DV Journal

It’s a uniquely American institution. Early each year, the president delivers a much-anticipated State of the Union address. Then it’s (usually) quickly forgotten. How much do you know about this annual tradition? Test your knowledge with this short, fun quiz.

1. What was responsible for starting the custom?

A: The Declaration of Independence

B: The Articles of Confederation

C: The Federalist papers

D: The Constitution

Answer: D. Article II, Section 3 says the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Though a precise timeline isn’t spelled out, all presidents since George Washington have interpreted that to mean once a year.

2. Who began referring to it as the State of the Union address?

A: George Washington

B: Thomas Jefferson

C: Herbert Hoover

D: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Answer: D. Up until the 1930s, it was simply called the president’s “Annual Message.” FDR christened it with the name we know today.

3.  Only two presidents didn’t deliver an Annual Message or a State of the Union address. Who were they, and why didn’t they observe the custom?

A: William Henry Harrison and James Garfield

B: William McKinley and John F. Kennedy

C: Warren Harding and Harry Truman

D: Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln

Answer: A. Harrison died of illness, and Garfield was assassinated before they could send their first Annual Message.

4. Perhaps because he wasn’t a great public speaker, President Thomas Jefferson broke with his predecessors and sent his Annual Message in writing, not in person. That tradition continued until this president revived the tradition of addressing Congress in person.

A: George Washington

B: Chester Arthur 

C: Rutherford B. Hayes

D: Woodrow Wilson

Answer: D. Woodrow Wilson returned the president’s Annual Message to Capitol Hill in person in 1913.

5. While most addresses are rosy and optimistic, who delivered what’s widely considered the most alarmist State of the Union?

A: Abraham Lincoln, 1861

B: Woodrow Wilson, 1917

C: Franklin Roosevelt, 1941

D: John F. Kennedy, 1961

Answer: D. Speaking to Congress on January 30, just 10 days after taking office, Kennedy’s address came at the height of the Cold War. It contained such troubling warnings as the “hour of national peril” and “we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger.”

6. Which Annual Message/State of the Union addresses set technological records?

A: Calvin Coolidge, 1923

B: Harry Truman, 1947

C: Bill Clinton, 1997

D: All the above

Answer: D. Coolidge had the first speech carried on radio; Truman’s speech was the first broadcast on television; and Clinton’s speech was the first streamed on the internet.

7. Whose address was the longest delivered in person?

A: Millard Fillmore

B: Ulysses S. Grant

C: Bill Clinton

D: George W. Bush

Answer: C. Clinton spoke for one hour, 28 minutes, and 49 seconds in 2000. The longest message was from Jimmy Carter in 1981, whose 33,667-word report was the last sent in writing.

8.  Which president listed his “Four Freedoms” to inspire a nation as war loomed?

A: Abraham Lincoln, 1861

B: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941

C: George W. Bush, 2002

D: Teddy Roosevelt, 1905

Answer: B. Roosevelt spelled out his “Four Freedoms” as World War II raged in Europe (and would soon engulf America): The freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.

9. Which president used his address to reverse his previous political philosophy and declare, “The era of Big Government is over”?

A: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

B: Andrew Jackson, 1831

C: George H.W. Bush, 1992

D: Bill Clinton, 1996

Answer: D. After tax hikes and a failed healthcare plan led to the first Republican House majority since 1952, the pragmatic Arkansas governor saw the writing on the wall.

We remember what many presidents said in office. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Ask not what your country can do for you…” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Not so well known is what they said on their way out. Literally. Their final sentences as they made the transition from the chief executive to the dearly departed.

This President’s Day, it’s worth revisiting the last words of several presidents. Some parting phrases were inspiring, some were sad, and some were, well, just plain ordinary.

George Washington enjoyed only two years of post-presidential retirement at his beloved Mount Vernon estate. He became sick in the closing days of 1799 and, with wife Martha seated at the foot of his bed as preparations for his funeral were discussed, he whispered, “’Tis well,” and was gone.

President #2, John Adams, had ironic last words. He and the man who followed him, Thomas Jefferson, were bitter rivals. But they patched things up after their White House days and even became friends. At age 90, Adams passed away at 6:20 p.m. on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His final comment: “Thomas Jefferson survives.” He had no way of knowing Jefferson had died in Virginia that very morning.

President #5 also had a predecessor on his mind when he passed away. James Monroe said, “I regret that I should leave this world without again beholding him.” He meant president #4 and his best friend, James Madison.

William McKinley was shot by an assassin. He knew his time had come in 1901 when he said, “Goodbye, all, goodbye. It’s God’s way. His will be done.”

James Garfield was also shot. He struggled with the injury and subsequent infection for 79 agonizing days before finally asking his doctor, “Swaim, can’t you stop the pain?”

Benjamin Harrison’s parting words were about his late wife. “I know I am going where Lucy is.”

A touching tribute to true love came in the last words of James Knox Polk, spoken to his wife. “I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.”

For sheer mundaneness, it’s hard to beat the utterly mundane Millard Fillmore, commenting on some soup he had just been fed. “The nourishment is palatable.” (Not exactly the line you’d like chiseled on your marble monument.)

“Silent Cal” Coolidge called, “Good morning, Robert” to a carpenter working at his house just before having a heart attack.

In fact, a surprising number of presidential last words came from commanders-in-chief who didn’t know their demise was imminent. The man who gave the world the Gettysburg Address’s moving prose had a ho-hum last line. As everyone knows, Abraham Lincoln was shot while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. When he took his wife’s hand, she playfully asked what the young lady sitting in their box would think of his breach of Victorian etiquette. “She won’t think a thing of it,” he spoke for the last time.

Likewise, John F. Kennedy answered a question with his last words. As his motorcade passed through cheering crowds, the wife of Texas Gov. John Connally said, “You certainly can’t say that the people of Dallas haven’t given you a nice welcome, Mr. President.” JFK replied with a smile, “You certainly can’t.”

The man who held the office longer than any other, Franklin Roosevelt, was sitting for a portrait when he suddenly complained, “I have a terrific headache,” and slumped over from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Those who made it to old age sometimes endured ill health at the end. Dwight Eisenhower, who had suffered a massive heart attack while president, was ready. “I want to go. God take me,” he said.

Lyndon Johnson, another heart attack survivor, felt pains one afternoon at his Texas ranch. “Send Mike immediately,” he cried. But by the time his Secret Service agent arrived, LBJ was gone.

The two Andrews from Tennessee, Jackson and Johnson, both left urging their children to be good.

We don’t know the final words of seven presidents. They either were not recorded, or the family chose not to share them.

But those that were written down reveal how at that most personal of moments, the men who led our nation were just like the rest of us. Totally human.

Theodore Roosevelt had the most succinct last line of all. Teddy was turning in for the night on January 5, 1919 when he told his servant, “Please put out the light.” He died in his sleep from a blood clot a few hours later.

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