And I say 'first' because, depending on your perspective, there were eight presidents before George Washington, all of which heading up the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation.
This list was compiled by the
Freerepublic and documents the presidents of the Continental Congress pre-Washington.
Peyton Randolph of Virginia (1723-1775)When delegates
gathered in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress, they
promptly elected the former King's Attorney of Virginia as the moderator
and president of their convocation. He was a propitious choice. He was a
legal prodigy—having studied at the Inner Temple in London, served as
his native colony's Attorney General, and tutored many of the most able
men of the South at William and Mary College—including the young Patrick
Henry. His home in Williamsburg was the gathering place for Virginia's
legal and political gentry—and it remains a popular attraction in the
restored colonial capital. He had served as a delegate in the Virginia
House of Burgesses, and had been a commander under William Byrd in the
colonial militia. He was a scholar of some renown—having begun a
self-guided reading of the classics when he was thirteen. Despite
suffering poor health served the Continental Congress as president
twice, in 1774 from September 5 to October 21, and then again for a few
days in 1775 from May 10 to May 23. He never lived to see independence,
yet was numbered among the nation's most revered founders.
Henry Middleton (1717-1784)America's
second elected president was one of the wealthiest planters in the
South, the patriarch of the most powerful families anywhere in the
nation. His public spirit was evident from an early age. He was a member
of his state's Common House from 1744-1747. During the last two years
he served as the Speaker. During 1755 he was the King's Commissioner of
Indian Affairs. He was a member of the South Carolina Council from
1755-1770. His valor in the War with the Cherokees during 1760-1761
earned him wide recognition throughout the colonies—and demonstrated his
cool leadership abilities while under pressure. He was elected as a
delegate to the first session of the Continental Congress and when
Peyton Randolph was forced to resign the presidency, his peers
immediately turned to Middleton to complete the term. He served as the
fledgling coalition's president from October 22, 1774 until Randolph was
able to resume his duties briefly beginning on May 10, 1775. Afterward,
he was a member of the Congressional Council of Safety and helped to
establish the young nation's policy toward the encouragement and support
of education. In February 1776 he resigned his political involvements
in order to prepare his family and lands for what he believed was
inevitable war—but he was replaced by his son Arthur who eventually
became a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles
of Confederation, served time as an English prisoner of war, and was
twice elected Governor of his state.
John Hancock (1737-1793)The
third president was a patriot, rebel leader, merchant who signed his
name into immortality in giant strokes on the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776. The boldness of his signature has made it
live in American minds as a perfect expression of the strength and
freedom—and defiance—of the individual in the face of British tyranny.
As President of the Continental Congress during two widely spaced
terms—the first from May 24 1775 to October 30 1777 and the second from
November 23 1885 to June 5, 1786—Hancock was the presiding officer when
the members approved the Declaration of Independence. Because of his
position, it was his official duty to sign the document first—but not
necessarily as dramatically as he did. Hancock figured prominently in
another historic event—the battle at Lexington: British troops who
fought there April 10, 1775, had known Hancock and Samuel Adams were in
Lexington and had come there to capture these rebel leaders. And the two
would have been captured, if they had not been warned by Paul Revere.
As early as 1768, Hancock defied the British by refusing to pay customs
charges on the cargo of one of his ships. One of Boston's wealthiest
merchants, he was recognized by the citizens, as well as by the British,
as a rebel leader—and was elected President of the first Massachusetts
Provincial Congress. After he was chosen President of the Continental
Congress in 1775, Hancock became known beyond the borders of
Massachusetts, and, having served as colonel of the Massachusetts
Governor's Guards he hoped to be named commander of the American
forces—until John Adams nominated George Washington. In 1778 Hancock was
commissioned Major General and took part in an unsuccessful campaign in
Rhode Island. But it was as a political leader that his real
distinction was earned—as the first Governor of Massachusetts, as
President of Congress, and as President of the Massachusetts
constitutional ratification convention. He helped win ratification in
Massachusetts, gaining enough popular recognition to make him a
contender for the newly created Presidency of the United States, but
again he saw Washington gain the prize. Like his rival, George
Washington, Hancock was a wealthy man who risked much for the cause of
independence. He was the wealthiest New Englander supporting the
patriotic cause, and, although he lacked the brilliance of John Adams or
the capacity to inspire of Samuel Adams, he became one of the foremost
leaders of the new nation—perhaps, in part, because he was willing to
commit so much at such risk to the cause of freedom.
Henry Laurens (1724-1792)The
only American president ever to be held as a prisoner of war by a
foreign power, Laurens was heralded after he was released as "the father
of our country," by no less a personage than George Washington. He was
of Huguenot extraction, his ancestors having come to America from France
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the Reformed faith
illegal. Raised and educated for a life of mercantilism at his home in
Charleston, he also had the opportunity to spend more than a year in
continental travel. It was while in Europe that he began to write
revolutionary pamphlets—gaining him renown as a patriot. He served as
vice-president of South Carolina in1776. He was then elected to the
Continental Congress. He succeeded John Hancock as President of the
newly independent but war beleaguered United States on November 1, 1777.
He served until December 9, 1778 at which time he was appointed
Ambassador to the Netherlands. Unfortunately for the cause of the young
nation, he was captured by an English warship during his cross-Atlantic
voyage and was confined to the Tower of London until the end of the war.
After the Battle of Yorktown, the American government regained his
freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange—President Laurens for Lord
Cornwallis. Ever the patriot, Laurens continued to serve his nation as
one of the three representatives selected to negotiate terms at the
Paris Peace Conference in 1782.
John Jay (1745-1829)America's
first Secretary of State, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one
of its first ambassadors, and author of some of the celebrated
Federalist Papers, Jay was a Founding Father who, by a quirk of fate,
missed signing the Declaration of Independence—at the time of the vote
for independence and the signing, he had temporarily left the
Continental Congress to serve in New York's revolutionary legislature.
Nevertheless, he was chosen by his peers to succeed Henry Laurens as
President of the United States—serving a term from December 10, 1778 to
September 27, 1779. A conservative New York lawyer who was at first
against the idea of independence for the colonies, the aristocratic Jay
in 1776 turned into a patriot who was willing to give the next
twenty-five years of his life to help establish the new nation. During
those years, he won the regard of his peers as a dedicated and
accomplished statesman and a man of unwavering principle. In the
Continental Congress Jay prepared addresses to the people of Canada and
Great Britain. In New York he drafted the State constitution and served
as Chief Justice during the war. He was President of the Continental
Congress before he undertook the difficult assignment, as ambassador, of
trying to gain support and funds from Spain. After helping Franklin,
Jefferson, Adams, and Laurens complete peace negotiations in Paris in
1783, Jay returned to become the first Secretary of State, called
"Secretary of Foreign Affairs" under the Articles of Confederation. He
negotiated valuable commercial treaties with Russia and Morocco, and
dealt with the continuing controversy with Britain and Spain over the
southern and western boundaries of the United States. He proposed that
America and Britain establish a joint commission to arbitrate disputes
that remained after the war—a proposal which, though not adopted,
influenced the government's use of arbitration and diplomacy in settling
later international problems. In this post Jay felt keenly the weakness
of the Articles of Confederation and was one of the first to advocate a
new governmental compact. He wrote five Federalist Papers supporting
the Constitution, and he was a leader in the New York ratification
convention. As first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jay made the
historic decision that a State could be sued by a citizen from another
State, which led to the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. On a
special mission to London he concluded the "Jay Treaty," which helped
avert a renewal of hostilities with Britain but won little popular favor
at home—and it is probably for this treaty that this Founding Father is
best remembered.
Samuel Huntington (1732-1796)An
industrious youth who mastered his studies of the law without the
advantage of a school, a tutor, or a master—borrowing books and
snatching opportunities to read and research between odd jobs—he was one
of the greatest self-made men among the Founders. He was also one of
the greatest legal minds of the age—all the more remarkable for his lack
of advantage as a youth. In 1764, in recognition of his obvious
abilities and initiative, he was elected to the General Assembly of
Connecticut. The next year he was chosen to serve on the Executive
Council. In 1774 he was appointed Associate Judge of the Superior Court
and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, was acknowledged to be a
legal scholar of some respect. He served in Congress for five
consecutive terms, during the last of which he was elected President. He
served in that off ice from September 28, 1779 until ill health forced
him to resign on July 9, 1781. He returned to his home in
Connecticut—and as he recuperated, he accepted more Counciliar and Bench
duties. He again took his seat in Congress in 1783, but left it to
become Chief Justice of his state's Superior Court. He was elected
Lieutenant Governor in 1785 and Governor in 1786. According to John Jay,
he was "the most precisely trained Christian jurists ever to serve his
country."
Thomas McKean (1734-1817)During his
astonishingly varied fifty-year career in public life he held almost
every possible position—from deputy county attorney to President of the
United States under the Confederation. Besides signing the Declaration
of Independence, he contributed significantly to the development and
establishment of constitutional government in both his home state of
Delaware and the nation. At the Stamp Act Congress he proposed the
voting procedure that Congress adopted: that each colony, regardless of
size or population, have one vote—the practice adopted by the
Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation, and the
principle of state equality manifest in the composition of the Senate.
And as county judge in 1765, he defied the British by ordering his court
to work only with documents that did not bear the hated stamps. In June
1776, at the Continental Congress, McKean joined with Caesar Rodney to
register Delaware's approval of the Declaration of Independence, over
the negative vote of the third Delaware delegate, George Read—permitting
it to be "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States." And
at a special Delaware convention, he drafted the constitution for that
State. McKean also helped draft—and signed—the Articles of
Confederation. It was during his tenure of service as President—from
July 10, 1781 to November 4, 1782—when news arrived from General
Washington in October 1781 that the British had surrendered following
the Battle of Yorktown. As Chief Justice of the supreme court of
Pennsylvania, he contributed to the establishment of the legal system in
that State, and, in 1787, he strongly supported the Constitution at the
Pennsylvania Ratification Convention, declaring it "the best the world
has yet seen." At sixty-five, after over forty years of public service,
McKean resigned from his post as Chief Justice. A candidate on the
Democratic-Republican ticket in 1799, McKean was elected Governor of
Pennsylvania. As Governor, he followed such a strict policy of
appointing only fellow Republicans to office that he became the father
of the spoils system in America. He served three tempestuous terms as
Governor, completing one of the longest continuous careers of public
service of any of the Founding Fathers.
John Hanson (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. 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.
Elias Boudinot (1741-1802)He
did not sign the Declaration, the Articles, or the Constitution. He did
not serve in the Continental Army with distinction. He was not renowned
for his legal mind or his political skills. He was instead a man who
spent his entire career in foreign diplomacy. He earned the respect of
his fellow patriots during the dangerous days following the traitorous
action of Benedict Arnold. His deft handling of relations with Canada
also earned him great praise. After being elected to the Congress from
his home state of New Jersey, he served as the new nation's Secretary
for Foreign Affairs—managing the influx of aid from France, Spain, and
Holland. The in 1783 he was elected to the Presidency. He served in that
office from November 4, 1782 until November 2, 1783. Like so many of
the other early presidents, he was a classically trained scholar, of the
Reformed faith, and an anti-federalist in political matters. He was the
father and grandfather of frontiersmen—and one of his grandchildren and
namesakes eventually became a leader of the Cherokee nation in its bid
for independence from the sprawling expansion of the United States.
Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800)By
an ironic sort of providence, Thomas Mifflin served as George
Washington's first aide-de-camp at the beginning of the Revolutionary
War, and, when the war was over, he was the man, as President of the
United States, who accepted Washington's resignation of his commission.
In the years between, Mifflin greatly served the cause of freedom—and,
apparently, his own cause—while serving as the first Quartermaster
General of the Continental Army. He obtained desperately needed supplies
for the new army—and was suspected of making excessive profit himself.
Although experienced in business and successful in obtaining supplies
for the war, Mifflin preferred the front lines, and he distinguished
himself in military actions on Long Island and near Philadelphia. Born
and reared a Quaker, he was excluded from their meetings for his
military activities. A controversial figure, Mifflin lost favor with
Washington and was part of the Conway Cabal—a rather notorious plan to
replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. And Mifflin narrowly
missed court-martial action over his handling of funds by resigning his
commission in 1778. In spite of these problems—and of repeated charges
that he was a drunkard—Mifflin continued to be elected to positions of
responsibility—as President and Governor of Pennsylvania, delegate to
the Constitutional Convention, as well as the highest office in the
land—where he served from November 3, 1783 to November 29, 1784. Most of
Mifflin's significant contributions occurred in his earlier years—in
the First and Second Continental Congresses he was firm in his stand for
independence and for fighting for it, and he helped obtain both men and
supplies for Washington's army in the early critical period. In 1784,
as President, he signed the treaty with Great Britain which ended the
war. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he did not
make a significant contribution—beyond signing the document. As Governor
of Pennsylvania, although he was accused of negligence, he supported
improvements of roads, and reformed the State penal and judicial
systems. He had gradually become sympathetic to Jefferson's principles
regarding State's rights, even so, he directed the Pennsylvania militia
to support the Federal tax collectors in the Whiskey Rebellion. In spite
of charges of corruption, the affable Mifflin remained a popular
figure. A magnetic personality and an effective speaker, he managed to
hold a variety of elective offices for almost thirty years of the
critical Revolutionary period.
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)His
resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States," approved by the Continental Congress July
2, 1776, was the first official act of the United Colonies that set them
irrevocably on the road to independence. It was not surprising that it
came from Lee's pen—as early as 1768 he proposed the idea of committees
of correspondence among the colonies, and in 1774 he proposed that the
colonies meet in what became the Continental Congress. From the first,
his eye was on independence. A wealthy Virginia planter whose ancestors
had been granted extensive lands by King Charles II, Lee disdained the
traditional aristocratic role and the aristocratic view. In the House of
Burgesses he flatly denounced the practice of slavery. He saw
independent America as "an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and
the persecuted repose." In 1764, when news of the proposed Stamp Act
reached Virginia, Lee was a member of the committee of the House of
Burgesses that drew up an address to the King, an official protest
against such a tax. After the tax was established, Lee organized the
citizens of his county into the Westmoreland Association, a group
pledged to buy no British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. At the
First Continental Congress, Lee persuaded representatives from all the
colonies to adopt this non-importation idea, leading to the formation of
the Continental Association, which was one of the first steps toward
union of the colonies. Lee also proposed to the First Continental
Congress that a militia be organized and armed—the year before the first
shots were fired at Lexington; but this and other proposals of his were
considered too radical—at the time. Three days after Lee introduced his
resolution, in June of 1776, he was appointed by Congress to the
committee responsible for drafting a declaration of independence, but he
was called home when his wife fell ill, and his place was taken by his
young protégé, Thomas Jefferson. Thus Lee missed the chance to draft the
document—though his influence greatly shaped it and he was able to
return in time to sign it. He was elected President—serving from
November 30, 1784 to November 22, 1785 when he was succeeded by the
second administration of John Hancock. Elected to the Constitutional
Convention, Lee refused to attend, but as a member of the Congress of
the Confederation, he contributed to another great document, the
Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the formation of new States from
the Northwest Territory. When the completed Constitution was sent to
the States for ratification, Lee opposed it as anti-democratic and
anti-Christian. However, as one of Virginia's first Senators, he helped
assure passage of the amendments that, he felt, corrected many of the
document's gravest faults—the Bill of Rights. He was the great uncle of
Robert E. Lee and the scion of a great family tradition.
Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796)Another
self-made man, Gorham was one of the many successful Boston merchants
who risked all he had for the cause of freedom. He was first elected to
the Massachusetts General Court in 1771. His honesty and integrity won
his acclaim and was thus among the first delegates chose to serve in the
Continental Congress. He remained in public service throughout the war
and into the Constitutional period, though his greatest contribution was
his call for a stronger central government. But even though he was an
avid federalist, he did not believe that the union could—or even
should—be maintained peaceably for more than a hundred years. He was
convinced that eventually, in order to avoid civil or cultural war,
smaller regional interests should pursue an independent course. His
support of a new constitution was rooted more in pragmatism than
ideology. When John Hancock was unable to complete his second term as
President, Gorham was elected to succeed him—serving from June 6, 1786
to February 1, 1787. It was during this time that the Congress actually
entertained the idea of asking Prince Henry—the brother of Frederick II
of Prussia—and Bonnie Prince Charlie—the leader of the ill-fated
Scottish Jacobite Rising and heir of the Stuart royal line—to consider
the possibility of establishing a constitutional monarch in America. It
was a plan that had much to recommend it but eventually the advocates of
republicanism held the day. During the final years of his life, Gorham
was concerned with several speculative land deals which nearly cost him
his entire fortune.
Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818)Born
and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland during the tumultuous days of the
final Jacobite Rising and the Tartan Suppression, St. Clair was the only
president of the United States born and bred on foreign soil. Though
most of his family and friends abandoned their devastated homeland in
the years following the Battle of Culloden—after which nearly a third of
the land was depopulated through emigration to America—he stayed behind
to learn the ways of the hated Hanoverian English in the Royal Navy.
His plan was to learn of the enemy's military might in order to fight
another day. During the global conflict of the Seven Years War—generally
known as the French and Indian War—he was stationed in the American
theater. Afterward, he decided to settle in Pennsylvania where many of
his kin had established themselves. His civic-mindedness quickly became
apparent: he helped to organize both the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania
militias, led the Continental Army's Canadian expedition, and was
elected Congress. His long years of training in the enemy camp was
finally paying off. He was elected President in 1787—and he served from
February 2 of that year until January 21 of the next. Following his term
of duty in the highest office in the land, he became the first Governor
of the Northwest Territory and the founder of Cincinnati. Though he
briefly supported the idea of creating a constitutional monarchy under
the Stuart's Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was a strident
Anti-Federalist—believing that the proposed federal constitution would
eventually allow for the intrusion of government into virtually every
sphere and aspect of life. He even predicted that under the vastly
expanded centralized power of the state the taxing powers of bureaucrats
and other unelected officials would eventually confiscate as much as a
quarter of the income of the citizens—a notion that seemed laughable at
the time but that has proven to be ominously modest in light of our
current governmental leviathan. St. Clair lived to see the hated English
tyrants who destroyed his homeland defeated. But he despaired that his
adopted home might actually create similar tyrannies and impose them
upon themselves.
Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796)Like Peyton
Randolph, he was trained in London's Inner Temple to be a lawyer—and
thus was counted among his nation's legal elite. Like so many other
Virginians, he was an anti-federalist, though he eventually accepted the
new Constitution with the promise of the Bill of Rights as a hedge
against the establishment of an American monarchy—which still had a good
deal of currency. The Articles of Confederation afforded such freedoms
that he had become convinced that even with the incumbent loss of
liberty, some new form of government would be required. A protégé of
George Washington—having worked with him on several speculative land
deals in the West—he was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional
ratifying process. It was during his term in the office of the
Presidency—the last before the new national compact went into
effect—that ratification was formalized and finalized. He served as the
nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's
inauguration on April 30, 1789.
