1872 State of the Union Address

The 1872 State of the Union Address was given by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th United States president, on December 2, 1872. He did not speak it to the 42nd United States Congress, because that was the custom at the time. He said, "In transmitting to you this my fourth annual message it is with thankfulness to the Giver of All Good that as a nation we have been blessed for the past year with peace at home, peace abroad, and a general prosperity vouchsafed to but few peoples." It was given during the Reconstruction Era, when African Americans were freed.