So here it is President’s Day. I remember when we didn’t celebrate President’s Day — we only celebrated Washington’s Birthday. I always though Abe got the short end of the stick; his birthday was just pretty much ignored. But I suppose Washington deserved the recognition because he was the first President — or was he?
Technically, the first President of the country that we now know as the United States of America wasn’t George Washington. If you paid attention in history class, you may remember that this new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 when The Articles of Confederation was adopted. (The Articles were first proposed on June 11, 1776 — even way back then it took Congress forever to get anything done.) Anyhow, after all the bickering, and everything was all signed in 1781, they needed some — a President — to run the country. John Hanson, a major player in the Revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress, was chosen unanimously by Congress. A member of that Congress was George Washington.
John Hanson’s story is pretty interesting — probably worth some extensive research on your part, if you’re interested.
The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one-year term. He served from November 5, 1781 until November 3, 1782. (In fact, several others served as President prior to Hanson — but all were interim, and served less than a year. Hanson was the first President to serve a full one year term, as specified by The Articles of Confederation.) Six other presidents were elected after Hanson, prior to George Washington taking office.
How come we don’t hear about the first seven presidents? Well, The Articles of Confederation never worked well — individual states has too much power and nothing could ever be agreed upon.
During the terms of the first seven presidents, a new (and controversial, I might add) document was being written — you may have heard of it, The Constitution.
So — George Washington was not the first President of the United States. He was the first President of the United States under the present Constitution.
If all things in life were fair, we should celebrate April 14th, Hanson’s birthday, as a National Holiday. Hanson remains sort of forgotten in history. He has a statue in the Capitol building and another one on route 50 between Washington and Annapolis, Maryland — but little other recognition.
I suppose it’s just as well — who’d want to see “Hanson slept here” signs everywhere and Hanson, D.C. just doesn’t have the same ring to it as Washington, D.C.
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