Single-term presidents don’t always have the best reputation. Buchanan, Tyler, Fillmore, Hoover, Carter, Trump—these guys are usually not ranked too highly by historians. Which makes it all the more surprising that one of the highest-rated Presidents in U.S. history is the one-term wonder James Knox Polk. Polk delivered on all his campaign promises and then some. The annexation of Texas? Check. Victory in the Mexican-American War? Check! Besides Thomas Jefferson, no president saw more territory added to the country. And above all, Polk did deliver on his promise to be…
