In 1781, George Washington wrote to a man named John Hanson, “I congratulate your Excellency on your appointment to fill the most important seat in the United States.” This was in response to the recent election choosing John as President of the United States.

Wait, what?

We never had a President Hanson. And 1781? George Washington was our first President, but he was elected in 1788! So how can this be?

Okay, I’ll explain.

The United States was declared an independent country with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But they still had to fight a war to win that truth.

Meanwhile, state leaders got together to direct the war efforts and make other decisions. This group of men was called Congress. Presiding over the group was a President. (Get it? Presiding… President?) A President generally means the leader of a club, company or even a country. There were eight terms of one year each of Presidents of Congress during the war – even before John Hanson got the job. But we weren’t officially the United States yet.

The Articles of Confederation was signed on March 1, 1781. That’s when the United States became more official. (Back in 1776, they simply declared independence. Now they set down some rules about it.) Also, the British finally surrendered after the Battle of Yorktown in September 1781, which meant the threat of reverting back to British subjects was over.

Finally the country could call itself the United States of America. John Hanson was the first to win the election for “President of the United States in Congress Assembled” in November of 1781. That made him the first President elected under the newly independent United States. He served one year. Seven more men served in that role after him with the Articles of Confederation as our ruling document. The position was also sometimes called President of the Congress of the Confederation.

It’s probably also important to point out that the American Revolution wasn’t officially, OFFICIALLY over until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. But everyone knew treaties took a long time to negotiate and, for all intents and purposes, the people knew it wouldn’t change the outcome. (Basically it said where the borders were and made sure anyone who was owed anything got paid.)

The Articles of Confederation was the document that now ruled the new nation. But it created a lot of problems too because it let each of the states govern themselves, which didn’t make them very united. It also did not provide for the people to elect their own government. It was mostly friends choosing friends and that’s not what anyone fought for.

After a lot of reconsideration and debate, the ‘Articles of Confederation was thrown out and replaced by a new document in September 1787 called, The United States Constitution. (You know… the one that starts, “We the People, in order to form a more perfect union…” implying the union wasn’t very perfect up to that point.)

Once each state ratified the Constitution, the old confederate government was out and they held a new election as a “constitutional government.” The election was held in 1788 and everyone voted for George Washington.

Sources:

www.constitutionfacts.com/us-articles-of-confederation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson

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