State of the Union
George Washington
January 8, 1790
Federal Hall, New York City
Fellow Citizens of the
Senate and House of Representatives:
I embrace with great satisfaction the opportunity which now presents itself of
congratulating you on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs.
The recent accession of the important state of north Carolina to the
Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been
received), the rising credit and respectability of our country, the general and
increasing good will toward the government of the Union, and the concord,
peace, and plenty with which we are blessed are circumstances auspicious in an
eminent degree to our national prosperity.
In resuming your consultations for the general good you can
not but derive encouragement from the reflection that the measures of
the last session have been as satisfactory to your constituents as the novelty
and difficulty of the work allowed you to hope. Still further to realize their
expectations and to secure the blessings which a gracious Providence has placed
within our reach will in the course of the present important session call for
the cool and deliberate exertion of your patriotism, firmness, and wisdom.
Among the many interesting objects which will engage your attention that of
providing for the common defense will merit particular regard. To be prepared
for war is on e of the most effectual means of
preserving peace.
A free people ought not
only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested
plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should
promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for
essential, particularly military, supplies.
The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable will
be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangements which may be made
respecting it it will be of importance to conciliate
the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to
economy.
There was reason to hope that the pacific measures adopted with regard to
certain hostile tribes of Indians would have relieved the inhabitants of our
southern and western frontiers from their depredations, but you will perceive
from the information contained in the papers which I shall direct to be laid
before you (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia)
that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union,
and, if necessary, to punish aggressors.
The interests of the United States require that our intercourse with other
nations should be facilitated by such provisions as will enable me to fulfill
my duty in that respect in the manner which circumstances may render most
conducive to the public good, and to this end that the compensation to be made
to the persons who may be employed should, according to the nature of their
appointments, be defined by law, and a competent fund designated for defraying
the expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs.
Various considerations also render it expedient that the terms on which
foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be speedily
ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.
Uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the United States is an
object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to.
The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means
will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can not
forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as
well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the
exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home, and of facilitating
the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to
the post-office and post-roads.
Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is
nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science
and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public
happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impressions
so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours it is proportionably essential.
To the security of a free constitution it contributes in various ways - by
convincing those who are intrusted with the public
administration that every valuable end of government is best answered by the
enlightened confidence of the people, and by teaching the people themselves to
know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasions of
them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful
authority; between burthens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience
and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate
the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness - cherishing the first,
avoiding the last - and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against
encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws.
Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to
seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national
university, or by any other expedients will be well worthy of a place in the
deliberations of the legislature.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I saw with peculiar pleasure at the close of the last session the resolution
entered into by you expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision for
the support of the public credit is a matter of high importance to the national
honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I entirely concur; and to a perfect
confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly
with the end I add an equal reliance on the cheerful cooperation of the other
branch of the legislature.
It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the
character and interests of the United States are so obviously so deeply
concerned, and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, respectively, such
papers and estimates as regard the affairs particularly recommended to your
consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of
the Union which it is my duty to afford.
The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts
ought to be directed, and I shall derive great satisfaction from a cooperation
with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow citizens
the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and
equal government.