For all the pomp surrounding the State of the Union — the bellowing Sergeant-at-Arms, the applause rituals — many of the traditions are actually modern.
The second president, John Adams, carried on Washington’s speech tradition, but his successor, Thomas Jefferson, did not, submitting an annual message in print instead. Officially, the reason for stopping the speech was that Jefferson hated anything that smacked of monarchy, but The Post’s Karen Tumulty points out that, and, plus, getting around back then in Washington, D.C., was a mud-caked drag.
President Woodrow Wilson brought back the speechifying in December 1913. A former government professor, Wilson thought the separation of powers in the Constitution was a little too strict, and as president he looked for opportunities to increase presidential power and set the political agenda in Congress.“WASHINGTON WAS AMAZED,” The Post announced the day after his speech, although Wilson had just looked down at his paper and read it out in a monotone.
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