1872 State of the Union Address
address by President Grant
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.
Notably, the President's address contained mention of the 1873 Vienna International Exposition and that money was being allocated to American exhibitors participating in the exposition. In foreign policy matters, the President mentioned disapproval towards the slow progress in abolition of slavery in Cuba.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1872 State of the Union Address” as address by President Grant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as address by President Grant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17508821. Authority coordinates are 38.890, -77.009. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1872 and 1873.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1872 State of the Union Address”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1872 State of the Union Address primary sources, 1872 State of the Union Address archive and State research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1872 State of the Union Address”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1872 State of the Union Address” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.