Arthur St. Clair

["Spirit One Email" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

I awoke to the name of Arthur St. Clair this morning on the clock radio.
We have a local talk/music  program that has a morning quiz

The question was, who was the first President of the United States and they
added that this was a controversial question.  The answer was John Hanson
who was the first president Nov. 5, 1781 under the Articles of
Confederation.
And gave this list #1

John Hanson
Elias Boudinot
Thomas Mifflin
Richard Henry Lee
Nathaniel Gorham
Arthur St. Clair
Cyrus Griffin

 I knew that I had a different list which also differs from that of John Q.
unless he changed his.
It's just in the way you look at lists and when you start counting
Presidents that equals multiple lists.
We can come up with two different lists for our Presidents this way (just
listing the relevent segment:
List #A The Presidents in order of their terms

Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
Cleveland
McKinley

    or #B list of the Presidents
Arthur
Cleveland
Harrison
McKinley

I think you will agree that we favor list #A as the best, but it's a free
country and you can like whichever list you want.   No list police around.

"The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the the
Amertican Colonies that first met in Philadelphia on Sept. 5, 1774.  They
were more interested in fair treatment from Great Britain than in
independence.   They elected Peyton Randolph as President."  World Book
Encyclopedia
The second Continental Congress met in May 1775 and now had Lexington and
Concord to consider.  An army was organized and George Washington appointed
its commander in Chief.
The Declaration of Independence adopted July 4, 1776  (John Hancock, Pres.
of Congress signing that day along with a clerk (don't remember the title)
to witness his signature only.  It took several months before all the
delegates signed it.)  Then the Congress began drawing up an outline for a
permanent union of states which resulted in the Articles of Confederation
which was authorized in March 1, 1781.   Then it was known as the "Congress
of the Confederation" but the name of Continental Congress was used by many.

The Encyclopedia gives this list of Presidents for the Continental Congress:
#2 list
Peyton Randolph, who served as president twice
Henry Middleton
John Hancock
Henry Laurens
John Jay
Samuel Huntington
Thomas McKean
John Hanson
Elias Boudinot
Thomas Mifflin
Richard Henry Lee
Nathaniel Gorham
Arthur St. Clair
Cyrus Griffin

But from "Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949"  we
have a more exact list showing the terms of office would look like this:

List #3
Peyton Randolph, Sept. 5, 1774  Resigned, Oct. 22, 1774 (I'm guessing he was
ill)
Henry Middleton Oct. 22, 1774
Peyton Randolph, May 10, 1775 (second Congress) died Oct. 22, 1775--the way
this is written one would think he served until Oct.  but the next entry
presents a question of just what was going on.  Need to get MaCauley's book
on John Adams perhaps

John Hancock May 24, 1775  (two terms in two years it looks like)
Henry Laurens Nov. 1, 1777
John Jay Dec. 10, 1778
Samuel Huntington  Sept. 28, 1779
Thomas McKean July 10, 1781  (so why isn't he the 1st elected under the
Articles of Confederation which was adopted in March of 1781??? instead of
John Hanson)

John Hanson Nov. 5, 1781
Elias Boudinot Nov. 4, 1782
John Hancock Nov. 23, 1785  Resigned May 29, 1786 never having served, owing
to continued illness.
Nathaniel Gorham June 6, 1786
Arthur St. Clair Feb. 2, 1787
Cyrus Griffin Jan. 22, 1788

Perhaps someone has a 4th list???

Laurel








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