William Hawkins Polk

William Hawkins Polk ( born May 24, 1815 Maury County, Tennessee, † December 16, 1862 in Nashville, Tennessee ) was an American politician. Between 1851 and 1853 he represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

William Polk was the younger by 20 years brother of U.S. President James K. Polk. He attended the city schools in Columbia and then studied until 1833 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then continued his education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville continues. After studying law and its made ​​in 1839 admitted to the bar he began in Columbia to work in his new profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career.

Between 1842 and 1845 Polk sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from Tennessee. From 1845 to 1847 he was an American ambassador in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After that he served during the final phase of the Mexican- American War as a major in a dragoon unit. In the congressional elections of 1850 Polk was an independent Democrat in the sixth electoral district of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of James Thomas Houston on March 4, 1851. Until March 3, 1853, he was able to complete a term in Congress. This was already determined by the tensions leading up to the Civil War. The main point of the time was the question of slavery.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives William Polk again worked as a lawyer. He died on December 16, 1862 in Nashville and was buried in Columbia.