...Annual Address to Congress, President Washington explained the importance of civic knowledge in America: Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of...in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the community as in ours, it is proportionally essential....

...importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to...nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can...country the surest basis of public happiness.'''' Daniel preened. "Knowledge? Did I hear the president say knowledge brings happiness?" Daniel said loud...

...monarchies had. Indeed, President Washington's first annual message to Congress on 8 January 1790 declared: 'There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of Science and Literature.'83 Washington desired a national university for this end, while Jefferson hoped that the...

...George Washington reminded legislators of the importance of progress in science and the arts, observing that "there is nothing which can better deserve your...patronage than the promotion of science and literature." Less than six months later, the First Congress passed the first Patent Act, which President Washington...