Tennessee Senate OKs Relocation Of President And First Lady Polk's Bodies

NASHVILLE, TN — The Tennessee State Senate voted 20-6 to approve the relocation of the bodies of President James K. Polk and his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, from the spot on Capitol Hill where they've been buried for 125 years to the home built by the president's father while Polk himself was in law school at the University of North Carolina.

The resolution, required by a 1981 law passed to prevent an earlier proposed move of the Polks to Nashville's Centennial Park, now moves to the House of Representatives. The relocation will also have to be approved by the Tennessee Historical Commission, as required by the Tennessee Heritage Preservation Act, and by a Davidson County Chancery Court.

Because of the number of steps remaining in the process, a number of senators, on both sides of the aisle, argued that legislative action should be the last, rather than first, step.

"There are provisions in the resolution that are presumptuous on our part," Majority Leader Mark Norris, a Collierville Republican, said. "This should be the last thing we do. We can't presume to know what the court will determine or what the historic commission will do."

Norris, who ultimately voted "present," echoed arguments made by Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, who has argued for weeks that the resolution brought by Sen. Joey Hensley doesn't, in fact, honor the wishes of the Polks, despite what Hensley and other supporters, which include the curator of the house in Columbia, argue.

Sarah Polk, and myself, have mutually agreed with each other, that at our respective deaths, it is desired by us, that our bodies may be interred on the said premises, which I have denominated the Polk Place," the president wrote, referring to the now-demolished Polk Place, according to a copy of his will reprinted in a 1956 issue of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly.

Polk Place was demolished after Sarah Polk's death after a contentious battle that involved the arcane rule against perpetuities and the Polks were moved to their current resting place on Capitol Hill. Prior to Polk Place, the president was briefly buried in Nashville City Cemetery.

Backers of the relocation say that the president is largely ignored at his current location and will receive more attention in Columbia. Sen. Bill Ketron cited the Columbia's Mule Day celebration, which he said draws 200,000 people each year, as a good reason to move the Polks. Carroll Van West, the state historian, has said he believes relocating the body would actually detract from the Columbia home's history.

Republican Sen. Bo Watson said he believes that while the Polk tomb is not on the official state capitol tour — Hensley himself said he'd never visited the Polk tomb despite having been a legislator for 14 years — it is mentioned and thus has educational value where it is.

"The current grave site is free and on the east side which used to be the main entrance of the legislature. How is this (move) going to increase accessibility?" Watson asked. "The former president gets attention from all the school children who come through the capitol."

See the vote below:

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Image via Flickr user Brent Moore, used under Creative Commons