White House Christmas tree the White House of President William McKinley received letters urging the president to forgo participation in the "Christmas tree habit". The letter writers, which the "Chicago Daily Tribune" noted had taken up the "forestry fad", referred to "arboreal infanticide", according to the "Tribune". Those opposed to a tree in the White House that year also termed Christmas trees "un-American" because it was a historically German tradition. At least one tree was displayed in the White House that year, in the kitchen department, for the maids. The Nixon administration's choice of tree topper, the atomic symbol of peace rather than a
1856 State of the Union Address popular freedom, has distinguished and characterized the people of America." He also stated, "In the long series of acts of indirect aggression, the first was the strenuous agitation by citizens of the Northern States, in Congress and out of it, of the question of Negro emancipation in the Southern States." President Pierce supported the Kansas-Nebraska act. This neutralized the issue of slavery in the central states, and did not say whether to allow it or not. 1856 State of the Union Address The 1856 State of the Union Address was given by Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United