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 wi...