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<\/a>My New Year’s resolution this year was to\u00a0 tune out the news<\/strong>.\u00a0 As a result, the satellite radio in my car now plays either music or comedy. So far I’ve been much happier and less depressed so I guess the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss” is true.\u00a0 But that’s a discussion for another time. \u00a0 Today, apropos to the holiday, I want to share something I learned while listening to the “60’s on 6” program on Sirius XM.\u00a0 The host asked who the first President of the United States<\/strong> was.\u00a0 You just know when they ask such an obvious question that the answer will come out of left field.\u00a0 Sure enough, a couple of minutes later a guy called in and said the answer was John Hanson.\u00a0 “Yep!”, cried the host.\u00a0 I just about drove off the road.\u00a0 I consider myself a pretty good student of history.\u00a0 I minored in it in college and to this day every other book I read is a history book of some sort.\u00a0 I’ve never even heard of this Hanson fellow.\u00a0 The whole thing sounded bogus<\/strong> to me.\u00a0 What about George?\u00a0 What about his chopping down the cherry tree and smiling with his wooden teeth?\u00a0 Was everything I learned in school wrong?\u00a0 I went in search of the answer.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/John_Hanson_Portrait_1770-262x300.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 Hanson in the late 1760’s<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n It turns out that there is a contingent who support<\/strong> the notion that Hanson was our first President.\u00a0 Conveniently, most of those people are his descendants.\u00a0 For what it’s worth, here’s a bit of history on him and after reading this you can form your own opinion.\u00a0 In 1661 John Hanson’s grandfather came to America as an indentured servant.\u00a0 Two generations later John was born in 1721 to what was by then a very wealthy and prominent family<\/strong>.\u00a0 Little is known about his early life but his career in public service began in 1750, when he was appointed sheriff of Charles County. He then served in the Maryland General Assembly for twelve years before moving to Frederick County where he held a variety of offices, including deputy surveyor, sheriff, and county treasurer.\u00a0 He was one busy guy and, if nothing else, may have been our first professional politician.<\/strong>\u00a0 When relations between Great Britain and the colonies soured in 1774, Hanson became one of Frederick County’s leading Patriots. \u00a0 He was known for his organization skills in gathering supplies to use against the Tories and even paid the rag tag Revolutionary forces out of his own pocket.\u00a0 Think about that – do you see any of our current elected officials dipping into their own funds?\u00a0 So we have to assume he was a dedicated guy.<\/p>\n Hanson, painted when he was “president”<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n In December 1779, the Revolutionary War victorious for the Patriots, the Maryland House of Delegates named Hanson to the Second Continental Congress<\/strong>; he began serving in Congress in Philadelphia in June 1780. \u00a0On November 5, 1781, Congress elected Hanson as its president.\u00a0 And this is where the controversy begins. \u00a0Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States had no executive branch<\/strong>; the president of Congress was a mostly ceremonial position.\u00a0 The office did require Hanson to serve as neutral discussion moderator, handle official correspondence, and sign documents which sounds to me like he was a high-priced arbitrator.\u00a0 Apparently Hanson didn’t think much of his duties either because he is said to have found the work tedious and considered resigning after just one week<\/strong>, citing his poor health and family responsibilities.\u00a0 I think that was the precursor to “resigning to pursue other opportunities” excuse. \u00a0Out of a sense of duty Hanson remained in office, and though he obviously was trying to squirm out of the job, the Maryland Assembly reelected him as a delegate on November 28, 1781, and he continued to serve as president until November 4, 1782.\u00a0 He died 11 days later so maybe he really was sick.<\/p>\n Hanson bronze in Statuary Hall<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n In 1898, Douglas H. Thomas, a descendant of Hanson<\/strong>, wrote a biography promoting Hanson as the first true President of the United States. Thomas became the driving force behind the selection of Hanson as one of the two people who would represent Maryland in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 His statue was completed in 1903 and can still be seen today in the Senate connecting corridor.\u00a0 His selection as one of the two bronzes to represent Maryland has been controversial from the start, with many contemporary historians citing others who were more deserving.\u00a0 As recently as 2011, Maryland lawmakers have considered replacing Hanson’s statue in Statuary Hall with one of Harriet Tubman<\/strong>.\u00a0 In any event, the argument as to whether Hanson was the first President was further promulgated in a 1932 biography of Hanson by journalist Seymour Wemyss Smith.\u00a0 Again, historians dismissed Smith’s viewpoint because his research was less than stellar.<\/p>\n The most compelling argument as to why we consider George Washington, not John Hanson, our first President is that Washington was the first to have true executive powers under the Constitution<\/strong>.\u00a0 That seems like a sensible argument to me.\u00a0 The one thing that became clear in my reading is that John Hanson’s reputation has been commemorated far more than most of his contemporaries, other than the Founding Fathers. \u00a0In 1972, he was depicted on a 6-cent US postal card, which featured his name and portrait next to the word “Patriot”. \u00a0 In 1981, Hanson was featured on a 20-cent US postage stamp. U.S. Route 50 between Washington D.C. and Annapolis<\/strong> is named the John Hanson Highway in his honor. There are also middle schools located in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and Waldorf, Maryland, named after him. A former savings bank named for him until it went under during the savings and loan crisis.\u00a0 And maybe that is the fitting end for his legacy given that most serious researchers consider his elevation to the “first President of the United States” to be based on an old hoax.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson My New Year’s resolution this year was to\u00a0 tune out the news.\u00a0 As a result, the satellite radio in my car now plays either music or comedy. So far I’ve been much happier and less … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Hanson_John_bust_1871_-237x300.jpg\")
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