From Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America, by Walter J. Bornman:

It has long been popular to paint James K. Polk as a dark horse, but the record
does not square with that tradition. If he was indeed one, he chose to ride boldly
across a bright land and in doing so opened up the American West to half a
century of unbridled expansion.

And from The Confessions, which I began to re-read yesterday. Seems an appropriate way to approach Lent…

The house of my soul is too cramped for you to enter: make it more spacious. It is falling to ruin; repair it. Much inside it offends your sight; I know it and I confess it. […]

But I, I slipped away in the days of my youth, and wandered from you, my God, far afield from your steadfastness. And I made of my own self a kingdom of want.

“A kingdom of want!” That will certainly preach.