I agree with Bek! While George Washington was the first president elected under the Constitution, I don't think he was the first president of the United States.
In 1781, the last of the thirteen original colonies ratified the Articles of Confederation. Not long after, the Congress unamimously elected John Hanson of Maryland as President with the title "President of the United States in Congress Assembled". Even George Washington himself referred to Hanson as "the president" at the time. Six more presidents were elected by Congress before the current Constitution was ratified so Washington was possibly the 8th president.
I'm really bad at staying on task when I need to, and by staying on task, I mean 'studying' for maths (or catching up) --SO I BAKED SOME COOKIES AND DID SOME RESEARCH! :D
ReplyDeleteI'd like to object to this, sir. I would like to argue that Samuel Huntington was technically the first president of the United States.
I found this page from the Connecticut State Library that states:
"Although Huntington expected his term to expire in September 1780, Congress voted to keep him for another term. With the ratification vote of Maryland, the last hold-out state, the Articles of Confederation became the official constitution on March 1, 1781. The United States became a nation, and Samuel Huntington became the first President of “The United States in Congress Assembled.”
Then, I found that the Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries' site said the exact same thing, followed by some guy suing the US treasury for lying to the public because he'd found a medallion from 1781 that has Huntington as the first president stamped around it. (In this article)
Then, I started checking out the government sites, and found naught but grammatically incorrect propaganda, so I headed off to the Library of Congress archives. (Yeah, I'm -that- good at procrastinating.) And found a few letters addressing Huntington as the 'President of Congress', dating between January 24th 1781 -- May 28th 1781.
George Washington to Samuel Huntington, January 24, 1781
Horatio Gates to Samuel Huntington, April 24, 1781
Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Huntington, May 28, 1781
Well there is nothing for it.... you will have to challenge Bek to a duel, a fight to the death and settle it like Hanson, Washington and Huntington would have done!!! You could use your pink AK47 with the wrong handle. lol
ReplyDelete:( B-b-but, I could not ever duel a friend! (unless they kill my dog or something.) I say cake is the best foreign policy...so I shall challenge Bek to a bake-off!
ReplyDelete