Washington Delivers the First State of the Union

On January 8, 1790, George Washington left his rented house on Cherry Street and rode to Federal Hall to deliver the nation's first annual message to Congress, the address we now call the State of the Union. New York was serving as the country's provisional capital, and Washington spoke in the same Senate Chamber where he had taken the oath of office nine months earlier. He opened by congratulating Congress on North Carolina's recent vote to join the Constitution, then moved briskly through national defense, immigration law, uniform weights and measures, and public education. He was out of the chamber almost before anyone had settled in.