polk mainly as his helpmate. james k. polk had no staff either as a congressman or even as president of the united states. so sarah took really a hands-on attitude towards being his wife. the travelling desk she took with her on those long trips to washington d.c. as a congressman, they've travelled to washington twice a year in trips that could take 30 days going one way from columbia, tennessee, to washington d.c. and she's of course communicating with her family and friends back home which meant she wrote tens of thousands of letters during her lifetime. so the travelling desk i think is really indicative of communication in the time period. the portraits are painted by ralph earl when james and sarah were in washington as congressman and lady. sarah was very much again a helpmate to him throughout his political career. when he was writing speeches, he would get her opinion and she would critique them for him. daily she would read the newspapers and underline passages she thought important for him to read. she was a re

the invasion began when president james k. polk said troops into a disputed region with the intention of starting a war. polk wanted war. he was set on declaring war. the day he found out mexicans across the rio grand and killed 14 soldiers, polk i fully went to his cabinet and said i think we should declare war against mexico and his cabinet said we really cannot declare war because the mexicans have not done anything. we sent 4000 american troops into land mexicans think of errors and we are waiting for something to happen and they haven't. polk finds out the next day that an incident had happened the week before. news travels slow. he went to congress and said that mexico has passed the boundary of the united states and should blood on american soil. not too fine a point on it, this was a lie and everybody knew it was a lie. the whig party, everybody knew that the land where the soldiers had been sent that always been considered mexican rather than texan lands. a lot of congressmen, both wings and democrats, right privately

swain: we have one more video from the polk era. >> james k. polk was a promised one term president. after four years, james and sarah were going to retire. while they were in washington's still, as they were outfitting the white house as part of the restoration, they took the opportunity to purchase things for polk place, their retirement home. they picked some of the finest american furniture being made at the time. they are all rosewood-framed with red velvet. we have gentlemen's chairs. we have these little side chairs. they had 33 of them. we have 18 remaining. they would ring the rooms with these little chairs. when they had guests, they would bring them into the room. we have some interiors of what it looked like, probably taken around the time of her death in 1891. the house is still filled with the objects they collected throughout their political lives together. unfortunately for james k. polk he died just three months after leaving the white house. every new year's day, sarah opened polk place and held a levy. she would invite anyone