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| Date | November 22, 1797 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Hall of the House of Representatives,Congress Hall[1] |
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1] |
| Type | State of the Union Address |
| Participants | John Adams Thomas Jefferson Jonathan Dayton |
| Previous | 1796 State of the Union Address |
| Next | 1798 State of the Union Address |
The1797 State of the Union Address was delivered byJohn Adams, secondpresident of the United States, on Wednesday, November 22, 1797, in theCongress Hall ofPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania. At the time of the address, sickness was spreading through Philadelphia andAdams notes in his introduction that he was tempted to relocate the assembly of thenational 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 overEuropean, most notablyFrench, aggression towardsAmerican merchant vessels. He emphasizes the importance of America's growing role ininternational commerce, citing accomplishments inagriculture andcommercial fishing. In July and August 1797 delegates traveled to theBatavian Republic and then to France. They arrived inParis on September 19 and began negotiations in the hope of pacifyingFranco-American relations. At the time the speech was delivered, the status of the meetings in France were unknown, but Adams knew and stated in the speech that war, with France or possibly other European countries, for exampleGreat Britain, was becoming an increasingly likely turn of events. TheFederalist Party advocated going to war, but Adams ignoredFrancophobia and avoided going to war with France until 1798 in theQuasi-War. The U.S. later went to war with Britain in theWar of 1812, partly due toJefferson's refusal to paytribute to a foreign nation.
Piracy of American ships ininternational waters by the French was amicrocosm of French and Britishcolonial competition; specifically, French aggression was a reaction to theJay Treaty, which they perceived was anAnglo-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 theTreaty of Alliance by the French through piracy and the violation ofPinckney's Treaty by theSpanish through illegalgarrisons in the western U.S. frontiers.
The Jay Treaty, Pinckney's Treaty, theTreaty of Tripoli, also negotiated byThomas Pinckney, theTreaty with Tunis, and France's attempt at forming a similar treaty with the U.S. in March 1797, the infamousXYZ Affair, were attempts by foreign powers toextort money and power from theU.S. government while limiting the influence other world powers had on the emerging nation. Although these treaties were highly unfavorable to the U.S., the policy ofappeasement carried out during theWashington and Adams administrations was necessary to provide time for the U.S. to build upits navy andmilitia.
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 aninsurgency amongNative Americans.
Adams expresses hope that the as yet unfulfilled obligations of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1797), surveying theSt. Croix River betweenMaine andNew Brunswick and paying debts American citizens owed to British subjects prior to theAmerican Revolutionary War, due to various unstated causes, and the unfulfilled obligations of the Spanish regarding compensation for American ships stolen or destroyed in recent Franco-Spanish hostilities, will continue without offending citizens of any country.
He deplores theimpressing 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 ofconsuls to "demand an inspection of the registers and sea letters."
Adams directly addresses theHouse of Representatives in regard to thenational debt andtaxes which had to be raised in order to fund a larger, more mobileArmy. He warns againstloans as he believed that they had contributed to the vast debt and economic collapse of historical empires. He ends his address by reiterating his general theme of the necessity tomilitarize to adequately defend against foreignimperialism.
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