Custom essays on George Washington

The speech of the first president is saturated with optimism and high hopes. It is especially true about the beginning and ending of the address. First of all, it is manifested in the first paragraph by his congratulation “on the present favorable prospects of our public affairs,” the mention of “the rising credit and respectability of our country,” it is also “the general and increasing good will toward the government of the Union,” and it is “the concord, peace, and plenty with which we are blessed.”
Washington shares his hopes that, if all the necessary military preparations are made, “the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers” will be safe from Indian depredations, and the aggressors will be punished. The president is sure that the congressmen and the senators needn’t be explained the importance of “the advancement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures,” and “the promotion of science and literature.”
Winding up his speech, Washington says that he will “derive great satisfaction from a cooperation” with the addressees “in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring our fellow citizens the blessings.” All those examples prove the optimistic tone of the first president in his first State of the Union Address.
3. Speaking before the Congress, George Washington refers to several abstract ideas which are to show the listeners what his ideals, principles and purposes are, and which are to indicate the possible ways and means of their achievement and implementation. The three most basic and important in my opinion are the following: “the concord,” “knowledge,” and “the welfare of the country.” They are at the same time both the means, and the end, the way and the destination, they are achieved as soon as they are took on.
The idea of concord is the primary in the temporal and causal sense. Concord is the pledge of unity without which it is impossible for the country to exist. If all the political, public, religious, social and other forces are acting in accord with each other, i.e. if they lead the country in the same direction, they would definitely contribute to the country’s weal and welfare, progress and dynamism.

The concord of all or even the major forces will guarantee the power, strength and firmness of the country before the possible interior and exterior turmoil and fluctuations which are inevitable in any society and political regime. The main “function” of concord is preserving the country and not allowing it to disintegrate.
The idea of knowledge is universal, but in the discourse of the first president it is the main and the only means of implementing the political program, dealing the public affairs and keeping the stability within the country. Where is it possible to do without proper knowledge: in the military affairs, or international relations, or operating the country’s economy or anywhere else? The impossibility of the positive answer on those questions makes education and science one of the priorities of his policy.
The welfare is the broadest idea which includes all conceivable items of public and national good – economic and financial copiousness, high living standards, long life expectancy, access to education and medical service, freedom of conscience, human rights etc.
These ideas are ever important in any place and at any time – both in the US of 1790s, and in the US of today, in the Sumer, Ancient Greece and Rome and any of modern states and countries. The insufficient attention to those ideas and principles can produce a far-reaching destructive effect on the country. The more they are cherished – the more developed and rich the country is.