Description
Philadelphia, Dec. 8, 1795. This day, precisely at 12 o'clock, The President of the United States met both Houses of Congress in the Hall of the Representatives, and addressed them in the following Speech: … [Philadelphia, 1795]
Broadside (13 7/8 x 9 in.; 359 x 229 mm). Text in 3 columns, with 5 headlines; lightly dampstained, a few short fold separations and pinholes at intersecting folds.
Provenance
Acquisition: William Reese
Literature
Evans 29741
Catalogue Note
A scarce broadside printing of President Washington's 1795 State of the Union address, one of the most significant of his presidency. Washington is able to report a long list of accomplishments, beginning his speech by telling the assembled senators and congressmen, "I have never met you at any period, when, more than at the present, the situation of our public affairs has afforded just cause for mutual congratulation. …" The President announces the "termination of the long, expensive and distressing war, in which we have been engaged with certain Indians, North west of the Ohio … by a Treaty. … The Creek and Cherokee Indians who alone of the southern tribes had annoyed our frontiers, have lately confirmed their pre-exisiting Treaties with us." Turning to foreign affairs, Washington reports on the successful ongoing negotiations of Pinckney's Treaty and Jay's Treaty.
Washington also finds cause for "contentment and satisfaction" when he surveys "the internal situation … of the United States": "Our agriculture, commerce and manufactures prosper beyond former example. … Our population advances with a celerity which, exceeding the most sanguine calculations, proportionally augments our strength and resources, and guarantees our future security. Every part of the union displays indications of rapid & various improvement … is it too much to say, that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never surpassed, if ever before equalled?" Maintaining this enviable state of affairs, the former general makes clear as he closes his address, is dependent on the Senate and House continuing to support a strong military and militia.
