The Presidents Prior Geo Washington

Swedishoo from Chemtrail and Company III   The Presidents Prior Geo Washington Posted 8-11-2001 22:21 John Hanson, American Patriot and First President of the United States (1715-1783) He was the heir of one of the greatest family traditions in the colonies and became the patriarch of a long line of American patriots - his great-grandfather died at Lutzen beside the great King Gustavus Aldophus of Sweden; his grandfather was one of the founders of New Sweden along the Delaware River in Maryland; one of his nephews was the military secretary to George Washington; another was a signer of the Declaration; still another was a signer of the Constitution; yet another was Governor of Maryland during the Revolution; and still another was a member of the first Congress; two sons were killed in action with the Continental Army; a grandson served as a member of Congress under the new Constitution; and another grandson was a Maryland Senator. Thus, even if Hanson had not served as President himself, he would have greatly contributed to the life of the nation through his ancestry and progeny. As a youngster he began a self-guided reading of classics and rather quickly became an acknowledged expert in the juridicalism of Anselm and the practical philosophy of Seneca - both of which were influential in the development of the political philosophy of the great leaders of the Reformation. It was based upon these legal and theological studies that the young planter - his farm, Mulberry Grove was just across the Potomac from Mount Vernon - began to espouse the cause of the patriots. In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Legislature of Maryland. Then in 1777, he became a member of Congress where he distinguished himself as a brilliant administrator. Thus, he was elected President in 1781. Was John Hanson the first President of the United States? 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 running the government. He somehow managed to calm the troops 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 a 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. He 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 - and like so many of the Southern and New England Founders, he was strongly opposed to the Constitution when it was first discussed. He remained a confirmed anti-federalist until his untimely death. Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), 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 seven Presidents of the United States? 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. 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 seven Presidents are forgotten in history.

shield from Chemtrail and Company III   Quite Interesting!!! Posted 8-12-2001 15:18 I never knew this....Do you have a link to this article?

Swedishoo from Chemtrail and Company III   Here's the URL Posted 8-12-2001 18:57 Found it while word searching on Google. I really like that search engine. Here's the URL. http://www.marshallhall.org/hanson.html Christy

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 ever hear about the first eight Presidents of the United States? 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.

Origins:   A prime example of why history is best learned from history books, not comic books (or the modern equivalent, web sites of dubious validity).

John Hanson was not the "first president of the United States." John Hanson has not been purged from history books by a wave of revisionist historians who refuse to acknowledge his true importance to American history. The plain truth is that John Hanson was never considered "the first president of the United States," even in his own time. and John Hanson couldn't possibly have been the "first president of the United States," because neither the office of President of the United States nor the nation known as the United States of America was created until after he was dead.

When representatives of thirteen British colonies in North America, asembled in an organization known as the Continental Congress, declared in July 1776 that those colonies would henceforth be independent of Great Britain, they realized that unity would be necessary in order to sustain and win a war of independence (and to maintain that independence afterwards). Accordingly, they soon began debating the Articles of Confederation, a plan for a permanent union, which was approved and sent to each of the states (as the former colonies now called themselves) for ratification. Disputes over the several issues (including the western boundaries of some states) delayed the approval of the Articles of Confederation until 1781.

It is important to note that although both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation used the phrase "united states of America," neither of those documents was intended to create a single, unified country out of the thirteen former British colonies. Colonial leaders feared the creation of a too-powerful national government dominated by factions and so specifically refused to create a unified nation or to transfer sovereignty to a central government. Instead, they in effect created a national Congress to whom they could subcontract administrative tasks performed on behalf of all thirteen states: conduct foreign affairs, make war and peace, deal with Native Americans living outside the states, coin and borrow money, supervise the post office, and negotiate boundary disputes. Congress could not, however, raise money to carry out these tasks by levying taxes on the states, nor could it raise troops in order to defend the country or wage war, or even compel states to comply with the laws it passed. In short, the Articles of Confederation created a Congress extremely limited in authority, with insufficient power to carry out the duties assigned to it. Inevitably, Congress could neither pay off the war debt (because it could only print more paper currency, not raise money through taxation) nor protect the states' territories from encroachment by the Spanish and British (because it could not compel states to provide troops for the common defense); eventually the Confederation Congress lost much of what authority it had, often could not take legislative action because representatives had stopped attending meetings (thereby preventing the attainment of a quorum), and finally -- out of money itself -- transferred reponsibility for the national debt to the states in 1787. The Confederation government had been, in the words of George Washington, "little more than the shadow without the substance."

The key point here is that the Articles of Confederation did not create a nation called "the United States of America." They created, as stated in the first two articles, an alliance of thirteen independent and sovereign states who had agreed to "enter into a firm league of friendship with each other" while retaining their "sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The title of the confederacy so created was designated "The United States of America," but no nation with that name was created by the Articles of Confederation, any more than the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization resulted in the establishment of a nation known as "NATO."

The failure of the Articles of Confederation led to calls for establishment of a centralized federal government with much broader powers than the Congress of the Confederacy, a task accomplished through the drafting and ratification of a new Constitution in 1787-88. It was this Constitution, not the Articles of Confederation, that created the office of a chief executive as part of a truly federal government for the United States -- an office bearing the title "President of the United States of America" and first filled by George Washington, unanimously selected as the first President in February 1789.

Sometimes historical figures are relegated to the background because societal attitudes have led to a minimalization of their accomplishments, leaving future generations to re-discover and re-emphasize their contributions. Sometimes, however, they're relegated to the background simply because they were minor figures to begin with. John Hanson was far from an insignificant figure in American history, but if few Americans know that he was the first person chosen to preside over Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the primary reason is that the office wasn't one of much importance. Claiming that John Hanson was the first President of the United States doesn't help to preserve the memory of his real accomplishments -- it merely perpetuates historical information for trivia's sake.

Additional information:

        The Articles of Confederation

Last updated:   29 April 2001

Sources:

    Ayers, Edward L., et al.   American Passages: A History of the United States.

    Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.   ISBN 0-03-072573-9.

    Beeman, Richard., et al.   Beyond Confederation: Origins of the Constitution and American National Identity.

    Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina, 1987.   ISBN 0-807-81719-8.

    Jensen, Merrill.   The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781-1789.

    New York: Knopf, 1950.

    Main, Jackson Turner.   The Sovereign States, 1775-1783.

    New York: New Viewpoints, 1973.

    McDonald, Forrest.   E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776-1790.

    Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1965.

    Morgan, Edmund Sears.   The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89.

    Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1956.

    Wood, Gordon S.   The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.

    Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina, 1969.

Another interesting article::

No, I didn’t stutter and strike the “1” key twice. George Washington was indeed the 11th president of the United States. He was the first president under our current Constitution; however, there were 10 presidents before him under the Articles of Confederation that served one-year terms. Most history books do not teach, or just barely mention the articles of confederation. The articles of confederation were drawn up by the 2nd Continental Congress after the declaration of independence was written by that same body. It took until 1781 to fully ratify the articles of confederation due to boundary disputes between the separate states. The British army surrendered later that same year at Yorktown. It is interesting to note that the peace treaty with the British was actually between each individual state and England. A total of 13 individual peace treaties were signed at the end of the American Revolutionary War.

Before I get into the monetary aspects of this time period I would like to honor the first 10 presidents of the United States:

Samuel Huntington of Connecticut
Thoman McKean of Delaware
John Hanson of Maryland
Elias Boudinot of New Jersey
Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia **
John Hancock of Massachusetts
Nathanial Gorham of Massachusetts
Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania
Cyrus Griffin of Virginia

It is worthy to note that Cyrus Griffin only reluctantly accepted the new constitution with the promise of the Bill of Rights to protect against the formation of a constitutional monarchy resulting in too much central power (It is almost as if he could see into the future!)

**Richard Henry Lee was also one of the first Senators from Virginia under the current constitution. His cousin Henry Lee also served in the Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Henry Lee later became Governor of Virginia and was also the father of Southern hero, Robert E. Lee.

At the time of the American Revolution the only coin in the colonies that was worth much was the Spanish dollar. The American Revolution was quite unique in many ways. One of which was the fact that there was no money to pay for the war effort! The 1^st and 2^nd Continental Congress that met to coordinate the independence movement had no authority to tax anyone. Indeed, the entire revolution was about taxation! England was taxing the colonies at a rate of approximately 1%! This was outrageous and men flocked to arms against such tyranny. (What would they think today about government confiscation of over half our income by our current socialist regime?) Each colony was sovereign, collected its own taxes and issued its own paper money. Various exchange rates existed between the colonies that changed daily. On May 10^th 1775 one of the first acts of the 2^nd Continental Congress was to issue notes (paper money) equal to 2 million Spanish milled dollars. Without the power to tax the only way to finance the war was to issue notes. The plan was for the states to redeem the paper notes with hard currency in late 1779. The plan did not spell out which state would be responsible for how much of the redemption. Several other issuances of notes were authorized afterwards. By 1780 it took 40 continental dollars to be worth one “hard” dollar. In 1778 General Washington complained, ”It takes a wagon load of money to pay for a wagon load of supplies”. The British had their hard currency that their army was using during the war. Many merchants gladly accepted the British “hard” money over the paper continental dollars. The British further compounded the problems of their enemy by liberally counterfeiting Continental dollars.

Eventually this fiat currency went the way of all fiat currencies since the dawn of time. Inflation slowly gained momentum until the paper finally became worthless.

Many statesmen in congress realized what was happening and in a way they considered it a tax on everyone because the depreciation of the currency caused everyone to lose a little value and therefore everyone contributed to the cost of the war. This is somewhat where we are today. Government can not tax the people more than the current rates so they resort to currency devaluation. It is just another “sneaky” tax that most people pay and never realize they are doing so.

In 1787 when the current constitution was being drafted the recent currency devaluation (or monetary inflation) was very much on everyone’s mind. The first paragraph in article 1, section 10 of our current U.S. constitution reads:

No State shall enter into any treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

The coinage act passed shortly after the constitution was ratified even went so far as to list DEATH to anyone guilty of debasing the money.

Neither the current Constitution nor the coinage act passed shortly thereafter has been repealed. It seems the current group in power simply chooses to ignore them as well as history.

As you might imagine there were many problems that came about concerning long term debt repayment. Debtors happily repaid Creditor with worth-less money. Payments of contract disputes were thrown into the court system and the courts in many cases decided the ultimate value of repayment. In most cases, however, the people realized what was going on and they held the money for a very short period of time before they traded it away for goods and services. My favorite story is concerning the gentleman who purchased a barrel of whiskey and shortly thereafter sold the empty barrel for more than the original purchase. It is a sad story that has played out many times in history.

The one constant in this and all currency devaluations is those who held their wealth in hard money (gold and silver) came through these difficult times with their fortunes intact.

Mark Twain stated that although history does not repeat itself exactly, it certainly rhymes.

Protect yourself and invest and save in real money instead of our current unlawful fiat.

Larry LaBorde
Comments, criticisms and corrections are welcome at Llaborde@silvertrading.net

July 9, 2003

Larry spends his spare time reading, sailing and raising his two almost grown children with his wife Puddy and Haley the wonder dog in Shreveport, Louisiana. When not running the family drilling business, Larry also sells gold and silver bullion coins & bars at www.silvertrading.net.

Please note that I am no means a financial advisor and all investments should only be made after performing your own due diligence.

President of the Continental Congress