by: Stanley L. Klos

Published by ROI.us Corporation
Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
including the rights of reproduction in whole or in part in any form

Chapter One

George Washington
11th President of the United States
1st under the Constitution of 1787

There are two State ratified Constitutions of the United States of America.  One, the Articles of Confederation, was formulated and passed by the Delegates of the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777.[1]  The Second Constitution was approved by the Delegates of United States in Congress Assembled on September 28, 1787.[2] The later was formulated by a Constitutional Convention held from May to September in 1787 while the former was drafted by the Delegates themselves. 

Upon the completion of the Constitution of 1777 the delegates concluded on November 15th:

“A copy of the confederation being made out, and sundry small verbal amendments preserving made in the diction, without altering the sense, the same was agreed to.” [3]

Ten years later on September 17, 1787, George Washington, the President of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention transmitted to the President of the United States in Congress Assembled, Arthur St. Clair, the Constitution of 1787 stating:

“We have now the honor to submit to the confederation of the United States in Congress Assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable.” [4]

Unlike the Constitution of 1787, the Constitution of 1777 required ratification of all 13 States and was transmitted to their legislatures with this cover:

“Congress having agreed upon a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States, authentic copies are now transmitted for the consideration of the respective legislatures.

This business, equally intricate and important, has, in its progress, been attended with uncommon embarrassments and delay, which the most anxious solicitude and persevering diligence could not prevent. To form a permanent union, accommodated to the opinion and wishes of the delegates of so many states, differing in habits, produce, commerce, and internal police, was found to be a work which nothing but time and reflection, conspiring with a disposition to conciliate, could mature and accomplish.

Hardly is it to be expected that any plan, in the variety of provisions essential to our union, should exactly correspond with the maxims and political views of every particular State. Let it be remarked, that, after the most, careful enquiry and the fullest information, this is proposed as the best which could be adapted to the circumstances of all; and as that alone which affords any tolerable prospect of a general ratification …” [5]

The Constitution of 1777 was ratified unanimously by all the States on March 1, 1781 and it begins:

“To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Article I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America." Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. Article III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.” [6]

The Constitution of 1787 was a result of a resolution by the United States in Congress Assembled, created by the Constitution of 1777 to “… render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union” [7] thus ordering the revision of the Articles of Confederation:

“Resolved that in the opinion of Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia2 for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government3 and the preservation of the Union.” [8]

The Constitution of 1787 formed in Philadelphia was received by the United States in Congress Assembled in New York on September 20, 1787.  The Constitution of 1787 was debated by the United States in Congress Assembled with the Journals reporting on September 27, 1787:

“According to Order Congress resumed the Consideration of the form of a Constitution3 for the United States of America framed and transmitted to Congress by the Convention of the States held at Philadelphia pursuant to the Resolve of the twenty first day of February last. And a motion4 being made by Mr R[ichard] H[enry] Lee seconded by Mr [Melanction] Smith in the words following "Resolved That Congress after due attention to the Constitution under which this body exists and acts find that the said Constitution in the thirteenth Article thereof limits the power of Congress to the amendment of the present confederacy of thirteen states, but does not extend it to the creation of a new confederacy of nine states; and the late Convention having been constituted under the authority of twelve states in this Union it is deemed respectful to transmit and it is accordingly ordered that the plan of a new federal constitution laid before Congress by the said convention be sent to the executive of every state in this Union to be laid before their respective legislatures."[9]

On the following day the Delegates decided not to amend even one word of the new constitution, which was their prerogative and the United States in Congress Assembled voted:

“Congress having received the report of the Convention lately assembled in Philadelphia.

Resolved Unanimously that the said Report with the resolutions and letter accompanying the same be transmitted to the several legislatures in Order to be submitted to a convention of Delegates chosen in each state by the people thereof in conformity to the resolves of the Convention made and provided in that case.” [10]

Unlike the Constitution of 1777 4/5^th’s of the States were required to ratify the new constitution. On June 21, 1788 New Hampshire[11] became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of 1787, meeting the 4/5^th’s requirement.  The Constitution of 1787 Preamble acknowledges that existing Union formed by the Constitution of 1777 stating:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."[12]

With these facts before us, this author maintains categorically that:

1.      A federal constitution of the United States existed ten years prior to the Constitution of 1787. 

2.      The Constitution of 1777, the Articles of Confederation, formed the “Perpetual Union of the United States of America.”

3.      Ten men held the office of President of the United States under the Constitution of 1777 [13]

These ten men’s service to their Country has been “forgotten” due to the popular belief that the Presidency of the United States began with the April 23rd, 1789 inauguration of George Washington under the Constitution of 1787. [14]   The Confederation U.S. Presidency, under the Constitution of 1777, occurred eight years before the 1789 presidential inauguration. On March 2, 1781, the Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled and its Journals recorded:

The ratification of the Articles of Confederation being yesterday completed by the accession of the State of Maryland:

The United States met in Congress, when the following members appeared: His Excellency Samuel Huntington, delegate for Connecticut, President.[15]

Nine other presidents of the United States would follow Samuel Huntington before the Constitution of 1777 faded away.[16]  

Despite the existence of the Constitution of 1777 and its presidencies, the erudition maintaining that George Washington is the Nation’s first U.S. President remains embedded in virtually all aspects of American culture.  This work challenges this bookish mindset by investigating the primary sources of events that were intertwined into the lives of these forgotten Presidents of the United States.

This work is necessary as these 1777 Constitutional Presidencies and their Continental Congress counterparts have been glossed over in books including the biographical works of popular founding giants such as Presidents John Hancock, John Jay and Richard Henry Lee. Consequently, the accomplishments of these presidents are often relegated to “asides,” if not ignored, in popular books, school textbooks, articles and even in the founding Presidential biographies (i.e. John Adams currently on HBO) covering the “1774 – 1788” confederation period. These presidencies have been rendered so obscure, due to this commercial disinterest, that most historians, let alone citizens, are hard pressed to answer key U.S. foundational questions from the Confederation Presidents’ administrations:

1. Which Continental Congress President did Virginians, as well as George Washington; refer to "Father of our Country"?

2. Which U.S. President wrote and introduced the resolution that declared U.S. Independence on July 2, 1776?

3. Which Continental Congress President signed George Washington's Commander-in-Chief's Commission?

4. Which U.S. President conspired in the Conway Cabal to replace George Washington as Commander-in-Chief with General Horatio Gates?

5. Which U.S. president persuaded holdout Maryland to ratify the Article of Confederation in 1781, thereby creating the "Perpetual Union" known as the United States of America?

6. Which Continental Congress President was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later exchanged for General Cornwallis?

7. Which Continental Congress President persuaded John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to ignore the direct order of the United States in Congress Assembled demanding that France be included in the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris?

8. Which U.S. president negotiated the peaceful release of President Elias Boudinot and the entire Continental Congress from Independence Hall in the summer of 1783?

9. Which U.S .President’s signature ratified the Treaty that ended the war with England?

10. Which U.S. President sponsored the legislation to hold the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia after the Annapolis Convention failed to reach a quorum in 1786?

If you discovered that you were able to answer two correctly,[17] or 20%, your score is on par with the quiz taken by thousands of patrons who have attended the author’s touring exhibits.

The following chapters are dedicated to each of these 14 Presidents illuminating segments of the U.S. Founding rarely taught at the primary, secondary or even collegiate levels in American History.  These U.S. and Continental Congress Presidents presided over a historically obscure 1774 - 1788 organization that combined the executive, legislative, and judicial branches into one unicameral body whose mix all but doomed the early government of the United States.  In 1785, with the Constitution of 1777 government near collapse, former President John Jay would write as the U.S. Foreign Secretary:

" To vest legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one and the same body of men, and that, too, in a body daily changing its members, can never be wise. In my opinion those three great departments of sovereignty should be forever separated, and so distributed as to serve as checks on each other."[18]

In addition to the unicameral mess the Articles of Confederation of 1777 defined no clear-cut duties of the United States in Congress Assembled’s president. Consequently, some historians maintain that the first U.S. President, Samuel Huntington and his successors were not “Presidents” of the United States. They even go so far as to insist that the men were merely "Presiding Officers" whose roles resembled the duties of the Vice President as the “President” of the U.S. Senate. Additionally, opponents to the Confederation Presidencies point out that the Articles of Confederation did not provide a body of law enabling the people's representatives to enact legislation with the teeth of enforcement over the States failing the test of a true constitution.

Despite the lack of presidential role defining duties in the Constitution of 1777, the confederation presidency did exist.  The office exerted much influence over the unicameral government and its duties were defined and redefined by the United States in Congress Assembled.  The current Vice Presidency of the United States duties are remarkably different, described later in the chapter, then the presiding duties of the president under the Articles of Confederation.  Additionally, the Constitution of 1777 formed of the Perpetual Union and governed United States for eight years from March 1, 1781 to March 4, 1789.[19] To dismiss this constitution, its president and its Congress as something other then a federal government is specious reasoning despite the Articles’ faults. Future first Chief Justice John Jay summarized, to his fellow New York delegates at their 1788 ratification of the current U.S. Constitution, what the glaring inadequacies of the Constitution of 1777 were stating:

" the direction of general and national affairs is submitted to a single body of men, viz. the congress. They may make war; but are not empowered to raise men or money to carry it on. They may make peace; but without power to see the terms of it observed. They may form alliances, but without ability to comply with the stipulations on their part. They may enter into treaties of commerce; but without power to enforce them at home or abroad. They may borrow money; but without having the means of re-payment. They may partly regulate commerce; but without authority to execute their ordinances. They may appoint ministers and other officers of trust; but without power to try or punish them for misdemeanours. They may resolve; but cannot execute either with despatch or with secresy. In short, they may consul and deliberate and recommend and make requisitions; and they who please, may read them.  From this new and wonderful system of government, it has come to pass, that almost every national object of every kind is, at this day, unprovided for; and other nations, taking the advantage of its imbecility, are daily multiplying commercial restraints upon us." [20]

For these and many other reasons the unicameral government failed to effectively govern the United States and the early Presidents faded away with the 1787 Constitutional Convention’s complete dismantling of the Articles of Confederation. Under this flawed constitution these men, however, successfully conducted the War for Independence, negotiated extraordinary treaties, enacted crucial founding legislation, settled State border and commerce disputes, obtained loans from monarchical foreign powers, and secured troops from 18^th Century Allies holding the United States together against all odds. Their recompense is shameful as in what can only be described as historic illiteracy, the government they forged dismisses their services as Presidents of the United States.

Perhaps another reason why the acts and lives of these Presidents are not part of the American Consciousness is that the founders agreed to conduct the government of the United States under an "Oath of Secrecy.”  This resolution, and successive acts, purposely muted congressional debates and the inner workings of the powerful governing committees under the Continental Congress and the Constitution of 1777:

On motion made, Resolved, That every member of this Congress considers himself under the ties of virtue, honor and love of his Country not to divulge directly or indirectly any matter or thing agitated or debated in Congress before the same shall have been determined, without leave of the Congress; nor any matter or thing determined in Congress which a majority of the Congress shall order to be kept secret and that if any member shall violate this agreement he shall be expelled this Congress and deemed an enemy to the liberties of America and liable to be treated as such and that every member signify his consent to this agreement by signing the same – 87 delegates signed.”[21]

The official U.S. written record of this period, therefore, is only an outline of what occurred in these formative years under the Continental Congress and the Constitution of 1777.

The steadfastness of scholars to dismiss the "Presiding Officer" as silly [22] continues to be the most troubling aspect of re-establishing these men to their rightful place as Presidents of the United States. Academics who maintain the Articles were merely agreements of association rather than the first State ratified Federal Constitution of the United States of America miss the fact that the founders, themselves, viewed the Articles as a constitution. The words “federal constitution” were exhaustively used in Pre-1789 United States resolutions - “and further provisions as to render the federal Constitution adequate to the Exigencies of the Union”; [23]  U.S. treaties - "That these United States be considered in all such treaties, and in every case arising under them, as one nation, upon the principles of the federal constitution";[24] U.S. Finances – “The federal constitution authorizes the United States to obtain money by three means; 1st. by requisition; 2d., by loan; and 3d., by emitting bills of credit.”; [25] and U.S. Congressional debates:

“A requisition of Congress on the States for money is as much a law to them as their revenue Acts when passed are laws to their respective Citizens. If, for want of the faculty or means of enforcing a requisition, the law of Congress proves inefficient, does it not follow that in order to fulfil the views of the federal constitution, such a change sd. be made as will render it efficient? Without such efficiency the end of this Constitution, which is to preserve order and justice among the members of the Union, must fail; as without a like efficiency would the end of State Constitutions, wch. is to preserve like order & justice among its members.” [26]

These are constitutional facts of this period in American history. Facts that include this resolution empowering the President of the United States to reconvene the “federal government” in New Jersey after it was hels hostage by its own military in Philadelphia:

“There is not a satisfactory ground for expecting adequate and prompt exertions of this State for supporting the dignity of the federal government, the President … be authorised and directed to summon the members of Congress to meet on Thursday next at Trenton or Princeton, in New Jersey.” [27]

The reality is, this federal government headed by these forgotten patriots waged and won a war forming a new independent nation under the Articles of Confederation, a federal constitution,  as Presidents of the United States. It is not “Silly” that such men are acknowledged as Presidents of the United States.  It is in fact sad that esteemed historians such as Yale University’s Edmund S. Morgan remain steadfast in mocking the Federal Constitution of 1777’s establishment of the office of President.

Adding to the importance of the Federal Constitution of 1777, eighty years later, President Lincoln in his July 4th, 1861 joint Congressional Address, justified waging a war against the South by referencing the “Perpetual Union” formed by the Articles of Confederation.[28]  The Federal Constitution of 1777, therefore, not only formed the Union but according to Lincoln obliged him to wage a war to “Preserve the Union.”  Despite this and copious other proofs, the U.S. government, for the most part, joins a contingent of scholars failing to recognize the first federal constitution Presidency as legitimate Presidents of the United States. [29]

In addition to the confusion surrounding the existence of a 1777 Federal Constitution there is a large contingent of historians and federal officials who, although agree the Articles of Confederation were a legal constitution, maintain they did not go into effect until November 5, 1781.  Officials from Maryland especially support this view as their Delegate John Hanson was elected to the Presidency on that same date.  In hundreds of bills and laws the State of Maryland maintains that John Hanson was the first President of the United States.[30] This error is pervasive even finding support in some of our most venerable educational institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

On January 29th, 2004 our office received a rather interesting call from David Halaas, the Chief Historian of the Heinz History Center which is a branch of the Smithsonian Institute in Pittsburgh. This author had just consigned several presidential letters of John Hancock, Thomas McKean, Thomas Mifflin, Elias Boudinot and Arthur St. Clair as well as the first public printing of the U.S. Constitution of 1787 to the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit "A Glorious Burden, The American Presidency,". The exhibit was due to open two days later and the exhibit’s segment on the early presidency had just arrived at the museum. The Smithsonian had no account of the United States in Congress Assembled and surprisingly had John Hanson prominently displayed as the First President of the Continental Congress. The Smithsonian's historians were incorrect on both accounts. [31]

After a brief discussion on the historical inaccuracy, Dr. Halaas asked, " Are you sure Hanson was not the first President as either you are mistaken or this Smithsonian Exhibit (which had already has been half way around the Country) is incorrect?" The author read the record directly from the original 1781 Journal of the United States in Congress Assembled. Dr. Halaas responded, "I thought you were correct but needed to hear it again before I contacted the Smithsonian."

To bolster the Presidents’ case this author provided an original 1781 printing of the “Journals of the Congress and Journal of the United States in Congress Assembled that was added to the exhibit.  The Journal clearly reported that the Continental Congress, “Journals of Congress,” was dissolved on February 28, 1781 and the “United States in Congress Assembled” established in its place on March 1, 1781.  One should note that the term Continental was added to Congress in 1775 merely to distinguish it from the all the other States Congresses being held at the same time.  The name was widely used until the Articles of Confederation was ratified and it stated: “which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.” [32] Since the body had been operating under an un-ratified Articles of Confederation, loosely following its laws, little attention was given to the termination of the old Congress by the printers at that time. The name Continental Congress is incorrectly utilized today, even by the Library of Congress, when referring to the new Federal Constitutional body formed by the Articles, the United States in Congress Assembled.

Journals of Congress spanning March 1^st and March 2^nd, 1781 with new heading.[33]

This author sent the Smithsonian Senior Educator a letter on February 2^nd, the 217 anniversary of Arthur St. Clair's election to the Presidency of the United States, stating:

Julia Forbes, Senior Educator
Smithsonian's "American Presidency, A Glorious Burden"

Dear Dr. Forbes,

Just a heads-up from one fellow educator to another. Your exceptional traveling exhibit "American Presidency, A Glorious Burden" starts off with John Hanson as the first President of The Continental Congress. The source of this myth is primarily the responsibility of author Seymour Wemyss Smith's book "John Hanson Our First President."[34] In this 1932 book he incorrectly makes the case that John Hanson was the first elected President of the United States in Congress Assembled. This is inaccurate as Samuel Huntington assumed the office when the Articles of Confederation were ratified March 1, 1781 transforming the Continental Congress to United States in Congress Assembled.

Additionally, the first President elected under the Articles of Confederation was Samuel Johnson on July 9, 1781 and he turned the position down. On July 10, 1781 Thomas McKean was elected and accepted becoming the 2nd President of the United States in Congress Assembled.

John Hanson was the 3rd President of the United States in Congress Assembled and not the 1st of the Continental Congress as your display indicates. In fact Hanson was never a member of the Continental Congress. The first President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America was Peyton Randolph. The first President of the Continental Congress of the United States of America was John Hancock. The first President of the United States in Congress Assembled was Samuel Huntington. The first President of the United States under the 1787 Constitution was, of course, George Washington who unlike his predecessors was not "a presiding officer" as the title indicates.

The Smithsonian never responded to the letter, made no changes for the four months it was displayed in Pittsburgh and as far as this author knows the exhibit still tours with this gross inaccuracy.

The reason why this Presidential misnomer lingers is that the Hanson Legend is incorrectly perpetuated by books,[35] articles,[36] the Library of Congress,[37] the State of Maryland, the Smithsonian Institute in various exhibits [38] and the U.S. Post Office. [39] It should be noted that Maryland’s claim carries great weight with the Federal Government as the major repository for the National Archives documents and records is located in Rockville.

How could these claims occur, you may ask? 

Hanson was the first President, according to Maryland, because he was elected by the delegates appointed by their respective states under the ratified Articles of Confederation who took their seats on November 5^th, 1781. Presidents Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean’s United States in Congress Assembled Presidencies, they argue, were the result of Delegates elected under the old Continental Congress.  Furthermore, purveyors of this myth also point out that Hanson was the first to serve the prescribed full one-year term (1781-82) under the Federal Constitution of 1777.

Despite these scholarly arguments, it is clear the honor belongs to Samuel Huntington of Connecticut who assumed the office when the Continental Congress was dissolved and replaced with the United States in Congress Assembled on March 1, 1781 with the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. In addition to the Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled, the author’s research at the Library of Congress uncovered a 1781 John Hanson Presidential letter of “official thanks” to the Second President of the United States in Congress Assembled Thomas McKean.[40] The existence of this letter, along with the handwritten Journal of the United States in Congress Assembled and the formal reception of Samuel Huntington as the first President on ratification day are just a few irrefutable proofs that John Hanson was the third, not the first, President of the United States under the Constitution of 1777.  The Smithsonian, as a purveyor of American History, needs to correct this glaring flaw in their Presidential touring exhibit.

Smithsonian Exhibit on the U.S. Presidency incorrectly starting the lineage with John Hanson labeling him as the 1st President of the Continental Congress. In the background is the author's exhibit including a 18th Century printing of the Journals Of The United States in Congress Assembled proving John Hanson was the 3rd President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation and not even a member of the Continental Congress let alone its 1st President – Photo Courtesy of the Author.[41]

Historical inaccuracies aside, it is essential to repeat that these forgotten Presidents of both the Continental Congress (1774-1780) and the United States in Congress Assembled (1781-1788) were heads of State and visionaries crucial to the very existence of the United States. Their lives and accomplishments are the footers of American History.

It was President John Hancock's name, along with Secretary Charles Thomson's, that were placed on the Declaration of Independence Broadside. [42]  This printed Declaration was sent to fellow, now former, Colonists and King George III in 1776. The names of the other 55 Delegates, who signed the engrossed Declaration on August 2, 1776, [43] were not published until 1777.

President Henry Laurens, who’s Continental Congress succeeded in passing the Articles of Confederation in York Town (now York), Pennsylvania remains the only former President to serve time as a POW in American History. In 1780 Henry Laurens was appointed as a minister to Holland and set sail from Philadelphia to Europe. His mission was to negotiate a $10-million loan from the Dutch.  The British intercepted his ship and Minister Laurens was imprisoned in the infamous Tower of London, under dreadful conditions, for nearly 14 months. Laurens, despite his wartime diplomatic status was forced to pay the wages of his guards along with charges for his room and board. Laurens was finally freed in 1782 in exchange for British General Charles Cornwallis who was defeated by Washington and the French at Yorktown during the last great battle of the Revolutionary War.   

In another forgotten story, the newly elected federal Delegates of November 1786 were unable to assemble a quorum to convene the federal government for over two months. On January 17th, 1787 a Congressional quorum finally assembled in New York City but failed to elect a President. Finally, on February 2, 1787, during the crisis known as Shays' Rebellion, Arthur St. Clair was voted the Ninth President of the United States in Congress Assembled. The first item President St. Clair brought before the unicameral congress was the September 1786 recommendation of the Annapolis Proceedings Of Commissioners To Remedy Defects Of The Federal Government discussed earlier in this chapter.

President St. Clair's Congress successfully enacted the legislation to convene the Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. St. Clair's 1787 United States in Congress Assembled also passed the Northwest Ordinance, which had lingered in Congress since 1784 and was herald by Daniel Webster many years later,

“We are accustomed to praise lawgivers of antiquity ... but I doubt whether one single law of any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced the effects of more distinct, marked, and lasting character than the Ordinance of 1787.” [44]

Finally, President Arthur St. Clair received and signed the order that sent the new 1787 Constitution to the 13 original states for ratification despite a new provision prohibiting future foreign born citizens (like him and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) to hold a completely redesigned U.S. Presidency. No President before or since St. Clair can claim legislation more significant and sweeping then the Northwest Ordinance and the current U.S. Federal Constitution yet his name is virtually unknown to the American Public.

The foundation of the Federal Constitution of 1777 was not, as some historians maintain, totally dismantled by the Federal Constitution of 1787.  The lessons of the founding constitution and its resolutions are indeed hidden but one stands out as it was designed to protect the States’ Sovereignty from an oppressive federal government:

“or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States.” [45]

This means 33 State legislatures can call a Constitutional Convention with the approval of their Governors, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senators and the President of the United States.  Once called all States, whether it is Rhode Island or California, have only one vote like under the Constitution of 1777.

The accomplishments of the confederation government, with exception of the Declaration of Independence, are no longer part of the American consciousness. These Confederation laws, treaties, judicial decisions and resolutions from the 1774-1788 although forgotten, form the foundation of the United States and are an integral historical part of the U.S. Presidency, 

This work is a small seed designed to germinate founding scholarship that will awaken the harried U.S. Citizenry to rediscover their Nation’s origin and embrace the lessons of a failed constitution. What these patriots require, to be reborn in the consciousness of the American Experience, is the pro-active participation of the citizenry in writing books, articles, and producing media messages from YouTube to full featured movies on this period in U.S. History. 

Once educated by “We the People”, Congress will certainly act with the U.S. President requiring all three branches of government to embrace their unicameral roots recognizing that these “Presiding Officers” served not only as legislators and judges but as Presidents of the United States of America. A possible start would be President Bush amending the standing Presidential Wreath Laying Order to include these 14 Founding Presidents.  This Order requires that the U.S. Armed Services place a wreath, with full military honors, at all U.S. President grave sites on the anniversary of their birthdays.  

Presidents of the Continental Congress as the United Colonies of America:

The road to the presidency began with the Continental Congress which was officially formed on September 5, 1774 in Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall to petition King George III after England passed the Intolerable Acts. Delegates traveled from all parts of colonial America to join in the Congress.  John Adams wrote of his trek from Boston:

“To prepare myself as well as I could, for the Storm that was coming on, I removed my Family to Braintree. They could not indeed have remained in Safety in Boston, and when the time arrived Mr. Bowdoin having declined the Appointment Mr. Cushing, Mr. Adams, Mr. Paine and myself, sat out on our journey together in one Coach. The Anxiety and Expectation of the Country was very great, and all the Gentlemen on the Road assembled from place to place to escort Us all the Way to Philadelphia, especially in Connecticut, New York, the Jerseys and Pennsylvania.” [46]

The first unofficial meeting of Delegates actually took place the day before in The City Tavern just down the street. The true birthplace of the United Colonies of America was in a Philadelphia tavern for the Continental Congress as were most of the Committees of Correspondence of the Colonies calling for the assembly. The debates at the tavern meeting were significant as the decision was made to hold the First Continental Congress in a private, rather than public hall and Peyton Randolph was all but formally selected as the 1^st President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies.

John Adams wrote of his dining experience at the Tavern with Delegate Lynch before the unofficial meeting:

“The Day before, I dined with Mr. Lynch a Delegate from South Carolina, who, in conversation on the Unhappy State of Boston and its inhabitants, after some Observations had been made on the Eloquence of Mr. Patrick Henry and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, which had been very loudly celebrated by the Virginians, said that the most eloquent Speech that had ever been made in Virginia or any where else, upon American Affairs had been made by Colonel Washington. This was the first time I had ever heard the Name of Washington, as a Patriot in our present Controversy, I asked who Colonel Washington is and what was his Speech? Colonel Washington he said was the officer who had been famous in the late French War and was in the Battle in which Braddock fell. His Speech was that if the Bostonians should be involved in Hostilities with the British Army he would march to their relief at the head of a Thousand Men at his own expence. This Sentence Mr. Lynch said, had more Oratory in it, in his judgment, than all that he had ever heard or read. We all agreed that it was both sublime, pathetic and beautifull. The more We conversed with the Gentlemen of the Country, and with the Members of Congress the more We were encouraged to hope for a general Union of the Continent.” [47]

The City Tavern in Philadelphia served as the 1st meting place, unofficially for the 1st Continental Congress. Throughout the Revolution it was a utilized as a meeting place but the building was razed in 1854.

John Adams wrote in his diary on the first day Congress met, September 5, 1774:

“At Ten, The Delegates all met at the City Tavern, and walked to the Carpenters Hall, where they took a View of the Room, and of the Chamber where is an excellent Library. There is also a long Entry, where Gentlemen may walk, and a convenient Chamber opposite to the Library. The General Cry was, that this was a good Room,and the Question was put, whether We were satisfyed with this Room, and it passed in the Affirmative. A very few were for the Negative and they were chiefly from Pensylvania and New York.

Then Mr. Lynch arose, and said there was a Gentleman present who had presided with great Dignity over a very respectable Society, greatly to the Advantage of America, and he therefore proposed that the Hon. Peytoun Randolph Esqr., one of the Delegates from Virginia, and the late Speaker of their House of Burgesses, should be appointed Chairman and he doubted not it would be unanimous. -- The Question was put and he was unanimously chosen.

Mr. Randolph then took the Chair, and the Commissions of the Delegates were all produced and read.

Then Mr. Lynch proposed that Mr. Charles Thompson a Gentleman of Family, Fortune, and Character in this City should be appointed Secretary, which was accordingly done without opposition, tho Mr. Duane and Mr. Jay discovered at first an Inclination to seek further.” [48]

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Chapter One Continued

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