1797 State of the Union Address

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The 1797 State of the Union Address was delivered by John Adams, second president of the United States, on Wednesday, November 22, 1797, in the Congress Hall of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time of the address, sickness was spreading through Philadelphia and Adams notes in his introduction that he was tempted to relocate the assembly of the national legislature but avoided this due to inevitable expense and general inconvenience.

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Adams began his State of the Union Address by expressing concern over

Piracy of American ships in international waters by the French was a microcosm of French and British colonial competition; specifically, French aggression was a reaction to the Jay Treaty, which they perceived was an Anglo-American alliance, and the belief that tribute could be collected from the infantile republic by exerting sufficient military pressure.

Adams' assertion that "respect to treaties has been so diminished" is a reference to the violation of the Treaty of Alliance by the French through piracy and the violation of Pinckney's Treaty by the Spanish through illegal garrisons in the western U.S. frontiers.

The Jay Treaty, Pinckney's Treaty, the

Foreign intervention in domestic affairs of the U.S. was not limited to abuses in the water. Adams condemned ventures by foreign agents, such as those of Spain, who tried to incite an insurgency among Native Americans.

Adams expresses hope that the as yet unfulfilled obligations of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1797), surveying the

He deplores the impressing of American soldiers by French and Spanish forces and criticizes the legal framework concerning the proper reaction to such action; how to guarantee the safe return of captured seamen from foreign territories, and the inability of consuls to "demand an inspection of the registers and sea letters."

Adams directly addresses the

• Timeline of United States diplomatic history
• Thomas Pinckney
• Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
• Piracy in the Caribbean
• Piracy and international law

• Brown, Ralph A. The Presidency of John Adams, (1988).

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

1797 State of the Union Address

• 1797 State of the Union Address (full transcript), The American Presidency Project,
  UC Santa Barbara
• Corpus of Political Speeches, publicly accessible with speeches from United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, provided by Hong Kong Baptist University Library