George Washington: First Annual Message to Congress

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The Constitution requires that the president present to Congress an annual message (later called the State of the Union Address), including recommendations of measures for its consideration. At eleven o'clock on Friday morning on January 8, 1790, President Washington, accompanied by several aides and a secretary, entered the Senate chamber in New York City's Federal Hall to deliver his First Annual Message to a joint session of Congress. In his address, Washington forecasts “favourable prospects” for the country's public affairs “with great satisfaction.” North Carolina had ratified the Constitution six weeks earlier, leaving only the tiny state of Rhode Island out of the Union. Public credit and respect for the country had been greatly restored. Throughout the country the people and state officials had shown goodwill and enthusiastic respect for the new central government. The president had toured the eastern states and saw firsthand that the country was blessed with “concord, peace and plenty,” as he notes early on in his address. The economic depression and social unrest in the last years of the Confederation, he says, have given way to an auspicious “national prosperity.”

Washington praises Congress for the previous year's legislative accomplishments. The novelty and difficulty of the issues made the successes of Congress that much more remarkable. Before securing all God's blessings, however, Washington believes Congress will have to meet new challenges with a “cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness and wisdom.”

Unlike in his First Inaugural Address, Washington here lists a number of specific matters for Congress to consider. Something had to be done about the country's defenses. In his June 1783 circular to the states, the outgoing commander in chief had recommended a permanent peacetime military establishment to replace the traditional, but often undependable, state militias. A month earlier, in May 1783, Washington, at the request of Congress, submitted his “Sentiments on a Peace Establishment,” which called for a small permanent standing army and a small nationalized militia under the jurisdiction of Congress. In his address, Washington reminds Congress that “to be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” A free people,” Washington explains, “ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite.” With the inherent danger of a necessary peacetime standing army of some sorts, Washington believes it is important that the officers and soldiers be appropriately compensated “with a due regard to economy” so that they will not be tempted to use their power against the civilian authorities. (Two weeks after the address, Washington delivered to Congress a plan that outlined his ideas about a national militia.)

But defense was not to be found only in an armed force. According to Washington, the country should “promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.” For all their histories, the colonies and now the states had largely exported natural resources and staple agricultural produce and imported manufactured goods. That, Washington intimates, had to change. America's economy had to become more well-rounded, integrated, and self-sufficient.

On a less optimistic note, Washington informs Congress that relations with hostile Native American tribes on the western and southern frontiers had not greatly improved. “We ought to be prepared,” he states, “to afford protection to those parts of the Union; and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.” At the end of the president's speech, he indicates that he will send Congress official documents on various subjects. Among these papers, delivered on January 11 and 12, were the terms that American commissioners were prepared to offer “the Creek Nation of Indians” and a statement from Americans on the southwestern frontier. Washington said when delivering those papers that he felt it was “proper” that Congress should be informed of the treaty negotiations “previous to its coming before you in your legislative capacity. Such a confidential communication of all the papers relative to the recent negociations with some of the southern tribes of Indians is indispensably requisite for the information of Congress” (Washington to U.S. Senate, January 11–12, 1790; Twohig, vol. 4, pp. 566, 568). Washington was confident that Congress would keep these documents secret.

Three days after his speech, Washington received a letter from South Carolina governor Charles Pinckney. In it, Pinckney argued that “to have a permanent & solid peace—no State arrangement—no truce—no partial compromise will be sufficient. They must be taught to revere the justice of the Union & look up to it as the sole means of giving them a lasting treaty & the secure possession of their real rights” (Pinckney to Washington, December 14, 1789; Twohig, vol. 4, p. 405). Washington responded by saying that his views were in agreement with Pinckney.

In his First Annual Message to Congress, Washington next turns to foreign affairs. Although the Constitution gave the president broad and exclusive powers to conduct foreign affairs, Washington asks for Congress's cooperation in enacting “such provisions as will enable me to fulfill my duty.” To this end, Washington requests that provisions be made for a diplomatic corps and “a competent fund designated for defraying the expenses incident to the conduct of our foreign affairs.” Vice President John Adams, Chief Justice John Jay, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, all active diplomats during and after the war, could testify to the inadequate funding of foreign affairs under the Confederation. Washington hoped that Congress would correct this deficiency.

Conforming to the Constitution's list of the delegated powers of Congress, Washington asks Congress to ascertain “a uniform rule of naturalization,” to provide for a uniform currency, to set a standard of weights and measures, to encourage inventions by establishing a system of patents, to promote science and literature by providing for copyrights, and to facilitate the connection between “distant parts of our country by a due attention to the Post Office and Post Roads.” Within two months, Congress had passed bills for copyrights, patents, naturalization, and weights and measures.

Washington remarks that it is unnecessary to encourage Congress to consider the advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. He believes that Congress is obviously as committed to these goals as he is. He then addresses the importance of education. “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of publick happiness.” A free Constitution benefits from an enlightened people who value their own rights, who can tell when their rights are endangered, and who can distinguish between “the spirit of liberty” and licentiousness, “cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy, but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.” Washington is uncertain whether it is preferable to offer public support for existing institutions of higher education, to create a national university, or to provide some other alternative. He feels that Congress should deliberate on these matters.

Washington addresses the House of Representatives specifically by endorsing its resolutions from the last session to support the country's public credit. Knowing that the Senate will cooperate in such matters, Washington notes that it is unnecessary to make any specific suggestions to Congress in such matters that concern “the character and permanent interests of the United States.”

In concluding, Washington comments that “the welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed.” He will derive great pleasure from cooperating with Congress “in the pleasing though arduous task of ensuring to our fellow citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect, from a free and equal government.”