The Forgotten Presidents (The presidents before George Washington)

Arx Axiom Newsletter ^ | Unknown | George Grant

[Luis Gonzalez]

Found this interesting, I hope you all do as well.

[paul544]

Ahhh, the crap you can find online...

[Luis Gonzalez]

Found it.

[detsaoT]

Hate to say it, but George Washington really was the first president of our Federal Republican government which we (theoretically) still have today. The presidents before him were actually presidents of the Continental Congress which was designated by the Articles of Confederation. We weren't so much a nation then, as a confederation of states. (You can find all of this neat stuff at snopes.com anyway...

;) ttt

[Luis Gonzalez]

Yeah, I know, even the author acknowledges that fact, in spite of the fact that we operated as a confederated republic technically since 7/4/1776, and Washington ascended to the presidency in 1789.

Just interesting stuff some may have never thought about.

[rdww]

Thanks. The American Confederation deserves much more study and respect than it has received.

[Lewite]

Thankyou for this great reading. I continue to learn much in FreeRepublic articles.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"The American Confederation deserves much more study and respect than it has received."

I'll second that!

[x]

Thanks for this great article. It raises a lot of interesting questions: How did the Swedish Hansons become Americanized? How did Boudinot's decendant become a Cherokee? What must it have been like for a Scot after Culloden, leaving everything for the New World? And what would our country have been like had it kept the older form of the Presidency? I'm inclined to think that the stronger Presidency that the Constitution gave us helped to keep the country together, but it's good to see such a fine collection of upstanding and public-spirited citizens.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Yes, the Confederation government had many successes to its credit. Frankly, I think we made a mistake by abandoning it.

[jokar]

BTT for later read.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I found it interesting and enjoable reading.

[William Wallace]

That's the article!

Good find!

[mountaineer]

Very interesting! Here's a little more on Arthur St. Clair, after whom my hometown, Upper St. Clair, Pa., was named:

The Township of St. Clair was named in honor of General Arthur St. Clair, a controversial figure of the 18th century, who came from Scotland in 1755 and settled in the Ligonier Valley. During the Revolutionary War, he rose from Colonel to Major General and was the only Pennsylvanian to become a Major General in the Continental Army. For a time, he commanded Fort Ticonderoga before losing it to the British, for which he was later court-martialed. At the close of the war, he entered the Continental Congress and was its President in 1787. His last days were spent in poverty and obscurity.

[capitan_refugio]

"The American Confederation deserves much more study and respect than it has received."

I second that motion! Even in college, it is hard to find a course that does more than mention this part of American history in passing.

Pre-Constitutional law is also facinating. For instance, the "Northwest Ordinance" mentioned in the article, is still law and established the basic principles for the "Township and Range" system of surveying.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Actually, according to a biography of Gen. Stand Watie, the Elias Boudinot who was a leader of the Cherokee was born with an Indian name meaning stag or male deer, and was commonly known as Buck Watie. He was the General's brother.

However, when Buck Watie attended the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut, President Boudinot was his instructor (and funded his education?). Buck Watie then adopted the name of his benefactor.

Source: General Stand Watie's Confederate Indians, p. 12.

[capitan_refugio]

"The American Confederation deserves much more study and respect than it has received."

I second that motion! Even in college, it is hard to find a course that does more than mention this part of American history in passing.

Pre-Constitutional law is also facinating. For instance, the "Northwest Ordinance" mentioned in the article, is still law and established the basic principles for the "Township and Range" system of surveying.

[Arthur McGowan]

Ask any school child and they will readily tell you "George Washington."

Ask any school child and he will readily tell you "George Washington."

[billbears]

Bump!!!

[lavaroise]

Yes, the Confederation government had many successes to its credit. Frankly, I think we made a mistake by abandoning it.

With Kalifornistan out of control and Oregon merily blocking Ashkroft, we can say that we now have a confederation of leftist states. Somehow the legal states always get short changed compared to the unrepenting ones.