For this reason, some of Hanson's biographers have argued that he was actually the first holder of the office of President of the United States. ==Early life== John Hanson was born in Port Tobacco Parish in Charles County in the Province of Maryland on April 14, 1721.
Hanson owned at least 223 acres of land and 11 slaves at the time of his death. ==Personal life== About 1744, he married Jane Contee (1728–1812), daughter of Alexander Contee (1692–1740).
He was often referred to as John Hanson, Jr., to distinguish him from an older man of the same name. ==Political career== Hanson's career in public service began in 1750, when he was appointed sheriff of Charles County.
In 1757 he was elected to represent Charles County in the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, where he served over the next twelve years, sitting on many important committees.
He was a leading opponent of the 1765 Stamp Act, chairing the committee that drafted the instructions for Maryland's delegates to the Stamp Act Congress.
In protest of the Townshend Acts, in 1769 Hanson was one of the signers of a nonimportation resolution that boycotted British imports until the acts were repealed. Hanson changed course in 1769, apparently to better pursue his business interests.
The Memorial includes a statue of President John Hanson and an interpretive setting in Frederick, Maryland, where Hanson lived between 1769 and his death in 1783.
There he held a variety of offices, including deputy surveyor, sheriff, and county treasurer. When relations between Great Britain and the colonies became a crisis in 1774, Hanson became one of Frederick County's leading Patriots.
In 1775, he was a delegate to the Maryland Convention, an extralegal body convened after the colonial assembly had been prorogued.
With the other delegates, he signed the Association of Freemen on July 26, 1775, which expressed hope for reconciliation with Great Britain, but also called for military resistance to the enforcement of the Coercive Acts. With hostilities underway, Hanson chaired the Frederick County Committee of Observation, part of the Patriot organization that assumed control of local governance.
A History of the Maryland Line in the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland Newspapers and online sources ==Further reading== Kremer, J.
In June 1776, Hanson chaired the Frederick County meeting that urged provincial leaders in Annapolis to instruct Maryland's delegates in the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain.
While Congress worked on the Declaration of Independence, Hanson was in Frederick County "making gunlocks, storing powder, guarding prisoners, raising money and troops, dealing with Tories, and doing the myriad other tasks which went with being chairman of the committee of observation". Hanson was elected to the newly reformed Maryland House of Delegates in 1777, the first of five annual terms.
In 1779, Hanson was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress after serving in a variety of roles for the Patriot cause in Maryland.
In December 1779, the House of Delegates named Hanson as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress; he began serving in Congress in Philadelphia in June 1780.
In December 1779, the House of Delegates named Hanson as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress; he began serving in Congress in Philadelphia in June 1780.
He signed the Articles of Confederation in 1781 after Maryland finally joined the other states in ratifying them.
In November 1781, he was elected as first President of the Confederation Congress (sometimes styled President of the United States in Congress assembled), following ratification of the articles.
When the other states finally did so, the Maryland legislature decided in January 1781 to ratify the Articles.
When Congress received notice of this, Hanson joined Daniel Carroll in signing the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Maryland on March 1, 1781.
Many years later, some Hanson biographers claimed that Hanson had been instrumental in arranging the compromise and thus securing ratification of the Articles, but, according to historian Ralph Levering, there is no documentary evidence of Hanson's opinions or actions in resolving the controversy. ===President of Congress=== On November 5, 1781, Congress elected Hanson as its president.
The Maryland Assembly reelected him as a delegate on November 28, 1781, and so Hanson continued to serve as president until November 4, 1782. The Articles of Confederation stipulated that presidents of Congress serve one-year terms, and Hanson became the first to do so.
When the Articles went into effect in March 1781, Congress did not bother to elect a new president; instead, Samuel Huntington continued serving a term that had already exceeded a year.
On July 9, 1781, Samuel Johnston became the first man to be elected as president of Congress after the ratification of the Articles.
McKean served just a few months, resigning in October 1781 after hearing news of the British surrender at Yorktown.
John Hanson, President of the United States in Congress Assembled, 1781–1782.
The Maryland Assembly reelected him as a delegate on November 28, 1781, and so Hanson continued to serve as president until November 4, 1782. The Articles of Confederation stipulated that presidents of Congress serve one-year terms, and Hanson became the first to do so.
John Hanson ( – November 15, 1783) was a merchant and public official from Maryland during the era of the American Revolution.
In poor health, he died on November 15, 1783, while visiting Oxon Hill Manor in Prince George's County, Maryland, the plantation of his nephew Thomas Hawkins Hanson.
The Memorial includes a statue of President John Hanson and an interpretive setting in Frederick, Maryland, where Hanson lived between 1769 and his death in 1783.
Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc. Cited in Steuart, Rieman (1969).
In 1876, a writer named George Hanson placed John Hanson in his family tree of Swedish-Americans descended from four Swedish brothers who emigrated to New Sweden in 1642.
(1786–1819), who became a newspaper editor and US Senator. ===Legacy=== In 1898, Douglas H.
Thomas's 1898 book, was one of a number of biographies written seeking to promote Hanson as the "first President of the United States".
In 1903, bronze statues of Hanson and Charles Carroll by sculptor Richard E.
In the 21st century, Maryland lawmakers have considered replacing Hanson's statue in Statuary Hall with one of Harriet Tubman. The idea that Hanson was the forgotten first president of the United States was further promoted in a 1932 biography of Hanson by journalist Seymour Wemyss Smith.
New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1932. Thomas, Douglas H.
Boni, 1938. Nelson, Jacob A.
Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1939. Smith, Seymour Wemyss.
Sources published prior to a 1940 genealogical study sometimes listed his birth date as April 13 or his year of birth as 1715. Hanson was born on a plantation called "Mulberry Grove" into a wealthy and prominent family.
In 1975, historian Ralph Levering said that "Hanson shouldn't have been one of the two Marylanders" chosen, but he wrote that Hanson "probably contributed as much as any other Marylander to the success of the American Revolution".
In 1981, Hanson was featured on a 20-cent US postage stamp.
John Hanson Briscoe was also a director until his death in 2014. ==References== ==Bibliography== Books, journals, and encyclopedias Metcalf, Bryce (1938).
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