Thomas Jefferson - December 8, 1801 (Written message)
from State of the Union Podcast Hosted by Primary Source History
At long last, returning to the project! I won't be recording all of these myself, because there are a LOT of them, and some of them get incredibly long. I'll do some, others will be from public domain readings of the addresses, and when we get to the point when the speeches were recorded, you will hear the actual audio. Notice that it says "written message." Washington and Adams gave their speeches in person, to congress, as it is today. But from Thomas Jefferson onward, for over a century, the State of the Union was delivered as a written message from the president, generally to be read aloud to congress by a clerk. Jefferson felt the president arriving in congress to give an address, was too much like the British custom of the king making his annual speech to Parliament, and he wanted to distance the presidency from any resemblance to a monarchy. The other reason, however, is that Jefferson hated public speaking, and rarely made speeches of any kind. So, the written State of the Union was another way of avoiding that. It set a precedent that every president after him followed, until finally Woodrow Wilson resumed live addresses to congress in the early 20th century. And it has continued that way, with a few exceptions, ever since.
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