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The History

Public speeches and political texts on the public record, reproduced verbatim and filed on the catalogue's five axes — every utterance located, named as an act, and marked where its coordinates predict a misfire. Grouped by the ground they were fought on and ordered by date.

historical texts are in the public domain; selected passages and new translation glosses are identified on their pages · a few stand in the record through a named public-domain translation, and their pages say so · colour on a filed page carries the act's function

Statecraft

Taking the office, holding it, and giving it up — the presidency performing itself.

  1. 1789George WashingtonFirst Inaugural Address
  2. 1801Thomas JeffersonFirst Inaugural Address
  3. 1913Woodrow WilsonFirst Inaugural Address
  4. 1933Franklin D. RooseveltFirst fireside chat, on the banking crisis
  5. 1961Dwight D. EisenhowerFarewell Address
  6. 1961John F. KennedyInaugural Address
  7. 1963Lyndon B. Johnson"Let Us Continue," address to Congress
  8. 1974Richard NixonThe Resignation Address
  9. 1974Richard NixonThe departure, to the White House staff
  10. 1977Jimmy CarterInaugural Address
  11. 1993Bill ClintonFirst Inaugural Address
  12. 2001Bill ClintonFarewell Address
  13. 2001George W. BushFirst Inaugural Address
  14. 2009George W. BushFarewell Address
  15. 2017Donald TrumpInaugural Address

War & remembrance

Declaring, ending, and mourning — where the state's words carry their heaviest freight.

  1. 431 BCPericles, via ThucydidesThe funeral oration
  2. 1945Harry S. TrumanAnnouncement of the bombing of Hiroshima
  3. 1973Richard NixonAnnouncement of the Vietnam peace agreement
  4. 1984Ronald ReaganPointe du Hoc, on the anniversary of D-Day
  5. 1985Ronald ReaganRemarks at Bergen-Belsen
  6. 1991George H. W. BushAddress on the start of the Gulf War
  7. 1994Bill ClintonAt Normandy, on the anniversary of D-Day
  8. 1999Bill ClintonAddress on the Kosovo air campaign
  9. 2011Barack ObamaAnnouncement of the death of Osama bin Laden

Rights & justice

The franchise, the schoolhouse door, and the floor of the Congress.

  1. 1873Susan B. AnthonyThe sentencing colloquy
  2. 1895Booker T. WashingtonAddress at the Atlanta Exposition
  3. 1947Harry S. TrumanAddress to the NAACP at the Lincoln Memorial
  4. 1948Hiss and ChambersThe confrontation, Hotel Commodore
  5. 1950Margaret Chase Smith"Declaration of Conscience," Senate floor
  6. 1954Welch and McCarthy"Have you no sense of decency," the exchange
  7. 1957Dwight D. EisenhowerAddress on the situation in Little Rock
  8. 1965Lyndon B. JohnsonRemarks on signing the Voting Rights Act
  9. 1983Ronald ReaganRemarks on signing the King holiday
  10. 2023Joe BidenRemarks on the Emmett Till national monument

The economy

Money talked about in public — panics, bargains, and the price of stability.

  1. 1758Franklin, as SaundersThe Way to Wealth
  2. 1886Louis LinggStatement to the court, Haymarket
  3. 1918Eugene V. DebsStatement to the court
  4. 1937Franklin D. RooseveltSecond Inaugural, "one-third of a nation"
  5. 2008George W. BushAddress on the financial crisis
  6. 2010Barack ObamaRemarks on signing financial reform
  7. 2022Jerome Powell"Monetary Policy and Price Stability," Jackson Hole

Science & the frontier

The origins tried in court, the moon chosen, the genome read, the crews mourned.

  1. 1925Darrow and BryanThe examination, Scopes trial
  2. 1986Ronald ReaganEulogy for the Challenger crew, Houston
  3. 1989George H. W. BushOn the anniversary of Apollo 11
  4. 2000Bill ClintonAnnouncement of the human genome survey
  5. 2004George W. BushA renewed vision for space exploration

Diplomacy & peace

Speaking to adversaries, and about them, in front of everyone.

  1. 1947George C. MarshallThe Marshall Plan, at Harvard

Health & the land

Bodies and ground: medicine, energy, and what gets conserved.

  1. 1990George H. W. BushRemarks on signing the Clean Air Act amendments
  2. 2001George W. BushAddress on stem cell research
  3. 2010Barack ObamaRemarks on signing the Affordable Care Act

Law & the constitution

Nominations, pardons, and prosecutions — the law speaking in its own voice.

  1. 63 BCCiceroAgainst Catiline, the first oration
  2. 1787PubliusFederalist No. 1, the general introduction
  3. 1963Fortas and the CourtGideon v. Wainwright, the argument opens
  4. 1973Nixon and DeanThe million-dollar colloquy, on tape
  5. 1974Gerald FordAnnouncement of the pardon of Richard Nixon
  6. 1973Richard Nixon"I am not a crook," Orlando
  7. 1987North and Nields"I misled the Congress," the colloquy
  8. 1987Ronald ReaganAddress on the Bork nomination

Conscience & culture

Grief, gratitude, and the uses of poetry — the state at its most human register.

  1. 399 BCSocrates, via PlatoTo the judges, after the sentence
  2. 1521Martin LutherBefore the Diet of Worms
  3. 1963John F. KennedyAt Amherst College, on Robert Frost
  4. 2012Barack ObamaAt the Sandy Hook vigil, Newtown

The long struggle

The older voices the modern ones stand on — liberty, abolition, the vote.

  1. 1805Red JacketReply to the missionary Cram
  2. 1918Woodrow WilsonAddress to the Senate on woman suffrage

Rights and authority across institutions

A proposed rights declaration in France and a defendant’s statement in British India. These selected passages test how declarative language works when the speaker does not control the institution addressed.

  1. 1791Olympe de GougesRights of Woman and of the Female Citizen · selected passages
  2. 1922M. K. GandhiThe Great Trial: the closing statement · selected passages