My apologies, klutzy fingers sent an unfinished version of this email
before I meant to.

I don't know if this answer will satisfy, but I remember reading or
hearing it explained it thusly.  Congress ran the country under the
Articles of Confederation.  While Hanson was elected president of
Congress by Congress, he was not elected President of the U.S. by
Congress.  He led Congress while Congress ran the country under the
Articles.

It's been a while since I've read/heard this.  Others probably can
explain it more fully and better.

Trenton Hizer
Library of Virginia

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lonny J. Watro
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 6:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Off Topic - lost Presidents

The uneducated mathematician wants to know if this is true.... Please
respond off list, unless of course you think others need an education,
too. <wink>

See article below...

Thanks,
Lonny
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LOST HISTORICAL TID-BITS

Who was the 1st President?   I'm sure that George Washington was your
first and best guess.  After all, no one else comes to mind.

But think back to your history books - The United States declared its
independence in 1776, yet Washington did not take office until April 30,
1789.

So who was running the country during these initial years of this young
country?

It was the first eight U.S. Presidents.

In fact, the first President of the United States was one John Hanson.

I can hear you now - John who?

John Hanson, the first President of the United States.

Don't go checking the encyclopedia for this guy's name - he is one of
those great men that are lost to history. If you're extremely lucky,
you may actually find a brief mention of his name.

The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption
of The Articles of Confederation.

This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed
upon by Congress until November 15, 1777.

Maryland refused to sign this document until 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).

Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the
country.

John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George
Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run
against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely
influential member of Congress.

As the first President, Hanson had quite the shoes to fill. No one had
ever been President and the role was poorly defined. His actions in
office would set precedent for all future Presidents.

He took office just as the Revolutionary War ended. Almost immediately,
the troops demanded to be paid. As would be expected after any long war,
there were no funds to meet the salaries. As a result, the soldiers
threatened to overthrow the new government and put Washington on the
throne as a monarch.

All the members of Congress ran for their lives, leaving Hanson as the
only guy left running the government. He somehow managed to calm the
troops down and hold the country together. If he had failed, the
government would have fallen almost immediately and everyone would have
been bowing to King Washington.

Hanson, as President, ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as
well as the removal of all foreign flags. This was quite the feat,
considering the fact that so many European countries had a stake in the
United States since the days following Columbus.

Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States, which all
Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents.

President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the
first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department.

Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be
Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today.

The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one
year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished
quite a bit in such little time.

Seven other presidents were elected after him...

Elias Boudinot (1782-83),

Thomas Mifflin (1783-84),

Richard Henry Lee (1784-85),

John Hancock (1785-86),

Nathan Gorman (1786-87),

Arthur St. Clair (1787-88), and

Cyrus Griffin (1788-89)

all prior to Washington taking office.

So what happened?  Why don`t we hear about the first eight presidents?

It's quite simple - The Articles of Confederation didn't work well.  The
individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon.
A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know as the
Constitution.

And that leads us to the end of our story.

George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United
States. He was the first President of the United States under the
Constitution we follow today.

And the first eight Presidents are forgotten in history.

YOU HAVE TO BE A LOVER OF HISTORY TO APPRECIATE THIS!!

NOTE:  It took 8 years for us to establish a successful government.
Remember this when you hear that so little progress has been made during
these last 3 years in establishing a Government in Iraq.


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