Washington Delivers First Address to Congress

George Washington stood before a joint session of Congress in Federal Hall, New York City, on January 8, 1790, and delivered the first annual presidential address, establishing a constitutional ritual that continues to this day. The Constitution required the president to "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union," but it specified neither the format nor the frequency. Washington chose to appear in person, speak directly to the assembled legislators, and make it an annual event. The address was brief by modern standards. Washington covered national defense, foreign relations, immigration, weights and measures, the postal system, and education. He urged Congress to provide for the common defense, to promote manufacturing, and to establish a uniform system of weights and measures. The substance was practical rather than visionary. Washington was setting a tone for the new government: competent, pragmatic, and restrained. The precedent of personal delivery lasted only eleven years. Thomas Jefferson, inaugurated in 1801, abandoned the practice on the grounds that appearing before Congress in person resembled the British monarch''s Speech from the Throne, an association the democratic republic should avoid. Jefferson sent his annual messages in writing, to be read aloud by a clerk. This less dramatic approach persisted for over a century. Woodrow Wilson revived the personal address in 1913, overcoming initial controversy about executive overreach. Since Wilson, most presidents have delivered the address in person, though written messages have appeared occasionally. Jimmy Carter sent a written address in 1981. Franklin Roosevelt first used the phrase "State of the Union" in 1934, and the name stuck permanently after 1947. The 20th Amendment, ratified in 1933, moved the opening of Congress from March to January, which is why the address now falls in the first weeks of the new year. What Washington began as a simple constitutional obligation in a temporary capital has become one of the most watched political events in American life.