of information she received. She regularly wrote him letters, summarizing all the

correspondence his office received, as well as any report. applies that she offered the inquirer. A letter to him on April 14, 1841 gives a great example of this system that they had. It reads in part, Dear husband, I enclose you a communication given me this morning. The wigs, I am told, are in a good deal of concern since the death of their president. They say in their articles that you are a wily and dangerous foe. So I think they will level all their articles against you. Sarah used her well-honed political talent to predict what her husband's opponents might do and to warn him in advance. Sarah was playing chess, and everyone knew it. And here's my third reason why Sarah was unlike any other first lady. She wanted to make a splash, but not

in the, let's throw an elegant ball, Julia Tyler kind of way, or in the save George Washington's painting, the British are burning down the White House, Dally Madison kind of way. More like a more power for my husband means more power for me kind of way. When James Polk was elected president, Henry Clay's wife, remember he beat Henry Clay in the presidential race. Clay's wife reportedly said, they will make a good president. They meaning James and Sarah. And so when the Polks were ready to move to the White House as president and first lady, they wanted everyone to know they had arrived. They decided to undertake an epic journey and they wanted American citizens to know the Polks were coming. First, they

traveled by coach to the hermitage outside of Nashville so young Hickory could say goodbye to old Hickory. Then they hopped a new cedar boat and started heading up the Ohio River. As they passed by, crowds were said to have gathered on the banks with enthusiastic waves and cheers for the president elect and his soon-to-be first lady. As they journeyed, they stepped in a variety of cities to meet with callers and to thank them for their support. They ultimately used a variety of modes of transportation throughout their trip. The boat, a stagecoach through the Cumberland Gap, a train to Baltimore, and then Washington, finally arriving in D.C. two weeks before Polk's March inauguration.

The journey took between two and four weeks. And of course, we know the transportation was a lot slower than it is now. But they could have gotten there much more quickly. They chose not to because they wanted as much fanfare as possible. Imagine a scenario in which a president-elect takes a three-week journey across the country before arriving in Washington, D.C. solely for the purpose of building up maximum hype for themselves. Imagine like a Trump's epic journey.

or a Biden's Tour of America where they literally spend three weeks, like on a boat, on a train, in a car, on a horse, just like trying to hype people up, like, I'm almost there, only two more weeks. I mean, it seems, it seems silly, right? It seems silly by today's standards, but that's what they did. When inauguration day arrived, Sarah held in her hand a very special fan given to her as a gift from her. beloved Jimmy. On one side of the elaborately painted fan was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And on the other were the portraits of the first 11 presidents of the United States. It's actually a very beautiful fan. It's a remarkable fan. The fans still exist, by the way. You can easily find it online. If you Google Sarah Polk presidential fan, you'll be able to see pictures

of it. The Smithsonian has it. The Polks did not just physically around. in Washington. Sarah arrived socially. While there many years in Congress helped them develop important relationships, Sarah knew that she was now a worldwide figure and that she should look the part. Her wardrobe would reflect the nature of her new job. Sarah is sometimes described as tall, but in reality she was only 5'3. No doubt she cut an impressive figure for other reasons.

The way she carried herself, and the clothes and accessories she chose lent an air of importance. Sarah was widely described by the press all over the country and abroad as beautiful, handsome, exotic, and impressive. She had olive skin, dark ringlets of hair and deep brown eyes. And she knew how to accentuate her coloring with rich jewel tones and gold silk dresses. She was instantly crowned the first lady of style in newspaper reports, and she made sure to never drop that facade. In 1847, for example, she reportedly ordered an assortment of dresses from Paris that cost today's equivalent of $12,600. That's all that is a lot for some dresses.

even by today's standards. Lisa Kathleen Grady, who is the director of the First Ladies' Collection of the Smithsonian, described Sarah as a Washington trendsetter. She said, Sarah Polk's style was early Victorian, very feminine, with full skirts over petticoats and rich fabrics. She says, Victorian fashion was all about making women look smaller, so proportions would be more grandiose to make women look more petite. The waist and hands should appear small, with shoulders and hips very large. She says that Sarah was actually very, very thin, so her large dresses were a way of making her look like she was the correct size woman

for the fashion of the day. Sarah knew which cuts of clothing suited her and she had a dressmaker that custom-made clothes for her out of lighter fabrics for summer and brocades and velvets for winter. Her silhouette was tiny waist, huge skirt, details of the collarbone, and something for her hair. That was like Sarah's dress-up formula. She often wore turbans similar to her friend Dolly Madison, but instead of wearing them across her forehead like Dolly did, she wore them at the back of her head with her curls framing her face. And speaking of Dolly Madison, Dolly and Sarah were very close friends.

And there's actually an important photograph of Sarah and Dolly together. It has Sarah and James Polk, future president James Buchanan, and Dolly Madison. And there's a few other people, probably Sarah's nieces, who were frequent White House guests. But because photography was new and special, having a picture made spoke to the status of all of the individuals in that image. They were important to each other. This was not just a like, who's that in the background? No, they were all standing there for a portrait. Sarah didn't want to have an inaugural ball for the same reason she wanted the band on the boat to stop playing. Which brings me to reason number four why Sarah Polk was unlike any other first lady.

Sarah did not believe in dancing or drinking or playing. carts. She didn't believe in merriment on the Sabbath, which is why she didn't want the band to play. She was very piously religious in a way that no First Lady had really been before. We mentioned in our previous episode, Women versus Whiskey, that Americans in the early 19th century drink three times as much as people do today. But not Sarah. Sarah didn't allow spirits in the White House, wine or beer only and only for exceptional occasions like entertaining heads of state from overseas where drinking was potentially important for American foreign policy. So when Sarah thought an inaugural ball was a bad idea because it had lots of dancing and

drinking, Dolly Madison advised her against it. Dolly told her it would be politically expedient for her to have the party and instead of dancing, she could use the time to talk to Washington's important men. Sarah heeded the advice. She earned the nicknames the Puritan from Tennessee and Sahara Sarah, both references to her rule-bound ways. In fact, once when a government official from Austria sailed across the ocean and arrived a day early on a Sunday,

Sarah refused to receive him at the White House. house until the Sabbath had passed. Sarah and to a lesser extent James were Calvinist Presbyterians. Without going into a full history of Calvinism, which would take an entire podcast, it's important to note that one of the movement's most influential leaders, John Calvin, strongly preached the notion of predestination that even before creation, God decided who he would save. Another important tenet of Calvinism is called the perseverance of the saints. And it's an idea that says because God is sovereign in all things, his will cannot be subverted by humans or anyone else. According to Sarah's beliefs,

because God is sovereign in all things and had already elected who he would save, enslaving people was not problematic. It was part of what she believed was God's plan. Both Sarah and James were from well-off families that enslaved others, and when they married Sarah's dowry included 10 enslaved people. During their marriage, their slaveholdings grew to over 50 people by the time of James' inauguration, and they brought some of their enslaved people to the White House. This led to a dismissal of some of the White House staff because the workers were replaced with free forced labor. This belief carried over into the justification. of removing Native American tribes

from their ancestral lands in the south to more Western territory. Sarah similarly shared Polk's and Jackson's views of Manifest Destiny, the idea that it was part of a larger, ordained plan that the United States should extend its borders all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Regaining Texas for the United States

was Polk's biggest campaign platform, and it even helped him win the presidency. In an upcoming episode, we will take a closer look at the Mexican-American War and how this led to continental expansion. As the abolitionist movement began to rise in America, Sarah and James stayed staunch in their belief that because God's will could not be subverted, it was his divine will.

that said people should be enslaved. They continued to buy himself slaves when they were in the White House, with James even once touting in his speech his virtue for being invested in keeping enslaved families together. As an investment, the Polk's purchased a plantation in Mississippi, and conditions were so terrible there for the people they enslaved that while Polk was in office, while he was president, The yearly mortality rate of the people he owned at the Mississippi plantation was nearly 50%.

Nearly half of his enslaved people died. And this brings us to reason number five, which is related to reason number one. Sarah had an intuitive tact and political wisdom that was uncommon for any person of that time. Whenever she shared a thought, opinion, or suggestion, it was always prefaced with Mr. Polk thinks or Mr. Polk believes, and she quickly learned that she could do and say anything she wanted as long as it was on behalf of her husband. She was a good conversationalist, and perhaps her religious piety made people feel like she was trustworthy. Sarah was a popular first lady, which was fortunate.

Given that her husband was pretty unpopular as president, historian Amy Greenberg wrote that Mrs. Polk cultivated a deferential persona that powerful men found non-threatening and intoxicating. She was a woman who venerated the work of men and excelled in it because she publicly embraced a reactionary standard of female submission. So by brilliantly manipulating the gender codes of the day. Sarah Polk exercised a political power that a narrative of women's rights would tell you no woman had until they actually won the vote. Future commander-in-chief Franklin Pierce even wrote to some of his friends that I would rather talk with Mrs. Polk about all manner of duties than I would with her husband. Sarah acted as her husband's de facto chief of staff, press secretary,

and communications director because, again, as we previously established, she was not interested in making butter. In fact, Sarah was so caught up in politics that she rarely cared about the details of being a White House hostess. At one state dinner, she was so anxious to speak with the political minds there that she didn't notice a lack of napkins on the table and she, frankly, did not even seem to care when someone pointed it out. She wanted power for herself and her husband, but didn't seem to be interested in helping other people access power.

For example, she supported the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the anti-alcohol group that we talked about in our previous episode, but not women's suffrage. James made a promise when he was elected that he would be a one-term president, and he stuck to his word. When the Polk's time in the White House ended in 1849, they embarked on a tour. of the South. Cholera was raging throughout the southern cities, and since he was already in poor health, James easily

contracted the disease. Sarah and James ended their tour by arriving at their newly remodeled home in Nashville, which they named Polk Place. But James never fully recovered from the cholera.

Only 103 days after leaving the White House, Jimmy Polk died on the afternoon of June 15th, 1849. His last words were reportedly, I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you. Sarah, who was deeply mourning her beloved husband, spent the next 40 years living out her life at Polk Place. She rarely left the home but constantly entertained visitors there.

When the Civil War began, Polk Place was considered neutral, and Sarah welcomed both Union and Confederate visitors. But when she was asked to sign an oath of loyalty to the Union, as was required of all Nashville residents, she refused. She would later admit that her sympathies were actually with the South, and she blamed the divisions within the Democratic Party during the 1860 election for the outbreak of war. In the later decades of her life, she welcomed both presidents Hayes and Cleveland to her home along with their wives. She never stopped delighting in the political banter. She so excelled that, and that was hard to come by for a widow. In a nod to her intellect and curiosity, Sarah was always interested in new technology, and she made sure to have both a telegraph and a telephone installed in her home as soon.

as they were available. For a period of time, Sarah's great niece, who was also named Sarah, lived with her. Her great niece, Sarah, got married at Polk Place, and when the older Sarah died in 1891 at the age of 87, she was buried next to her beloved husband. She had lived without him for 42 years, the longest widowhood of any First Lady. After she died, Sarah left Polk place to her niece. But eventually other Polk relatives began to dispute Sarah's will in the courts. The relatives claimed that it was President Polk's will that should be allowed, not Sarah's,

which speaks to the idea I mentioned previously that women had few legal rights absent their husband. James Polk's nephew felt he should have possession of the grand property. not Sarah's great niece, Sarah. In the president's will, he stated that his home should be run like the Jackson's hermitage as a perpetual monument to his career. Eventually, the familial infighting meant that a judge ordered that the property be sold. And the now dead Sarah and James had to be relocated. Eventually, the home was sold to a developer who tore it down to build an apartment building.

The building has changed hands many times over the decades, and for a long time it was a YMCA, but it is now the small, relatively unremarkable, Capitol Hotel on Union Street. Sarah Childress Polk was a political force because she was so good at seeming not to be. I'll see you again next time. If you'd like to submit a question, head to thepreamble.com slash podcast. We'd love to hear from you there. And be sure to read our weekly magazine at the preamble.com.

It's free. Here is your personal invitation to join 350,000 people who still believe understanding is an act of hope. I'm your host and executive producer Sharon McMahon. If you enjoyed this show, please like, share, and subscribe these things, help podcasters out so much. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck Parks, and our audio producer is Craig Thompson. I'll see you again soon.