Dates of addresses by Andrew Jackson in this eBook:
December 8, 1829
December 6, 1830
December 6, 1831
December 4, 1832
December 3, 1833
December 1, 1834
December 7, 1835
December 5, 1836
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State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 8, 1829
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on theoccasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon theimportant duties to which you have been called by the voice of ourcountry-men. The task devolves on me, under a provision of theConstitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of 24sovereign States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our affairs,and to propose such measures as in the discharge of my officialfunctions have suggested themselves as necessary to promote the objectsof our Union.
In communicating with you for the first time it is to me a source ofunfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual gratulation and devoutthanks to a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all man-kind,and that our country exhibits the most cheering evidence of generalwelfare and progressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other nations,our great desire is to see our brethren of the human race secured inthe blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, infreedom, and in social happiness.
Our foreign relations, although in their general character pacific andfriendly, present subjects of difference between us and other powers ofdeep interest as well to the country at large as to many of ourcitizens. To effect an adjustment of these shall continue to be theobject of my earnest endeavors, and not with standing the difficultiesof the task, I do not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable results.Blessed as our country is with every thing which constitutes nationalstrength, she is fully adequate to the maintenance of all herinterests. In discharging the responsible trust confided to theExecutive in this respect it is my settled purpose to ask nothing thatis not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong; and Iflatter myself that, supported by the other branches of the Governmentand by the intelligence and patriotism of the people, we shall be able,under the protection of Providence, to cause all our just rights to berespected.
Of the unsettled matters between the United States and other powers,the most prominent are those which have for years been the subject ofnegotiation with England, France, and Spain. The late periods at whichour ministers to those Governments left the United States render itimpossible at this early day to inform you of what has been done on thesubjects with which they have been respectively charged. Relying uponthe justice of our views in relation to the points committed tonegotiation and the reciprocal good feeling which characterizes ourintercourse with those nations, we have the best reason to hope for asatisfactory adjustment of existing differences.
With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may lookforward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition.Every thing in the condition and history of the two nations