Anomalistic History

First Chief of State Under the Union's Inceptive Constitution

The purpose of this article is not to diminish the importance of George Washington’s role as “Father of Our Country” but to point out how popular history is quite often fragmentary. Time and again history was reported subjectively by emphasizing the ideas, thoughts, and feelings of a given author or authors and not by rigidly transcribing or reflecting reality in an objective manner.

George Washington was indeed the first President of the United States under the present Constitution we follow today; however, there were seven other U.S. Presidents appointed under our first constitution, “the Articles of Confederation.” Unfortunately, they are all but forgotten in history.

A constitution is defined as “a system of fundamental laws and principles of a government, state, society, corporation, etc., written or unwritten.” The Articles of Confederation of the United States of America served as the de facto system of government used by the Congress until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781. At that point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation. The Articles set the rules for operations of the United States. The Articles were created by the chosen representatives of the states in the Second Continental Congress out of a perceived need to have a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States.

Although serving a crucial role in the attainment of nationhood for the thirteen states, it soon became clear the Articles lacked the necessary provisions to effectively administer an electoral government. The Articles were subsequently replaced by a completely revised Constitution in 1789. After the inception of this revised or second constitution, at some unknown point in time, the word constitution was adopted as the title for the document that we call “The Constitution,” but it should rightfully be known as the Constitution of 1789, the second constitution of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln went so far as to say that the United States had four constitutions. The first was the Articles of Association forming the United Colonies, the second was the Declaration of Independence, the third was the Articles of Confederation, and the final was our system of laws finalized in 1789 that we refer to today as “The Constitution.”

On March 1, 1781, two years before the Revolutionary War authentically ended, the United States was officially formed with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. The Articles were actually proposed June 11, 1776 (a month before The Declaration of Independence), but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Unlike the Constitution of 1789 this confederation charter required the ratification of all 13 states. Maryland held out ratifying the Articles of Confederation until March 1, 1781, when Virginia and New York ceded their western lands. (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land.)

The Articles of Confederation were drafted and adopted by some of the greatest Americans of all time. The wording was clear and concise. They gave the government every power that our founders desired it to have at that point in time. The Articles of Confederation gave us more of a democracy than our present form of government which is truly a republic. Under the Articles it was easier for people to adopt laws by popular referendum than would be possible under the republic established by the Constitution of 1789.

Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to preside over congress and lead the country. The Articles of Confederation, America's first Constitution, called for the appointment of a President by Congress. The mindset of the nation was that it did not want a strong central government nor did it want any individual assuming the mantle of dictator or king; therefore, no formal executive branch was spelled out in the Confederation document. Britain's King George III, whom they had so recently wrested freedom and self-governance from, had simply left the people with a bad impression of a strong central government with a single powerful leader.

The States were to remain sovereign and the new national government would have limited powers. Because of this philosophy, the President was limited in his term of office, to one year in any three year period. In fact, members of Congress also had severe term limitations. On the first Monday in November, the Congress would elect the President. The President not only presided over the Congress, but was also responsible for the executive office of the nation. His official title was “President of the United States in Congress Assembled.”

John Hanson of Maryland was chosen unanimously by Congress on November 5, 1781 as its first full term President. Born in Charles County, Maryland, on April 3, 1715, he became one of the strongest colonial advocates of independence. While serving in the Maryland Assembly from 1757 to 1773 he was active in raising troops and providing arms. In 1779 Hanson served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he helped to resolve the western lands issue, thereby facilitating the ratification of the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation did not specifically "define" the powers of the President, so under Hanson’s leadership various departments of the government began to be formed. He was delegated the authority to correspond, entertain, and negotiate with foreign governments. Though eight years later, the office of President under George Washington would be considerably more powerful under a centralized federal system, the first Presidency, which had vaguely defined functions, carved out the foundation for future Presidents under the present day Constitution.

Following Hanson’s term of office seven other men were appointed by Congress to serve as President under the Articles of Confederation. The second Constitution of 1789 differed from the Articles in that it called for an electoral count to elect Washington to the office of the President, However, it should be noted that the election process was not initially executed as asserted in the Constitution of 1789. When George Washington was elected President, he received 69 votes; Washington was one of thirteen candidates for the position. The ballot contained a list of many names, and each of the 69 delegates voted for two men. Washington was selected by every delegate. John Adams who had the plurality of 34 second place votes was elected to office of Vice President.

From 1781 to 1788, before the election of Washington under the laws of the present day Constitution, the Articles of Confederation called for Congress to vote for the President. The President was required to come from their ranks of Congress. Under the new Constitution of 1789, electors were selected for the Electoral College; however, during the 1789 election of Washington, Presidential electors were elected by the people in only five states, and the lack of vote counts and other records makes the reconstruction of the total popular vote impossible. In the states that had an opportunity to vote, less than 25% of the male population (no females except in Pennsylvania) were eligible to vote and only about 4% to 6% of those eligible actually voted. For details of the Presidential Election of 1789 try this link:

In addition, unlike Hanson who had the vote of representatives of all 13 states, Washington only received the vote of 10 states; North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the new Constitution and had no Electors in the election of 1789. New York had no Electors because the legislature was unable to pass an election act in time to choose its allotted 8 Electors.

Even though President Hanson's term in office was short, his accomplishments were considerable. As President, he was committed to removing all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags. Hanson was a predominate figure in the approval of the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents. President Hanson was instrumental in the establishment of the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War and the first Foreign Affairs Department. During his tenure, the first consular service was established, a post office department was initiated, a national bank was chartered, progress was made toward taking the first census, and a uniform system of coinage was adopted. As "President," Hanson also signed a treaty with Holland affirming the indebtedness of the United States for a loan from that country. In addition, he signed all laws, regulations, official papers, and letters. Lastly, seven years prior to Washington's 1789 proclamation for Thanksgiving, President Hanson and the United States Congress urged the newly-formed American states to observe Thursday, November 28, 1782 as a Thanksgiving Day. President Washington named November 26 as Thanksgiving Day and ultimately President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation of 1863, declared that the last Thursday of November should be celebrated as a day of Thanksgiving.

The Great Seal of the United States was first used September 16, 1782, by President Hanson when he signed the orders for an exchange of military prisoners. In 1803, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed the legality of the Great Seal and ruled that the signature of the President and the stamp of the Great Seal are necessary to consummate law. It was the President Hanson’s-led U.S. Congress that approved the seal in June 1782 and with only minor changes, the design today is markedly similar as it was when approved under the Hanson Administration.

The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one-year term during any three-year period. Hanson served in that office from November 5, 1781, until November 3, 1782. He was the first President to serve a full term after the full ratification of the Articles of Confederation. Why then does he not hold a more prominent place in U.S. history? Like so many of the Southern and quasi-Southern Founders, he was strongly opposed to the concepts of a strong central government that was to be eventually implemented under the new Constitution of 1787. Until his death in November 1783, he remained a confirmed Anti-Federalist having stalwart apprehensions about the Federalist vision of a dominating federal government.

Winners write history. The Federalists prevailed over President Hanson and the Anti-Federalists. The once feared centralized government emerged with the new constitution and the powers of the individual states guaranteed under the Articles of Confederation gradually eroded. Unfortunately, the erosion of state's rights ultimately culminated into the Civil War in 1861.

Seven other Presidents were elected after Hanson - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), John Hancock (1786), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office. Why don't we ever hear about the first eight Presidents of the United States? Besides the truism that victors write history - The Articles of Confederation didn't work as well as it should have. The individual states had too much power and disagreed on numerous issues. To make the states more conciliatory toward one another the articles needed to be revised.
A Constitutional Convention was first convened in 1786 to consider altering portions of the Articles of Confederation; however, what followed after numerous meetings and months of heated debate was a complete revision. An almost completely new constitution, which is still utilized today, began its path to augmentation. For some inexplicable reason the implementation of this new Constitution also seems to be the starting point for United States Government history taught throughout this country. The American education system has sadly neglected this critical period in American history, an era in which the very nation itself was shaped from the sword to the plowshare.

After the Battle of Yorktown Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on October 19, 1781, this was considered the climax of the Revolutionary War.
When the war ended exactly is somewhat confusing because small skirmishes continued for several months. In November of 1782 the British agreed to American Independence and made a preliminary accord with America. The Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the war and recognized the independence of the United States, was signed on September 3, 1783.

The most important and critical time -- and the most dangerous, as well -- of a new nation is its transition period between the time of a revolutionary military victory and the establishment of a civilian government. Most nations born of violent revolution falter after the peace is declared. The unity of war leads to fractionalization during peace. To safely guide the end of a successful revolution into a desired civilian government requires people of extraordinary strength, ability and a sense of dedication to the main purpose of that revolution. The heroes of the revolution are indelibly recorded in history. Unfortunately, the maintainers of the peace and many of the architects of the new government seem to be forgotten.
To forget the eight men who held that office of President prior to George Washington would be to forget the years between the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution of 1789. These were difficult and critical years for the young nation that called for bold leadership. John Hanson was truly a vanguard in tackling the incredible responsibility of directing this country! He served his one year term in office faithfully before retiring from public service.
For more details on the life of John Hanson try this link: (However, I feel some aspects of this link are open to debate.)

"I congratulate your excellency on your appointment to fill the most important seat in the United States."
-----Memo to President Hanson from George Washington
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Because information is limited on this topic, a significant part of this article came from a solitary biography of John Hanson, a few encyclopedias and a relatively small number of web sites. Unfortunately, several of the web sites appeared to have embellished facts about President Hanson’s career. This may result in not only a loss of credibility for such sites, but also can diminish the reader’s perception of the importance of the subject discussed. Regrettably, the encyclopedias that were researched revealed very little information about the operation of our government during its critical period from 1776 to 1789 and even less about John Hanson. Research ascertained that “The Encyclopedia Britannica” did not take cognizance of Hanson until 1949. The local public library has an extensive listing of historical literature but none dedicated to the life of President Hanson. A single biography on Mr. Hanson was located at a branch of the California State University library. The book, titled “John Hanson Our First President” was written in 1932 and authored by Seymour Wemyss Smith.

Though research material surrounding the life of Hanson was scant, it's felt the general concepts of this article are reasonably accurate based on cumulative research of early American history. Albeit, some of the specifics mentioned in this writing were particularly difficult to verify and are open to disputation; however, this is the norm with most commentaries.

One highly controversial case in point are excerpts appearing in several Internet articles giving Hanson credit for pacifying the military when some of General George Washington’s officers were considering a coup d’tat. A certain number of Washington's forces reputedly sought to establish a limited American Monarchy with the general assuming the throne. This is perspective is considerably different than presented in traditional historical data relative to Washington. The generally accepted narratives implies that Washington adamantly refused the offer from his officers to set up a monarchy with himself as king, an idea he viewed with abhorrence.

To make this topic even more perplexing, many historians claim that John Hanson was the first President of the United States because he was the first person to serve the full one-year term (1781–82), under the ratified Articles of Confederation. This is technically correct; however, the ratification of the Articles of Confederation occurred in March 1781 during the term of Samuel Huntington. He presided as President over an unofficial Congress (until its final ratification) from September 28, 1779, to July 6, 1781. Consequently, Samuel Huntington could be construed as the first President of the United States in Congress Assembled.

To further controvert this topic there are additional individuals that have been claimed by others to have disputably held the office of the President of the United States before George Washington. Click on the following web site for a summary of each:


The informational sources for this article were from a solitary biography, excerpts and opinions from multiple Internet web sites, encyclopedias and documentaries. This article in whole should be construed as the opinion of the author; however, it’s shared in total or in part by a number of others. In the event that someone might wish to share his or her comments or add additional input as to accuracy of this topic, please feel free to respond through the "comment” link at the end of this article or e-mail Denman Collins ( historiography101 AT yahoo.com).