Home » The PARIS Forums » PARIS: Main » OT; Who was the first president of th US?
| OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #69983] |
Thu, 06 July 2006 02:42  |
rick
Messages: 1976
Registered: February 2006
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Senior Member |
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----- And you thought you knew American history..............
Subject: Who was the first President?
I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
After all, no one else comes to mind.
But think back to your history books - 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 hear about the first eight presidents?
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.
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 eight Presidents are forgotten in history.
YOU HAVE TO BE A LOVER OF HISTORY TO APPRECIATE THIS!!
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| Re: OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #69993 is a reply to message #69989] |
Thu, 06 July 2006 08:55  |
jef knight[1]
Messages: 201
Registered: October 2005
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Senior Member |
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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though not a united statesian, I'm none-the-less fascinated by how the
history of your nation was continually, over time, reduced to, well,
almost "talking points", that leave out the all the really great
historical tidbits such as these. gotta love the realities of history, huh.
gene lennon wrote:
>rick <parnell68@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>----- And you thought you knew American history..............
>>Subject: Who was the first President?
>>
>>I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
>>
>>
>>
>
>I was taught about the presidents proceeding Washington in high school, however
>I was taught the version close to the one in Wikipedia, which includes:
>
>The origin of the claim that Hanson is the "forgotten" first President stems
>from a 1932 book by Seymour Wemyss Smith titled John Hanson - Our First President.
>Nevertheless, officially Hanson was the third presiding officer of the Congress
>of the United States, and he considered himself a successor to the first
>two men to hold the office, Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean. He was the
>first to serve a full one-year term, and the first to formally use the title
>President of the United States in Congress Assembled.
>
>Or this:
>http://www.johnhanson.net/
>
>Gene
>
>
--------------060007070903050001000403
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
though not a united statesian, I'm none-the-less fascinated by how the
history of your nation was continually, over time, reduced to, well,
almost "talking points", that leave out the all the really great
historical tidbits such as these. gotta love the realities of history,
huh.<br>
<br>
<br>
gene lennon wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid44ad1749$1@linux" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">rick <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:parnell68@hotmail.com"><parnell68@hotmail.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">----- And you thought you knew American history..............
Subject: Who was the first President?
I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I was taught about the presidents proceeding Washington in high school, however
I was taught the version close to the one in Wikipedia, which includes:
The origin of the claim that Hanson is the "forgotten" first President stems
from a 1932 book by Seymour Wemyss Smith titled John Hanson - Our First President.
Nevertheless, officially Hanson was the third presiding officer of the Congress
of the United States, and he considered himself a successor to the first
two men to hold the office, Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean. He was the
first to serve a full one-year term, and the first to formally use the title
President of the United States in Congress Assembled.
Or this:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.johnhanson.net/">http://www.johnhanson.net/</a>
Gene
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>
--------------060007070903050001000403--
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| Re: OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #69994 is a reply to message #69983] |
Thu, 06 July 2006 08:55 |
Deej [1]
Messages: 2149
Registered: January 2006
|
Senior Member |
|
|
>President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the
>first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department.
Didn't this guy invent the internet?
"rick" <parnell68@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:lkmpa2drpgdnfpsvumec98cn37s2qo99hi@4ax.com...
> ----- And you thought you knew American history..............
> Subject: Who was the first President?
>
> I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
>
> After all, no one else comes to mind.
>
> But think back to your history books - 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 hear about the first eight presidents?
>
> 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.
>
> 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 eight Presidents are forgotten in history.
>
> YOU HAVE TO BE A LOVER OF HISTORY TO APPRECIATE THIS!!
>
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| Re: OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #69996 is a reply to message #69994] |
Thu, 06 July 2006 09:36 |
rick
Messages: 1976
Registered: February 2006
|
Senior Member |
|
|
who me???????? sure, just send the check to...me.
On Thu, 6 Jul 2006 09:55:45 -0600, "DJ"
<animix_spam-this-ahole_@animas.net> wrote:
>>President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the
>>first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department.
>
>Didn't this guy invent the internet?
>
>
>"rick" <parnell68@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:lkmpa2drpgdnfpsvumec98cn37s2qo99hi@4ax.com...
>> ----- And you thought you knew American history..............
>> Subject: Who was the first President?
>>
>> I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
>>
>> After all, no one else comes to mind.
>>
>> But think back to your history books - 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 hear about the first eight presidents?
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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 eight Presidents are forgotten in history.
>>
>> YOU HAVE TO BE A LOVER OF HISTORY TO APPRECIATE THIS!!
>>
>
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| Re: OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #70003 is a reply to message #69983] |
Thu, 06 July 2006 13:35 |
TCB
Messages: 1261
Registered: July 2007
|
Senior Member |
|
|
These guys were 'President' at a time when the US was just a bunch of treacherous
British turncoats. I've always thought it uproarious that Benedict Arnold
is vilified for turning his coat back a second time. The first one was fine,
but the second a terrible treachery.
The Articles of Confederation were almost designed to fail. Imagine a committee
where nobody really has much common interest and everyone has veto power.
That's pretty close to it.
Probably the two things that bound the US into a viable entity with some
likelihood of success were a) the assumption of state war debts by the federal
government and b) the agreement in the Constitution to table the issue of
slavery. Jefferson never forgave himself for brokering a) and felt snookered
by Hamilton, while b) was simply an acknowledgement that the two sides would
not agree any time soon, which proved prescient since the issue took a hundred
years of continued slavery and a savage war to figure out. Not that this
helped the slaves much, but it did help glue the government together.
Lastly, the presidency has gained power in a steady line that suddenly gets
exponential a little before WW II. Those early guys wouldn't have dreamed
of doing what the last five have done without consulting congress. But that's
another long, long story . . .
TCB
rick <parnell68@hotmail.com> wrote:
>----- And you thought you knew American history..............
>Subject: Who was the first President?
>
>I'm sure that George Washington was your best guess.
>
>After all, no one else comes to mind.
>
>But think back to your history books - 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 hear about the first eight presidents?
>
>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.
>
>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 eight Presidents are forgotten in history.
>
>YOU HAVE TO BE A LOVER OF HISTORY TO APPRECIATE THIS!!
>
|
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|
|
| Re: OT; Who was the first president of th US? [message #70017 is a reply to message #69993] |
Wed, 05 July 2006 17:18 |
uptown jimmy
Messages: 441
Registered: September 2005
|
Senior Member |
|
|
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_000_0012_01C6A070.2338E3B0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Ask North Koreans about "talking points".=20
The fellows who headed the federal government(s) before Washington are =
not generally recognized as having been "Presidents" by contemporary =
historians. It's sorta sensationalist to say otherwise. We probably =
ought to know more about them, but they weren't "Presidents" in the =
sense that Americans think of the office today.
Jimmy
"jef knight" <thestudio@allknightmusic.com> wrote in message =
news:44ad3156@linux...
though not a united statesian, I'm none-the-less fascinated by how the =
history of your nation was continually, over time, reduced to, well, =
almost "talking points", that leave out the all the really great =
historical tidbits such as these. gotta love the realities of history, =
huh.
gene lennon wrote:=20
------=_NextPart_000_0012_01C6A070.2338E3B0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=3DContent-Type =
content=3Dtext/html;charset=3DISO-8859-1>
<META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=3DGENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text=3D#000000 bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Ask North Koreans about "talking =
points".=20
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The fellows who headed the federal =
government(s)=20
before Washington are not generally recognized as having been =
"Presidents" by=20
contemporary historians. It's sorta sensationalist to say otherwise. We =
probably=20
ought to know more about them, but they weren't "Presidents" in the =
sense that=20
Americans think of the office today.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Jimmy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=3Dltr=20
style=3D"PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; =
BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV>"jef knight" <<A=20
=
href=3D"mailto:thestudio@allknightmusic.com">thestudio@allknightmusic.com=
</A>>=20
wrote in message <A=20
href=3D"news:44ad3156@linux">news:44ad3156@linux</A>...</DIV>though =
not a united=20
statesian, I'm none-the-less fascinated by how the history of your =
nation was=20
continually, over time, reduced to, well, almost "talking points", =
that leave=20
out the all the really great historical tidbits such as these. gotta =
love the=20
realities of history, huh.<BR><BR><BR>gene lennon wrote:=20
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=3Dmid44ad1749$1@linux type=3D"cite"><FONT=20
face=3D"Courier =
New"></FONT> </BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY> </HTML>
------=_NextPart_000_0012_01C6A070.2338E3B0--
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