When a Monarch Addressed Congress

Terence P. Jeffrey
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:38:27 -0700
Opinion

When Winston Churchill — whose mother was an American — visited the United States in 1946, he gave a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he defined the international conflict that had arisen in the wake of World War II.

"The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power," he said. "It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future."

"A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory," said Churchill, who was then serving as leader of the opposition in the British Parliament. "Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies."
Updated: Wed Apr 08, 2026

When Winston Churchill — whose mother was an American — visited the United States in 1946, he gave a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he defined the international conflict that had arisen in the wake of World War II.

"The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power," he said. "It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future."

"A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory," said Churchill, who was then serving as leader of the opposition in the British Parliament. "Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies."

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent," he said. "Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow."

"Whatever conclusions may be drawn from these facts — and facts they are — this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up," said Churchill. "Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace."

Churchill concluded that the alliance of the United States with Great Britain and its Commonwealth partners was crucial to deterring the Soviet Union. "If the population of the English-speaking Commonwealths be added to that of the United States with all that such co-operation implies in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and in industry, and in moral force, there will be no quivering, precarious balance of power to offer its temptation to ambition or adventure. On the contrary, there will be an overwhelming assurance of security."

Forty-three years later, the Iron Curtain collapsed. The Berlin Wall came down. The conflict Churchill foresaw as needing a solid alliance between his country and the United States ended in a victory for that alliance — that was achieved through deterrence, not war.

A year and a half after the Berlin Wall collapsed, Queen Elizabeth II visited the United States and became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

Her message echoed Churchill's.

"I know what a rare privilege it is to address a joint meeting of your two Houses," she said at the start of her speech. "Thank you for inviting me.

"The concept, so simply described by Abraham Lincoln as 'government by the people, of the people, for the people,' is fundamental to our two nations," said the queen.

"We, like you, are staunch believers in the freedom of the individual and the rule of a fair and just law," she said. "They are the bedrock of the Western World."

She then gave thanks to America.

"I want to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of the British people to the people of the United States of America for their steadfast loyalty to our common enterprise throughout this turbulent century," she said. "The future is, as ever, obscure. The only certainty is that it will present the world with new and daunting problems, but if we continue to stick to our fundamental ideals, I have every confidence that we can resolve them."

She then noted that the Cold War would not have been won had not NATO, anchored by the United States and Great Britain, stood its ground.

"The swift and dramatic changes in Eastern Europe in the last decade have opened up great opportunities for the people of those countries," she said. "They are finding their paths to freedom. But the paths would have been blocked if the Atlantic Alliance had not stood together — if your country and mine had not stood together.

"Let us never forget that lesson," she said.

She urged America and Europe to continue to stand together.

"All our history in this and earlier centuries underlines the basic point that the best progress is made when Europeans and Americans act in concert," said Queen Elizabeth II. "We must not allow ourselves to be enticed into a form of continental insularity."

"You will find us worthy partners, and we are proud to have you as our friends," she said in closing her remarks. "May God bless America."

On March 31, the British Royal Family announced that Queen Elizabeth's son and heir, King Charles III, would visit the United States at the end of this month. He and Queen Camilla were coming, said the announcement, to "celebrate the historic connections and the modern bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, marking the 250th anniversary of American Independence."

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — joined by House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer — wrote to King Charles the day after this announcement to invite him to address a joint session of Congress on April 28.

"The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has evolved into one of the most consequential partnerships in modern history," this bipartisan group of congressional leaders said in their letter to the king. "That close relationship is rooted not merely in shared interests, but — as Queen Elizabeth told a Joint Meeting of Congress in 1991 — in a shared 'spirit of democracy,' and a commitment to the fundamental values of individual freedom, consent of the governed, and rule of law."

The monarch accepted the invitation of these congressional leaders.

This could be a rare moment when two nations, two parties and two houses of Congress come together — with a king — to celebrate the shared values that form the foundation of our shared tradition of liberty.