George Washington was not really our first President! The real first President was John Hanson, who was elected by the Continental Congress on November 5, 1781 under the Articles of Confederation, a rough-draft Constitution. George Washington was the eighth president to serve.The other six before Washington were Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, Nathan Gorman, Arthur St. Clair, and Cyrus Griffin.
Don't believe me? Maybe you would trust George Washington himself.
"Mr. President. I feel very sensibly the favorable declaration of Congress expressed by your Excellency," George Washington told Hanson a few weeks after his election in 1781.
Or perhaps you might trust Thomas Jefferson?
"(George) Washington accepts every condition, law, rule, and authority, under the Great Seal and the first President of the United States, John Hanson," said Thomas Jefferson, while serving as Washington's Secretary of State.
Back to the homepage