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The US Founding Handbook:

Birthdates, Capitols and Presidents

Chapter Ten: The US Presidency
(Abridged - Contuned)

By: Stanley L. Klos

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Six – The Presidents of the United States, in Congress Assembled: 

Nine more Presidents of the United States under the Articles of Confederation were duly elected by the delegates after Samuel Huntington.

United States, in Congress Assembled Sessions

1781 to 1789

 First USCA: March 2, 1781 - Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean  Presidents

Second USCA: November 5, 1781 - John Hanson  President

Third USCA: November 4, 1782 - Elias Boudinot  President

Fourth USCA: November 3, 1783 - Thomas Mifflin  President

Fifth USCA: November 29, 1784 - Richard Henry Lee  President

Sixth USCA  and Nathaniel Gorham  Presidents

Seventh USCA: February 2, 1787 - Arthur St. Clair President

Eighth USCA January 21, 1788 - Cyrus Griffin  President

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Seven – Unicameral Presidential duties:

• These Presidents utilized their office to exercise much influence on United States public affairs and legislation. 

• The Presidents and his delegation each had one vote of thirteen possible votes in the unicameral government. Quite often their yes or no represented 1/9^th of all the votes required in quorums necessary to enact legislation under the Constitution of 1777. 

• All the Presidents presided, in a voting “Speaker of the House Capacity,” over the judicial, legislative and executive business of the unicameral government.

• Presidents also had the power to call for the unicameral government’s assembly and adjournment. 

• Presidents received, read, answered, and at their own discretion held or disseminated the official state and foreign unicameral correspondence. 

• Presidents chaired the Committee of the States that governed the United States of America when the United States, in Congress Assembled was not in session. [viii]

• Presidents received both United States and foreign dignitaries when they arrived at the Capitol as the Head of State extending the nation’s official hospitality. [ix]

• Presidents acted similar to Supreme Court Chief Justices presiding over cases such as Federal Court Appeals, [x] Death Penalty Appeals, [xi] Military trials [xii] and State boundary disputes. [xiii]

• Presidents, although not serving as Commander-in-Chief, issued military orders:

September 14, 1782 President John Hanson U.S. Military directive to George Washington, Journals of The United States in Congress Assembled, [xiv]– Stan Klos Collection.

• The Presidents signed military commissions:

President Arthur St. Clair signed U.S. Military Commission October 26, 1787
 Original Manuscript Stan Klos Collection

President Samuel Huntington signed U.S. Military Commission
 Original Manuscript Stan Klos Collection [xv]

• The Presidents signed U.S. Diplomatic Commissions:

President Thomas McKean signs  Joseph de L’ Etombe Consul General of France U.S. Commission  Journals of the United States in Congress Assembled [xvi] – Stan Klos Collection 

• The Presidents executed National Proclamations:

Treaty of Paris Ending the War with Great Britain ratified by  Thomas as President of the United States
The Library Of Congress Broadside Collection[xvii]  

• The Presidents executed United States Ordinances:

U.S. Ordinance For The Establishment of the Mint
of The United States of America signed Richard Henry Lee, P (President)   
Library of Congress Broadside Collection [xviii]

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Eight – U.S. Presidential compensation:

 

From The Estimate of the Annual Expenditure of the Civil Departments of the
United States Presidential Household Budget for the year 1785 
Library of Congress Broadside Collection [xix]

• The government of the United States provided for the President’s expenses, servants, clerks, housing, and transportation. Their home state was expected to provide for their salary.

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Nine – the Second U.S. Constitution:

•    On June 21, 1788 New Hampshire became the 9^th State to ratify the U.S. Constitution of 1787 thereby meeting the 2/3rds requirement and dissolving the Articles of Confederation. In July 1788, the United States, in Congress Assembled officially reported that 11 States ratified the Constitution of 1787.

• In the Spring of 1789, the unicameral federal government of the United States was replaced by the new government with three distinct branches:

Executive - President George Washington

Judicial – Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay

Legislative – U.S. Senate President John Adams and U.S. House Speaker Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg.

The Articles of Confederation, however, required all thirteen States to approve the new the Constitution of 1787.  This was finally accomplished on May 29, 1790 with the ratification of Rhode Island 13 months after President George Washington took his oath of office. 

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Ten – Unicameral government extinction: 

• In 1788 the President of the United States, in Congress Assembled, under the unicameral federal government, ceased to exist as Cyrus Griffin’s one year term expired on January 21, 1789.  A quorum was never formed to elect an 11th President of the United States, in Congress Assembled.  

• Charles Thomson, Secretary of the United States, in Congress Assembled continued to conduct the business of this body from offices located in Fraunces Tavern in New York City until March 2, 1789.  On March 4, 1789 the new government went into effect.

Charles Thomson Signed Broadside, November 3, 1787 – Original Manuscript
Stan Klos Collection - www.CharlesThomson.com

U.S. Founding Presidential Point Eleven – The formation and preservation of the Perpetual Union:

• The Articles of Confederation not only formed the Union but its language was utilized by President Abraham Lincoln, together with the second U.S. Constitution, as the legal grounds to wage war to “Preserve the Union."

• On July 4, 1861 President Abraham Lincoln appeared before a special session of the United States Congress. At this session Lincoln maintained that original Colonies were legally bound to the United States by both the Constitutions of 1787 and 1777 stating: 

“... while that name was first adopted by the old ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the "United Colonies" were declared to be "free and independent states;" but, even then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another, or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterwards, abundantly show. The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen in the Articles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive.” 

Above is an excerpt from Lincoln's Address with changes in his hand summarizing the birth, formation and the establishment of a “more perfect” Constitution of the Perpetual Union of the United States of America - Courtesy of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.[xx]

 

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[i] JCC, 1774-1789, July 2, 1776 Independence Declared From Great Britain.

[ii] Ibid, March 1, 1781, Articles of Confederation Ratified

[iii] Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Continental Congress & Constitutional Convention Broadsides Collection

[iv] JCC, 1774-1789, United States, in Congress Assembled, March 2, 1781

[v] The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution: Vol. 1: Constitutional Documents and Records, 1776-1787, ed. Merrill Jensen, Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976; Encyclopedia of American History: Bicentennial Edition, ed. Richard Morris, New York; Harper & Row, 1976; Documents of American History, ed. Henry Steele Commanger, Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice-Hall, 1973

[vi] Journals of United States in Congress Assembled, Patterson, March 2, 1781

[vii] Smith, Paul H., et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789. 25 volumes, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1976-2000).

[viii] Ibid, Articles of Confederation, Article IX, March 1, 1781

[ix] The Comte de Moustier to John Jay, February 19, 1788, Diplomatic Correspondence

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