Monday, January 22, 2007

states of the union

Or, would the plural be "State of the Unions?"

Grammar aside, every single address of this nature is available and searchable at askSam. This search function is a pretty powerful feature-- let's say you want to see how many presidents made reference to "war" or "peace" or, potentially, both in the same speech? The search is a bit clunky, but well worth it to appease the lexicographer and political scientist in all of us.

And, for your reading pleasure, here's a paragraph from Thomas Jefferson's State of the Union, November 8, 1808:


Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defense, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's security will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation.


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