HOW MANY PRESIDENTS WERE THERE BEFORE GEORGE WASHINGTON?

03 December 2004 | concretebob

[concretebob]

My son asked me a trivia question. Any comments?

[concretebob]

He says the answer is 7.

[concretebob]

PING

[concretebob]

PING..Spelled your handle wrong..My apologies

[Charles Henrickson]

John Hanson was the first.

[n.y.muggs]

Who were they??

[MeekOneGOP]

¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿

[concretebob]

Have no idea...He wants names

[bonfire]

Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office


googled !

[concretebob]

Where else am I to go with stuff like this? The combined knowledge and level of intelligence on FreeRepublic staggers the imagination. If we can't find out, all is lost.
;)

[ScottFromSpokane]

The question relies on the fallacy of equivocation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_Continental_Congress

However, the current office of President of the United States is not the same office held by the men listed on that page.

And even if we accept the false premise that the offices are the same, the number is not seven.

[Sloth]

I'd always heard Hanson was 1st, but here's the list I found:

Samuel Huntington, 1st President of the United States in Congress Assembled, March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781

Thomas McKean, 2nd President of the United States in Congress Assembled July 10, 1781 to November 5, 1781

John Hanson, 3rd President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 5, 1781 to November 4, 1782

Elias Boudinot, 4th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 4, 1782 to November 3, 1783

Thomas Mifflin, 5th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 3, 1783 to June 3, 1784

Richard Henry Lee, 6th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785

John Hancock, 7th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, November 23, 1785 to June 6, 1786

Nathaniel Gorham, 8th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, June 1786 - November 13, 1786

Arthur St. Clair, 9th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787

Cyrus Griffin, 10th President of the United States in Congress Assembled, January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789

[xcamel]

There were 8,

John Hanson, Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, John Hancock, Nathaniel Gorham Arthur St. Clair, Cyrus Griffin

[bikepacker67]

Here's what Snopes has to say...

[concretebob]

Thanks everyone. I knew I could count on ya'll.
And I just recruited a new member. My son'e father-in-law is who asked the question.
After explaining how I got the answer so fast, he was suitably impressed. As was I.
I could have googled, but hey, ya'll are just waiting to share your wealth of knowledge with the less informed.

[concretebob]

OK you can pull this now, please.

[Lady Jag]

There weren't any presidents before Washington. The first to lead the USA, he was given the choice of how he wanted to manage it and what he wanted for a title. "King" was strongly suggested. He had reasons (that I forget) to prefer "president".

If you remember he could have been king, you never fall for this again.

[Vigilanteman]

Your list is actually more complete. Interestingly, Arthur St. Clair (1787), has a park and a cemetary (where he is buried) named after him here in Greensburg, PA, a town which was named for General Nathaniel Greene.

[bnburns]

(history major)
although all of their names are very hard to find there were eleven presidents before George Washington. They were actually part of the "confederacy of america". congress was the "leader" but they really had no control over their states. they could pass laws but could not enforce them. What we call the presidents were just the PRESIDING member of congress which is where we get the word president. So, after eleven unsuccessful years we scrapped the system and created the same system we use today. Helpful?

[bnburns]

in fact many wanted one to be president for life. and to be called "your highness" or "your excellency".

[bnburns]

I guess for george bush he really could be called "your HIGHness". LOL