America's Speech from the Throne

"I regret this cheap and tawdry imitation of English royalty."
- American Senator on Woodrow Wilson's revival of the State of the Union Presidential Address (for 112 years prior to this, the State of the Union was delivered by the President in writing)

The Cato Institute wails:

"A speech from the throne," Thomas Jefferson called it. And as Washington waits for President Bush's sixth State of the Union address Tuesday night, the monarchical metaphor seems as apt as ever.

Jefferson's primary complaint was that our first two presidents chose to deliver their annual messages in person before both houses of Congress - a practice he regarded as "an English habit, tending to familiarize the public with monarchical ideas."

...In contrast, early presidents often struck a note of modesty and self-restraint. After his third State of the Union, Washington wrote that "motives of delicacy" had deterred him "from introducing any topic which relates to legislative matters, lest it should be suspected that he wished to influence the question before it."

Jefferson made the ritual still more humble by delivering his annual message to Congress in writing.

For 112 years, presidents conformed to Jefferson's example, until populist pedagogue Woodrow Wilson delivered his first annual message in person. "I am sorry to see revived the old Federalistic custom of speeches from the throne," one senator lamented. "I regret this cheap and tawdry imitation of English royalty."

Yet Wilson's habit caught on. Most presidents in the 20th century delivered the message in person. And in 1966, Lyndon Johnson moved the speech to prime-time viewing hours, the better to reach a national audience.

Thus the State of the Union has settled into its familiar, modern incarnation: a laundry list of policy demands packaged in pomp and circumstance. And as our presidents have grown more imperial, the tone of the annual message has grown more imperious.

...George Washington most often referred to the office he held as that of "chief magistrate." Modern presidents tend to prefer the title "commander in chief," and at times seem to forget that it only makes them commander of the U.S. armed forces, not commander of the nation as a whole.

...Perhaps it's too much to expect a revival of the humble republican custom initiated by Jefferson. But when Tuesday's ritual is done, one hopes Congress can set about the business of reining in an imperial presidency.