Excerpt from The Life and Public Services of the Hon. James Knox Polk: With a Compendium of His Speeches on Various Public Measures "James K. Polk, who is the oldest of ten children, was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, on the second of November, 1795, and is consequently in the 49th year of his age. His ancestors, whose original name, Pollock, has, by obvious transition, assumed its present form, emigrated more than a century ago, from Ireland, a country from which many of our most distinguished men are proud to derive their origin. They established themselves first in Maryland, where some of their descendants still sojourn. The branch of the family from which is sprung the subject of this memoir, removed to the neighborhood of Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and thence to the western frontier of North Carolina, sometime before the revolutionary war. Its connection with that eventful struggle is one of rare distinction. On the twentieth of May, 1775, consequently more than a twelvemonth anterior to the declaration of the Fourth of July, the assembled inhabitants of Mecklenburg county publicly absolved themselves from their allegiance to the British crown, and issued a formal manifesto of independence in terms of manly eloquence, which have become 'familiar as household words' to the American people. Col. Thomas Polk, the prime mover in this act of noble daring, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was the great uncle of the present Speaker, who is also connected with the Alexanders, Chairman and Secretary of the famous meeting, as well as with Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the author of the Declaration itself.* * Tradition ascribes to Thomas Polk the principal agency in bringing about the Declaration. He appears to have given the notice for the election of the Convention, and (being the colonel of the county) to have superintended the election in each of the militia districts. He had been for a long time engaged in the service of the province as a surveyor, and as a member of the assembly; and was thus intimately acquainted, not only in Mecklenburg, but in the counties generally. His education had been acquired, not within the classic walls of an English university, but among his own native hills, and amidst the passions and feelings of his countrymen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.