College of Political Knowledge
Subject: American History
Today is 17 February or the federal holiday known as President’s Day…….it was once called Washington’s birthday…actually Washington’s birthday is the 22nd…… but since another president had a birthday the same month the government decided it was to be called President’s Day in 1971………
We are all familiar with this question from our civics and/or American History classes, right? And we all answered with the popular answer…….George Washington. Remember? But how accurate is that standard answer?
To answer the question….not very accurate, at all.
Let’s dash back in history for a moment…..the year is 1776 and the Continental Congress has jjusr given Jefferson (a bone of contention with me) the task of writing the Declaration of Independence….when the task was completed and the document agreed to….we became the United States of America and at this time our ruling body was the Continental Congress and president of the Congress was John Hancock and as head of the Congress he became the 1st president of the US by default…..
Now the war with mother England rages on….and on….and in 1781 the colonies came up with a document for the governing of the new nation and it was called the Articles of Confederation………..and by now Hancock had stepped down as president of the Congress and Huntington assumed the leadership in 1779. Once again as president of the Congress at the time of the signing of the Articles of Confederation this made him, by default, the president of the US…..where he remained until he had to resign because of ill health…in 1781……..that is president #2.
With the retirement of Huntington one John Hanson became the president of the Congress in 1781…..but only after several others had been elected to the position but refused to serve for whatever reason they could think of at the time. This making him the 3rd president of the United States of America.
And now we come to the rest of the story…..It is true the George Washington, the hero of so many battles, was our first president….our first ELECTED president…..and the first person to work at the job 24/7 365 days………..let us teach truth and accuracy not popular myth……
If you would like more info…..
Interesting. I remember when we used to get both Washington’s and Lincoln’s day off.
I hear there is a move to go back to that situation….dunno how it will play out but it is there….