State of the Union Address

Dear Dr. Plume,

      The State of the Union was on this week. I was not a big fan of the guy who spoke, but everyone there seemed to like him, judging by the clapping. Who was the first person to give a State of the Union speech?

                                                                             Liza in San Bennedetto, SC
Dear Liza,

      That “guy” who gave the State of the Union was not a “guy” at all, he was the President of the United States. Every three years, the president walks from the White House—although sometimes he takes the subway—to the Supreme Court and, in front of congress, he delivers this speech explaining what's going on in the country.
      Most people think George Washington gave the first one, but he didn't. James Madison delivered the first State of the Union address.
      In the young government, communication between the executive and legislative branches was quite poor. (All communication in those days was pretty slow. Washington, DC didn't find out they'd won the state of Florida in the Spanish American War until almost 1930.)
      Congress regularly sent letters over to the White House to see what was up, but responses were never registered. So young congressman began slipping extremely inflammatory name-calling into the letters. Things like, “What's going on, James Madison...you dirty federalist.”
      Clearly, this did not sit well with Madison (who was very anti-federalist) and he decided to march over and give them a piece of his mind. While he was there, Congress asked him if they could get an update on the “state of the union.”
      Madison, realizing he could tell them anything without them double-checking, gave an impassioned speech fraught with lies. Delaware representatives seemed shocked to learn of Madison discovering the lost city of Atlantis and senators from Vermont were quite troubled by the president's battle with extra-terrestrials in Virginia.
      Madison pretty much made himself out to be something of a statesman/superhero.
      He concluded by saying, “No one will ever forget my presidency!”
      Everyone clapped, of course.
      It's particularly ironic because Madison is one of the most commonly forgotten Presidents. I, myself, can rarely remember that James Madison was president. So much so that, when I was working as a tour guide at the James Madison Presidential library, I had to be reprimanded several times for telling guests that Madison was famous for authoring crime-thriller novels. I later realized I was just mixing up the former president with writer James Patterson who has a similar sounding name.
      Who knew.

                                                                             Very Truly Yours Me,
                                                                             Dr. Douglas H. Plume*