This is American History TV's Lectures in History podcast.

This week, a class from 2018 on the history of state of the union addresses, taught by Stonehill

College professor Peter Eubratacio.

Today we are going to discuss the state of the union address.

And we're going to do it by using Jeffrey Toulos to our benefit.

So just to recap a little bit.

The State of the Union Address straddles the two constitutional presidencies

that Jeffrey Toulis defined in your readings.

The first one, as you recall, that first Big C constitutional

presidency, these are the formal rules and procedures that define our system. And also the

formal expectations placed upon the executive during the founding era. The Big C constitutional presidency is one that proscribes popular leadership.

The second one, the small C constitutional presidency, this is a creation of our progressive presidents, and it has been built up since the time

of Woodrow Wilson. And the small C constitutional presidency prescribes popular leadership. It demands it

of presidents. And if you recall from your readings, that Big C, formal structure of the Constitution,

and the small C, popular presidency, that these exist uneasily with one another in the modern era.

We'll pick up on this again later today. We discussed earlier in the semester that in part, thanks to our friend Governor Morris,

Article 2 of the Constitution has far less specificity in it than Article 1.

Does anyone recall why that is the case?

Grace?

Hamilton wanted the presidents to seize the silences of the Constitution.

Okay, so you will recall that Alexander Hamilton and his allies

wanted to create space within the Constitution for presidents to act when the Constitution

...