Rhetorical Presidency
The Constitution requires only that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information on the State of the Union” and recommend measures for improving it. Although Washington and Adams had delivered their messages orally, Jefferson in 1801 sent a written message, a practice continued until Wilson went up to Congress in 1913, his first year as president. Jefferson’s and Wilson’s decisions expressed sharply contrasting understandings of the presidency....