Executive communications-issue framing and agenda setting: Presidential inaugural speeches and State of the Union addresses, Washington to Lincoln

The presidential Inaugural speeches and State of the Union messages of the first sixteen presidents, Washington to Lincoln, have scant research performed on them. Although often quoted, no research has been found to address presidential policy preferences in setting the agendas for these sixteen administrations. This paper is an exploratory investigation of the Inaugural speeches and State of the Union addresses of many of the first sixteen presidents in order to determine their preferences and policy agendas on the topics of the Federal Bank, Indian Relations, Westward Expansion, and Slavery. Any changes in their preferences and policy agendas as stated in their Inaugural speeches are tracked over the course of each administration according to their reports made to Congress and the people in their State of the Union messages. Analysis is performed through the use of Centering Resonance Analysis (CRA) software; this program tracks the importance or "influence" of words across numerous documents. CRA measures the influence of words recurring in the speeches of the sixteen presidents under review here. As an exploratory investigation, this research will examine the value of CRA as a possible methodological tool for future research in the executive communication, public policy, and political science arenas.