John Hanson
John Hanson was a revolutionary mobilizer in Maryland, organizing soldiers and civilians in the cause for independence. Eventually, he represented his home state in Congress and signed the Articles of Confederation. He became the first president of the Confederation Congress after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, though other men had served in the role prior to the ratification.
Over time, there have been conflicting sources for Hanson’s birthday, but most likely he was born on April 14, 1721, in Charles County in the Colony of Maryland. His grandfather had arrived in the colonies in 1661 as an indentured servant and the descendants rose to wealth and colonial prominence. John Hanson’s father owned more than 1,000 acres of land and several in the Maryland General Assembly. The details about Hanson’s youth are limited, but professionally he became a planter and public official. He married Jane Contee in 1744, and the couple had eight children.
Hanson’s first public office was as sheriff of Charles County, then in 1757, he won the election to represent his home county in Maryland’s General Assembly. For the next twelve years, he held his seat. Hanson opposed the Stamp Act and was instrumental in planning with Maryland’s delegates to the Stamp Act Congress. In 1769, he signed and supported a non-importation resolution of British goods and then resigned from the assembly to oversee his personal businesses.
Hanson sold his land in Charles County, relocated his family to Frederick County, Maryland, and in the next years several in different leadership roles in his new home county. Meanwhile, conflict continued in the colonies over taxation, and Hanson became a county leader for the opposition. In 1775, he served as a delegate in the Maryland Convention, an assembly that formed after the British colonial assembly in Maryland had been forced to disband. He was one of the signer of the Association of Freeman on July 26, 1775—a document outlining a hope for colonial reconciliation while supporting military events unfolding in Massachusetts. Next, Hanson recruited and organized troops in Frederick County, sending them to join the Continental Army sieging the city of Boston in Massachusetts. He supported and advocated for independence from Britain, encouraging Maryland delegates in the Continental Congress to pursue that step in 1776.
The following year—1777—Hanson took an elected seat in the new Maryland House of Delegates. A few years later the House of Delegates sent Hanson to serve in the Second Continental Congress, and he arrived in Philadelphia for that duty in June 1780. Maryland had been delaying the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, but when the state finally approved, Hanson signed that document on behalf of his home state and with Maryland’s signatures the Articles went into governing effect.
During the new Confederation Congress’s election on November 5, 1781, Hanson was elected as its president. There was no executive or judicial branches of government under the articles, and president of the legislature was mostly ceremonial and official. He served for a year and presided when General Washington brought and presented British General Cornwallis’s surrender sword to Congress.
In poor health, Hanson retired from public service upon the completion of his term as congressional president. He died on November 15, 1783, and was buried at a relative’s plantation.
Some writers have called John Hanson “the forgotten first president of the United States.” However, most historians argue that this claim is not supported by primary sources, nor does it agree with the governances laid out in the Articles of Confederation which had no executive office. Hanson led the Confederation Congress with the title of president, but he had not held a presidential office the way it is outlined, elected and operated under the Constitution of the United States.
