John Quincy Adams: First Annual Message to Congress

In his First Annual Message to Congress, delivered on December 6, 1825, John Quincy Adams, the newly elected president of the United States, outlined his ambitious, nationalistic ideals. Adams’s career had three major phases—diplomat, president, and congressman. As president, he sought through his public messages to persuade a factionalized Congress to pursue an ambitious national program of development. His premier Annual Message captures this presidential philosophy while also providing insight into issues of the 1820s as the nation, coming off a second war with Great Britain, was expanding and trying to establish a national identity. Adams seeks to position the federal government as the primary agent in achieving his goals of establishing institutions of learning and other means of intellectual advancement. His sense of the power of government was wide-ranging, his argument for improvement unequivocal. Drawing on his experience in foreign service, he places the United States in an international context and offers a statesmanlike program for national greatness.