Did you know?

(or: Things They Don't Teach You In School, part 1)

Here's a trivia question: How many presidents did America have before George Washington?

If you think I'm crazy for even asking the question, then the joke's on you. This country had a functioning government by the mid-1770's, and Washington didn't enter office until 1789. True, it wasn't the "United States" as it now exists until the Constitution was completed in 1787 and went into effect two years later after an extended period of state-by-state ratification. But before that there were the Articles of Confederation, and before those came the Continental Congress, and every step of the way there was someone grasping the reins of power and operating with the title of "President So-and-so." Fourteen different someones, as a matter of fact.

Continental Congress Presidents:
1) Peyton Randolph
2) Henry Middleton
* (Peyton Randolph)
3) John Hancock
4) Henry Laurens
5) John Jay
6) Samuel Huntington
7) Thomas McKean

Presidents Under the Articles of Confederation:
8) John Hanson
9) Elias Boudinot
10) Thomas Mifflin
11) Richard Henry Lee
* (John Hancock)
12) Nathaniel Gorham
13) Arthur St. Clair
14) Cyrus Griffin

(Randolph served as president for two brief periods due to health reasons, and Hancock was elected on two separate occasions - once of the Continental Congress and then again under the Articles of Confederation. So the grand total of pre-Washington presidents could be anywhere from 14-16 depending on your judgment of those two situations. I'll let you make those calls for yourself, but in my opinion we're talking about sixteen presidents here - Grover Cleveland is counted twice on the "official" list so I count these two guys twice as well.)

And if you're wanting to dispute the legitimacy of calling these men "presidents" because - as I mentioned before - they came before the Constitution was ratified and thus before the presidency became exactly what it is today, then I'll ask you three questions:

• In what year did American celebrate its bicentennial?
• In what year did Washington enter office?
• Is there two hundred years between these dates?

True, there were three (you may say two, depending on the earlier caveats) presidents of the Continental Congress who served their full terms before the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776 (and while you probably know that John Hancock signed that first - and largest - you may not know that the reason he signed first was that he was the president), but I'm thinking that if you include some of the presidents of the Continental Congress then you have to include them all. So I stand by my figure of sixteen.

There. Now go bet somebody a beer that Washington wasn't the first president. ^_^