Grover Cleveland’s First State of the Union Message - 1885

Grover Cleveland wrote his first of his eight state of the union messages in December, 1885, recapping the year.

 It’s a long letter going into great detail about all areas of the federal government, from foreign relations, budgets, trade and treaty issues, research into bimetalism and the Panama Canal, and detailed reporting on the budgets of the armed forces and other Federal Departments. 

 It’s a boring, detailed, administrative document long on facts and short on soaring rhetoric. It’s average! Like Grover! But it’s honest and truthful, too, which is the least we can ask of a president.

He writes first of the various events and treaties and realtions with the many foreign nations.

“It is gratifying to announce,” he wrote,” that the relations of the United States with all foreign powers continue to be friendly. Our position after nearly a century of successful constitutional government, maintenance of good faith in all our engagements, the avoidance of complications with other nations, and our consistent and amicable attitude toward the strong and weak alike furnish proof of a political disposition which renders professions of good will unnecessary. There are no questions of difficulty pending with any foreign government.”

He then wrote, “Maintaining, as I do, the tenets of a line of precedents from Washington's day, which proscribe entangling alliances with foreign states, I do not favor a policy of acquisition of new and distant territory or the incorporation of remote interests with our own.”

 This is one of the (twenty) primary reasons I’m a Grover Cleveland Superfan: He thinks we should mind our own business and not build an Emipre, Victoria! 

Then he turns to budget issues and the concerns around bimetalism, which he writes about at great length (being a fan of the gold standard and Wall Street efforts for a hard currency).

“Those who do not fear any disastrous consequences arising from the continued compulsory coinage of silver as now directed by law, are reminded that history demonstrates that the point is easily reached in the attempt to float at the same time two sorts of money of different excellence when the better will cease to be in general circulation. The hoarding of gold which has already taken place indicates that we shall not escape the usual experience in such cases. So if this silver coinage be continued we may reasonably expect that gold and its equivalent will abandon the field of circulation to silver alone.”

He also talks about immigration issues, trade challenges and spends quite a bit of time talking about the situation of American Native American Indians, recaps the budgets and status of various Federal departments.

The highlight might be his last paragraph:

“In conclusion I commend to the wise care and thoughtful attention of Congress the needs, the welfare, and the aspirations of an intelligent and generous nation. To subordinate these to the narrow advantages of partisanship or the accomplishment of selfish aims is to violate the people's trust and betray the people's interests; but an individual sense of responsibility on the part of each of us and a stern determination to perform our duty well must give us place among those who have added in their day and generation to the glory and prosperity of our beloved land.“




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