Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticCat
So I guess the President and the Congress should stop calling that speech in January the State of the Union Address?  |
Yes this is exactly what I think should happen! Thanks for pointing that mind blowing fact out! I guess I shouldn't assume that you understood the context of the conversation & that starang usage of the term Union was a reference to the Civil War (i.e the opposition between mostly northern & southern states). The similarity between the Union (when referring to the Civil War) & an annual speech the president makes now is nonexistent and to pretend that the connotation means the same thing is simplistic.
The State of the Union:
For many years, the speech was referred to as "the President's Annual Message to Congress." The actual term "State of the Union" did not become widely used until after 1935 when Franklin D. Roosevelt began using the phrase.
The Union:
During the American Civil War, Union was a name used to refer to the twenty-three states of the United States which were not part of the seceding Confederacy. Although the Union states included the Western states of California, Oregon, and (after 1864) Nevada, as well as states generally considered to be part of the Midwest, the Union is also often loosely referred to as "the North", both then and now.
See the difference, now?