6 presidential speeches that shaped American history
These six presidential speeches are some that have most reverberated through the ages, and whose impacts are still felt today.
In the 250 years since America's inception, there have been a handful of presidents with an outsized impact on the course of U.S. history. Their words are etched into collective memory, found everywhere from monuments to sitcoms.
George Washington's farewell address — Sept. 19, 1796
In this speech, which he did not deliver publicly, choosing instead to disseminate it through the press, Founding Father and America's first President George Washington established the tradition of the presidential farewell address while also explaining another precedent he had just set: serving only two terms as the chief executive.
"Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome," Washington wrote.
As he witnessed the young republic begin to split along regional and partisan lines, Washington felt compelled to remind his fellow citizens that "with slight shades of difference" they shared "the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles," dedicating much of the remainder of the address to warning about the "baneful effects" of factionalism.