NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A push by lawmakers to dig up President James K. Polk's body and move it for the third time since his death nearly 170 years ago is riling people in Tennessee.
Polk dramatically expanded the United States by annexing Texas and seizing California and the Southwest in a war with Mexico. He died of cholera in 1849 and is buried on the grounds of the state Capitol in Nashville.
Some Tennessee legislators say his white-columned tomb is in such an out-of-the-way place that many visitors don't even know it's there. They say he deserves better and want to move him to what was his father's home in Columbia, 50 miles away.
A distant Polk relative says the whole idea is "mortifying" and driven by money.