The presidency of James Buchanan began on March 4, 1857, when James Buchanan was inaugurated as 15th president of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1861. Buchanan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, took office as the 15th United States president after defeating John C. Frémont of the Republican Party and former President Millard Fillmore of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election. He declined to seek re-election and was succeeded by Republican Abraham Lincoln.
James Buchanan Jr. was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan also served as the secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.
The 1810 State of the Union Address was given during the first term of President James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. It was given on Wednesday, December 5, 1810 in Washington, D.C. It was "concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their edicts against our neutral commerce." It was addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives, it was given right before the War of 1812 began. It was given to the 11th United States Congress, which contains both Houses.
The 1846 State of the Union Address was presented to the 29th United States Congress, containing both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives on Tuesday, December 8, 1846. It was the 56th address given. President James K. Polk, the 11th president, had written it. It was written during the Mexican–American War, and addresses it. "The existing war with Mexico was neither desired nor provoked by the United States."
The 1915 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States on Tuesday, December 7, 1915. It was given to a joint session of the 64th United States Congress, to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. It was given shortly before the United States entered World War I. He said these words: "The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile rivals but cooperating friends, and that their growing sense of community or interest, alike in matters political and in matters economic, is likely to give them a new significance as factors in international affairs and in the political history of the world."
The 1880 State of the Union Address was written by Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th United States president. In it he said these words,
The 1920 State of the Union Address was written by the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, on Tuesday, December 7, 1920. It was his last address to both houses of the 66th United States Congress. Warren Harding became president on Friday, March 4, 1921. He said, "By this faith, and by this faith alone, can the world be lifted out of its present confusion and despair. It was this faith which prevailed over the wicked force of Germany. You will remember that the beginning of the end of the war came when the German people found themselves face to face with the conscience of the world and realized that right was everywhere arrayed against the wrong that their government was attempting to perpetrate." He is referring to how the United States contributed to the victory of World War I.
The 1929 State of the Union Address was given by Herbert Hoover, the 31st United States President on Tuesday, December 3, 1929, to both houses of the 71st United States Congress. This is the first State of the Union Address that Herbert Hoover would give to the Congress, and the 1929 Stock Market Crash had just begun. He said,
The 1901 State of the Union Address was given on Tuesday, December 3, 1901, by the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. It was presented to both houses of the 57th United States Congress, but he was not present. He stated, "The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity. On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died in that city on the fourteenth of that month." He concluded it with, "Indeed, from every quarter of the civilized world we received, at the time of the President's death, assurances of such grief and regard as to touch the hearts of our people. In the midst of our affliction we reverently thank the Almighty that we are at peace with the nations of mankind; and we firmly intend that our policy shall be such as to continue unbroken these international relations of mutual respect and good will."
The 1860 State of the Union Address was written by James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States. It was read on Monday, December 3, 1860, to both houses of the 36th United States Congress, by a clerk. He stated, "Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, is threatened with destruction?" He spoke on the eve of the American Civil War.
The 1865 State of the Union Address was written by historian George Bancroft and read to the Congress by Robert Johnson, the son and personal secretary of the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson. According to one historian, "Johnson had sent Bancroft only two suggestions: passages from Thomas Jefferson's inaugural and from a speech by Charles James Fox." The result was generally high-toned and well received.
The 1875 State of the Union Address was given by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States on Tuesday, December 7, 1875. It was written by him, but not presented to the 44th United States Congress by him. He said, "In submitting my seventh annual message to Congress, in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people, it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies, one hundred years ago. We were then a people numbering only 3,000,000. Now we number more than 40,000,000. Then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil. Now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country." The Industrial Revolution had begun.
The 1872 State of the Union Address was given by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th United States president, on December 2, 1872. He did not speak it to the 42nd United States Congress, because that was the custom at the time. He said, "In transmitting to you this my fourth annual message it is with thankfulness to the Giver of All Good that as a nation we have been blessed for the past year with peace at home, peace abroad, and a general prosperity vouchsafed to but few peoples." It was given during the Reconstruction Era, when African Americans were freed.
The 1796 State of the Union Address was given by George Washington, the first president of the United States, on Wednesday, December 7, 1796. It was given in Congress Hall, Philadelphia. He gave it directly to Congress. He began with, "In recurring to the internal situation of our country since I had last the pleasure to address you, I find ample reason for a renewed expression of that gratitude to the Ruler of the Universe which a continued series of prosperity has so often and so justly called forth." He ended with, "God's providential care may still be extended to the United States, that the virtue and happiness of the people may be preserved, and that the Government which they have instituted for the protection of their liberties may be perpetual."
The 1837 State of the Union Address was given by the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, on December 5, 1837. It was presented to the 25th United States Congress by a clerk, because it was not yet the custom for the president to deliver it himself. He began with, "We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous and powerful confederacy."
The 1814 State of the Union Address was given by the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, to the 13th United States Congress. It was given on Tuesday, September 20, 1814, during the height of the War of 1812. It was given during President Madison's turbulent second term. One month after he gave the speech, the British burning of Washington occurred on August 24, and President Madison fled and lived in The Octagon House. Madison lived there until 1816, until the White House could be rebuilt. The three key points are:
The 1815 State of the Union Address was given by the fourth president of the United States, James Madison. It was given to the 14th United States Congress on Tuesday, December 5, 1815, but not verbally by the president. The War of 1812 was over, and he said, "It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace with Great Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the subject of commerce concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two countries. In this result a disposition is manifested on the part of that nation corresponding with the disposition of the United States, which it may be hoped will be improved into liberal arrangements on other subjects on which the parties have mutual interests, or which might endanger their future harmony." He concluded with, "As fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by the American arms on the land and on the water, the nation finds itself possessed of a growing respect abroad and of a just confidence in itself, which are among the best pledges for its peaceful career."
The 1916 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, on Tuesday, December 5, 1916. He personally addressed the 64th United States Congress. It was given on the eve of the United States' intervention in World War I. He said, "And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and efficient use." He ended with, "Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have to address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the legislative annals of the country." The 1916 presidential election was over, and Wilson had been re-elected.
The 1917 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States on Tuesday, December 4, 1917, during his turbulent second term. He spoke in the United States House of Representatives chamber, in the United States Capitol. He said, "I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed." He addressed the 65th United States Congress, and spoke of World War I. He ended with, "A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy." In the middle of the speech, he said this about the German Empire, "The worst that can happen to the detriment the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace." He is saying that empires' do not promote world peace. A year after he gave this speech, on December 4, 1918, the United States military would swallow Germany in victory, and the saying that is written would come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
The 1966 State of the Union Address was given by Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, on Wednesday, January 12, 1966, to the 89th United States Congress. In the speech, Johnson addressed the then-ongoing war in Vietnam, his Great Society and War on Poverty domestic programs, civil rights, and other matters.
