2021 | Biden | Virus | A once in a century virus that silently stalks the country has taken as many lives in one year as in all of World War Two. |
2017 | Trump | Jobs | Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. |
2013 | Obama | Jobs | We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries. |
2009 | Obama | Jobs | Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. |
2005 | Bush | Tyranny | The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. |
2001 | Bush | Schools | Together, we will reclaim America's schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives. |
1997 | Clinton | Streets | Our streets will echo again with the laughter of our children, because no one will try to shoot them or sell them drugs anymore. |
1993 | Clinton | Economy | We have drifted, and that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. |
1989 | Bush | Children | There are the children who have nothing, no love, no normalcy. |
1985 | Reagan | Nuclear | We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. |
1981 | Reagan | Productivity | Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. |
1977 | Carter | Freedom | The passion for freedom is on the rise. |
1973 | Nixon | Abroad | Let us encourage individuals at home and nations abroad to do more for themselves. |
1969 | Nixon | Moon | As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon […] they spoke to us of the beauty of earth. |
1965 | Johnson | Rocket | Even now, a rocket moves towards Mars. |
1961 | Kennedy | Globe | The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe. |
1957 | Eisenhower | Conflict | We are called to act a responsible role in the world's great concerns or conflicts. |
1953 | Eisenhower | Divided | In the heart of Europe, Germany still stands tragically divided. |
1949 | Truman | Democracy | Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through peaceful change. |
1945 | Roosevelt | Peace | We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. |
1941 | Roosevelt | Democracy | Democracy is not dying. |
1937 | Roosevelt | Despair | True, we have come far from the days of stagnation and despair. |
1933 | Roosevelt | Profit | Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations. |
1929 | Hoover | Liquor | There would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals patronized it. |
1925 | Coolidge | Property | We have responded to appeals for help to maintain order, protect life and property, and establish responsible government in some of the small countries of the Western Hemisphere. |
1921 | Harding | Warfare | Our freedom never has made offensive warfare. |
1917 | Wilson | Industrial | We have sought very thoughtfully to set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuses of our industrial life. |
1913 | Wilson | Waste | With riches has come inexcusable waste. |
1909 | Taft | Antitrust | Restrictions of the antitrust law have been urged by my predecessor and will be urged by me. |
1905 | Roosevelt | Power | No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us. |
1901 | McKinley | Cuba | We became sponsors for the pacification of the island, and we remain accountable to the Cubans. |
1897 | McKinley | Loan | A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not a permanent or safe reliance. |
1893 | Cleveland | Frugality | Frugality among the people is the best guaranty of a contented and strong support of free institutions. |
1889 | Harrison | Elector | If […] public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. |
1885 | Cleveland | Extravagance | Public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. |
1881 | Garfield | Monetary system | Gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary system. |
1877 | Hayes | Southern | Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has passed over the Southern States still remain. |
1873 | Grant | Santo Domingo | In the first year of the past Administration the proposition came up for the admission of Santo Domingo. |
1869 | Grant | Dollar | To protect the national honor, every dollar of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold. |
1865 | Lincoln | War | Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive. |
1861 | Lincoln | Secession | Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. |
1857 | Buchanon | Territory | Congress is neither to legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom. |
1853 | Pierce | Constitutional | The great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities. |
1849 | Taylor | Protection | [I will grant] protection to the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. |
1845 | Polk | Texas | The Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our Union. |
1841 | Harrison | Metallic currency | The rich are daily adding to their hoards and the poor sinking deeper into penury [because of the] exclusive metallic currency. |
1837 | van Buren | Institutions | If the agitation of [abolitionists] was intended to reach the stability of our institutions, […] it has signally failed. |
1833 | Jackson | Government | The destruction of our State governments [would lead to] despotism and military domination. |
1829 | Jackson | Revenue | The management of the public revenue […] is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours. |
1825 | Adams | Construction | But nearly twenty years have passed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. |
1821 | Monroe | Florida | But to the acquisition of Florida too much importance can not be attached. |
1817 | Monroe | Invasion | With such an organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread from foreign invasion. |
1813 | Madison | British | British commanders have extorted victory [by threatening our troops with] massacre from their savage associates. |
1809 | Madison | Peace | [I pledge] to cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispositions. |
1805 | Jefferson | Press | The artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. |
1801 | Jefferson | Administration | [I pledge] support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns. |
1797 | Adams | Constitution | I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. |
1793 | Washington | Constitution | Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the Constitution requires an oath of office. |
1789 | Washington | Free government | There are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. |