The Tribune’s Fourth of July quiz and the official written test for citizenship ask about the first U.S. president. The answer you are supposed to give is George Washington, because that is usually what we are taught in civics class.
But that answer really isn’t correct. Some people like to the point to the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War as the orginator of the office of president. But that position belonged to the presiding officer of a body of legislators, rather than to a head of a separate branch of government that carried out laws and commanded the military.
However, the United States won its independence in 1781 but didn’t ratify the Constitution until 1789. In the interim, our country was governed by the Articles of Confederation. Eight men were selected as president under that system of government, starting with John Hanson of Maryland — who has his own little museum in Ohio.
Why don’t we remember and honor these presidents today? Well, they were each elected to one year in office, and had almost no power to do anything. Their lack of leadership, and the general weakness of the federal government, threatened to tear the young union apart. When Congress drafted the Constitution and started to shop it around for support, some people believed our experiment in a democratic republic already had failed and wanted George Washington to become America’s first king.
Washington refused a throne, and only reluctantly accepted the call to serve as president to keep the states from going their seperate ways. That’s why we prefer to think of Washington as the first president.
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