George Washington was the first president of the United States, right? Well, kind of...
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00:00George Washington was the first president of the United States, right? Well, kind of.
00:05What if the story of America was not the one you knew?
00:13The first president of the Continental Congress, Peyton Randolph of Virginia,
00:16was elected in 1774. Randolph was connected. He was a good friend of George Washington and
00:21a first cousin once removed of Thomas Jefferson. Interestingly, Jefferson didn't consider Randolph
00:26fit for leadership, saying,
00:28"[He was indeed a most excellent man, but heavy and inert in body. He was rather too
00:33indolent and careless for business.] Randolph was an important addition to Congress because
00:37of his reputation as a political moderate. Randolph served in the Continental Congress
00:41three times between 1774 and 1775 and was president twice. He died in Philadelphia
00:48the night after a congressional meeting. Congress paused the proceedings to show
00:51the respect at his funeral."
00:54Like Randolph, the Continental Congress' second president wasn't particularly radical.
00:58South Carolina's Henry Middleton was a planter with vast land holdings and around 800 slaves.
01:03He was rich enough to pay for an entire Revolutionary Regiment. Middleton married
01:07three times, gaining land and political connections with each marriage.
01:11Middleton was president of the Continental Congress for less than a month in 1774.
01:16Most importantly, he signed Congress' Declaration of Rights and Grievances,
01:20formalizing the idea that American colonists were equal to any other British citizen
01:24and shouldn't be taxed without parliamentary representation.
01:27Does the government of King George have the right to tax the citizens of Boston when they
01:31are denied representation in the parliament in Westminster?"
01:34Afterward, Middleton resigned from Congress because he opposed American independence,
01:38and when the British captured Charleston, he invoked their protection. But Middleton
01:43wasn't punished by the U.S. government after the war, probably because of his financial
01:47contributions to the revolutionary movement.
01:50John Hancock is better known for his famous signature than for being the president of
01:54the Continental Congress, but the two things are related. Hancock was president when the
01:58Declaration of Independence was written and signed. The earliest copy includes only his
02:02name and that of the congressional secretary. Signing it was Hancock's duty as president
02:06and a dangerous treasonous act.
02:09Signing this thing, you could end up being hung. I mean, signing this thing was treasonous."
02:14Hancock is widely recognized as the first signer of the more famous copy of the Declaration,
02:18which includes 56 signatures. Supposedly, when he signed, he said,
02:22"'There, John Bull can read my name without spectacles. He may double his reward,
02:26and I put his at defiance.'" John Bull was a fictional representation of England,
02:31and other versions of the story, a defiant Hancock wanted the king to be able to read his signature.
02:36Henry Lawrence may be better known these days as the father of Hamilton hero John Lawrence,
02:40but he was just as prominent a member of the Revolution as his son. Like Henry Middleton,
02:45he was from Charleston, South Carolina, a planter and a slave owner. His import-export
02:49business became so successful that he expanded into slave trade.
02:53Initially, he was a moderate and encouraged passive resistance. But this attitude didn't
02:58stop him from being critical of British interference in the colonial economy when,
03:02as a merchant, he stood to lose. Lawrence was president of the Continental Congress in 1777
03:07and later became ambassador of Holland. On his way there to negotiate an alliance,
03:11he was captured by the British and documents in his possession were seized. One of these
03:15provoked England to declare war on Holland. Lawrence was held in the infamous Tower of
03:20London for more than a year under severe conditions, until the U.S. traded British
03:24General Lord Cornwallis for his release. While in the Tower, the British offered Lawrence a
03:29pardon if he would admit fighting for the rebels was wrong. Lawrence declined, saying,
03:34"'I am afraid of no consequences but such as would flow from dishonorable acts.'"
03:39John Jay has another claim to fame besides his Continental Congress presidency,
03:43including being the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, George Washington
03:47reportedly offered Jay first pick of cabinet positions. He held an impressive array of
03:52offices during his political career. He helped negotiate two major treaties — the Treaty of
03:56Paris that expanded American territory and the Jay Treaty, which established peace with Great
04:01Britain. Jay wrote some of the Federalist Papers explaining and defending the U.S. Constitution.
04:06In them, he warned against foreign influence and lack of national unity, writing,
04:10"'A band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties,
04:13should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.'"
04:18John Adams declared Jay the most important of the Founding Fathers, but he's less well-known
04:22than many. This may be because of his quiet nature, or because he was absent at the signing
04:27of the Declaration of Independence. Despite his retiring personality, in 1776, Jay established
04:33the first American counterintelligence agency.
04:35"'The origins of U.S. intelligence dates to the founding of the Republic. In a sense,
04:41espionage is as American as cherry pie.'"
04:43It was a combination of politicians and military men, and its activities were top secret.
04:48They did, however, foil an assassination plot against Washington.
04:52Samuel Huntington is sometimes called the first U.S. president. He was president of
04:56the Continental Congress in 1781, when the Articles of Confederation were established.
05:00Since the Articles contain the first written reference to the United States,
05:04some believe Huntington deserves the title over George Washington.
05:07Huntington was a member of the Revolutionary Congresses for eight years and president for two.
05:12He held multiple political positions before the war and, afterward,
05:15was Connecticut's first governor and chief justice.
05:18One of the tensest moments of his governorship was Shea's Rebellion,
05:21a Massachusetts uprising over the post-Revolutionary War economy.
05:25When the governor of Massachusetts wrote Huntington asking for help suppressing
05:28the insurgents, Huntington sent soldiers and pledged Connecticut's support.
05:33Thomas McKean held office in two states at once. He was one of the new state of Delaware's
05:37delegates to the Continental Congress while serving as chief justice in Pennsylvania.
05:41McKean went back and forth in many aspects of life, including switching political parties
05:45multiple times. Nonetheless, he later became governor of Pennsylvania and briefly served as
05:50president of Delaware — the equivalent of governor — when its president was captured during the war.
05:55McKean signed the Declaration of Independence,
05:58although apparently he couldn't actually remember when he signed the document.
06:02In the midst of all this, McKean served in the war and wrote letters to his wife about
06:06the harrowing experience, saying,
06:08"...I really wish to be rid of all public employments."
06:11Nevertheless, he returned to the Continental Congress and was president when the British
06:15surrendered at Yorktown, ending the American Revolution.
06:18John Hansen is also sometimes considered the first president of the United States because,
06:22as first president of the Confederation Congress, he was the first to act under the laws of the
06:27Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the U.S. Constitution. However, at this point,
06:32the president was still part of the legislature, not an independent position. The two roles
06:37wouldn't be separated until the Constitution was ratified in 1789, about nine years after
06:42Hansen's tenure as president ended. Hansen was part of Maryland's revolutionary government,
06:47which wrested state control from the British. In 1776, Maryland was the last state to consent
06:52to independence, holding out until Hansen gave an impassioned speech to the Maryland Convention,
06:57saying,
06:57"...these resolutions ought to be passed, and it is high time."
07:01Hansen's speech turned the tide. The resolutions were passed a week later.
07:05Elias Boudinot, ninth president of the American Congresses, was from Philadelphia,
07:09but in the Continental Congress, he represented New Jersey. Boudinot was an ardent Christian. He
07:15wrote and published The Age of Revelation in opposition to the writings of Thomas Paine,
07:19whom he called an infidel author. Interestingly, in this work, Boudinot declared that laws should
07:24evolve, writing,
07:25"...there is no other instance than that of the Ten Commandments of a body of laws being
07:29produced at once, and remaining without addition afterwards."
07:32Late in life, Boudinot was president of the American Bible Society, which brought him
07:36into contact with the young Cherokee leader Galadzina. Highly impressed with Boudinot,
07:41Galadzina took his name. From then on, he was known as Elias Boudinot.
07:45Thomas Mifflin's early career was marked by a scandal. In 1775, he became one of George
07:50Washington's aides and was quickly promoted to quartermaster general. In this position,
07:55he made sure soldiers received their uniforms and equipment. Mifflin mismanaged the quartermaster
08:00department finances. Worse still, he plotted to replace Washington with Horatio Gates as
08:05commander of the troops. He was investigated for misconduct and had to resign in 1779.
08:10But that didn't prevent Mifflin from serving in the Confederation Congress or being elected
08:14president in late 1783. Ironically, in this role, he accepted Washington's resignation as
08:20commander at the war's end. Mifflin oversaw the ratification of the Treaty of Paris,
08:24which established peace between the U.S. and Britain. He would go on to be Pennsylvania's
08:28first governor.
08:30Richard Henry Lee belonged to one of Virginia's most powerful families. He and his brother
08:34Francis Lee held many different political positions in the state. Before the war,
08:38they made waves and enemies in the House of Burgesses. Later, they did the same in the
08:42Continental Congress. Allied with John and Samuel Adams, the Lees clashed with Silas
08:46Dean of Connecticut, whom they accused of using political clout to advance his business interests.
08:51Richard Lee wrote to then-President Henry Lawrence asking that Dean be investigated, saying,
08:56"...there is so much rottenness at the bottom and in every part of their system."
09:00The resulting feud led to both Lawrence and Lee's resignations. Before all that,
09:04though, it was Richard who proposed a historic resolution to the Continental Congress.
09:08"...resolve that these united colonies are and have a right ought to be free and independent
09:17state."
09:17Years later, he joined the Confederation Congress and became its president from November 1784 to
09:22November 1785.
09:24Nathaniel Gorham started turning heads during the Revolution because of his work on Massachusetts'
09:29Board of War, helping defend the state's coast and supporting military expeditions into Canada.
09:33This earned him a place as a delegate to the Confederation Congress,
09:36where he eventually became president. Having contributed to the writing of
09:39Massachusetts' Constitution, he was appointed to the National Constitutional Convention,
09:44where he advocated for a strong central government. Gorham was congressional president
09:48during Shea's Rebellion and had seen how helpless the national government was,
09:51relying on state militias to crush it. He thought things would only get worse without a strong
09:56executive. That's why he proposed making the King of Prussia King of the Americas as well.
10:01Unsurprisingly, not a popular or successful plan. He was nonetheless optimistic about
10:05George Washington as a leader, writing to him that,
10:08"...the unanimous call you have received from your country may be an event conducive
10:12to the welfare of the people and of happiness and honor to yourself."
10:16Like Thomas Mifflin, Arthur St. Clair was one of George Washington's aides during the
10:20Revolutionary War. Washington became a fan after St. Clair's advice helped him win a battle at
10:25Princeton, New Jersey. But St. Clair made plenty of military blunders later and ended up on trial
10:30several times, including when he lost Fort Ticonderoga, a strategic location American
10:35forces had captured in the early days of the war. St. Clair was court-martialed for abandoning the
10:40fort, but Washington still defended him. St. Clair was the Confederation Congress
10:44president in 1787, after which the Congress named him governor of the Northwest Territory.
10:49In that capacity, he tried to remove Native Americans from the region.
10:53This led to a major military defeat, where he lost more than 900 men.
10:57St. Clair lost Washington's support at that point, with Washington saying,
11:01"...he's worse than a murderer, the blood of the slain is upon him."
11:05St. Clair defended his actions and was ultimately exonerated,
11:08but resigned from Congress at Washington's request. Surprisingly, though, he stayed governor
11:13of the territory. Cyrus Griffin was the last president of the Confederation Congress before
11:18the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the U.S. Constitution. But he wasn't originally
11:22in favor of American independence. In 1775, he wrote a Plan of Reconciliation for Britain and
11:28the Colony, saying,
11:29"...I am convinced that a plan of this sort is the only way to bring about a happy and
11:33permanent accommodation."
11:34By 1778, Griffin was a member of the Continental Congress. He left it in 1780 to become a judge,
11:40but returned and became president about eight years later.
11:43One of the most interesting episodes of Griffin's life had nothing to do with politics.
11:47While studying law at the University of Edinburgh, he met the daughter of a Scottish earl,
11:51and they eloped. When he returned to England a few years later,
11:54it wasn't to deliver his reconciliation proposal.
11:56It was to make sure he got his fair share of the earl's inheritance.