The bourbon democrats refers to a group of people from democratic party who support laissez-faire capitalism.
At that time, several bourbon democrats in Louisiana develop a relationship with important people from railroads and banking industry. They are allegedly help those people to hide their taxes.
They also leverage their power to illegally run Louisiana State Lottery Company and stole a lot of money from the ticket buyers
Before Polk, the United States and Mexico had boundaries along the Rio Grande River. Texas and Polk claimed that America's southern border ran down to the river south of the United States' positon back then. They had a war, but Mexico lost and U.S kept expanding.
Hope this helps!
