Sarah Childress Polk - Years of Political Life (1825-1849)

Years of Political Life (1825-1849)

During Polk's political career, Sarah assisted her husband with his speeches, gave him advice on policy matters and played an active role in his campaigns. In Washington as congressman's wife during the administrations of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren, Mrs. Polk very much enjoyed her social duties. In 1830 she risked a breach with Jackson, her husband's mentor, by taking part in the social ostracism of Peggy Eaton, although she continued to greet Eaton, unlike most of the cabinet wives.

In 1845, Sarah Polk became the 11th First Lady of the United States She was lively, charming, intelligent, and a good conversationalist. President Polk at times discussed policy matters with her. While she enjoyed politics, she also cautioned Polk, whose health was never robust, against overwork. A devout Presbyterian, she as First Lady banned dancing, card games, and hard liquor at official receptions and refused to attend horse races or the theatre. When she attended the Inaugural Ball, she did not dance. She hosted the first annual Thanksgiving dinner at the White House.

Unlike Julia Tyler's waltzes, the Polk entertainments were sedate and sober affairs which earned the First Lady the nickname "Sahara Sarah". Although some accounts stated that the Polks never served wine, a Congressman's wife "recorded in her diary details of a four-hour dinner for forty at the White House—glasses for six different wines, from pink champagne to ruby port and sauterne, 'formed a rainbow around each plate.'"