As presidential spouses, Sarah and Eliza were tip-top

Sarah Childress Polk and Eliza McCardle Johnson have written their own chapters in American history. They were wives of U.S. presidents, and they helped – big-time – to mold their “rough around the edges” North Carolina husbands into national figures in the1800s. 

James K. Polk served as America’s president from 1845-49, and Andrew Johnson came along 20 years later to occupy the White House from 1865-69. 

This is Sarah’s love story. Sarah Childress was born in 1803 to Capt. Joel and Elizabeth Childress, owners of an estate near Murfreesboro, Tenn. Sarah and her older sister, Susan, enrolled in 1817 at the Moravian Female Academy in Salem, N.C. (now Salem College).

The Childress sisters were duty-bound, however, to return home in 1819, after their father died, to help their mother on the home front. Sarah was introduced to a young aspiring attorney who had recently arrived from North Carolina, James K. Polk, a native of Pineville. He had recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

The History.com website credits a famous friend of the Childress family – the famed warfighter Andrew Jackson – as “playing matchmaker.” 

A James Polk-Sarah Childress courtship ensued, and after he was elected to the state legislature in 1823, they agreed to marry on Jan. 1, 1824. He was 28 and she was 20.

They would have no children. Sarah devoted her life to the advancement of James’ political career, “exerting a powerful influence behind the scenes.” Sarah became both a personal and political confidante…and his campaign manager. 

James Polk served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1825-39 and became Speaker of the House on 1835. (Part of his term overlapped with President Andrew Jackson, who served in the White House from 1829-37.) 

Sarah Polk’s biographer said: “Rather than retire to the parlor with the ladies at social gatherings, Sarah was known to remain behind to talk with the men.” 

“Because of her ability to intelligently converse about politics, she was respected and befriended by some of the great politicians of the day.” Franklin Pierce was one who said publicly that “he would much rather discuss politics with Sarah Polk than with James Polk.” 

To everyone’s surprise in 1844, James Polk was nominated out of the blue for president by the Democrats. He was the underdog of underdogs going into the party convention. (Perhaps there was some behind-the-scenes maneuvering engineered by Andrew Jackson, to wrest the nomination away from former president Martin Van Buren, the frontrunner.) 

In the general election, Polk prevailed, upsetting Whig Henry Clay of Kentucky. Again, Sarah handled the presidential campaign. 

Maggie MacLean, author of a blog known as “History of American Women,” commented that Sarah Polk willingly accepted her social duties, but she freely admitted that she would “neither keep house nor make butter.” Rather, she would “always take a deep interest in state and national affairs.” 

MacLean reported that as president,“Polk set five goals, all of which he carried out successfully. He reduced the tariff, established an independent treasury, settled the Oregon boundary, annexed Texas and acquired the California territory.” 

Polk vowed to be a one-term-and-done president. He was true to his word. 

Years later, president Harry Truman would say: “James K. Polk exercised the powers of the presidency...as they should be exercised; he knew exactly what he wanted to do in a specified period of time and did it, and when he got through with it, he went home.” 

On deck: Eliza McCardle Johnson, wife of Andrew Johnson.