As I viewed the several world
clouds include on the website with all of the inaugural addresses, it came upon me that from our very first president, until our most
recent inaugural address, with Barack Obama, the word government is becoming less of a necessity in the inaugural
address speeches or rather in our vocabulary at all.
Although, the word was present the
most in the 1800s. This word also flourished in many of the President’s
speeches who were re-elected for a second term. For example, when we first
gained independence and were putting together such a great nation, George
Washington, was able to mention government a solid nine times in his inaugural
speech, and he was elected for a second term.
Although, while the government
continued to develop, the word slowly began to disappear. The first president
to really bring it back into play was James Knox Polk, in 1845, using the word government
an entire 50 times. Following him, Garfield was able to incorporate it 24
times, Cleveland used it 17 times, and Hoover had an outstanding number, in
1929, of 31 times. After Hoover it dwindled down to 4 or 5 times, and sometimes it did not appear at all.
Ironically, the ones who did use
the word more frequently than the others were re-elected. Some examples
are: Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Cleveland, McKinley, and Roosevelt. In the
1800s industrialization was beginning to take flight, and the people were
starting to become happier with their lives. They were becoming one with the
government, not trying to fight against it, like most people are trying to do
today. The government was seen as a greater, more helpful source back
then. The word government let “We the people” know
who is truly boss.
It seems when there is a strong
government, or when that word is flourishing more in our vocabulary, our country becomes more successful. Some of our
most exemplary presidents pushed the word government. However, the less
known, or less liked presidents did not stress the word at all.
So what does this word really mean? I do
not want to get into my side of the political spectrum; however, I do believe
that these more outstanding presidents, the re-elected ones, held a
characteristic the other presidents did not have. These men had integrity. They
had control of what needed to be done in the United States. Nobody was able to push them around or
change their minds, because the only decision that needed to be made was the
decision that was best for our country. They did not see their presidency as a
publicity game or a way to fame; they were true Americans, doing anything they could for their
country, creating a strong government to organize it by.
Whether or not the word government
actually means something, I believe it does. This unusual pattern does not
happen for just any reason. I believe that maybe if we focus on this word more,
our government will begin to flourish again. It will create more control into
the right direction for our beloved country, and we will get rid of the mess that we have created today.
