America Had a President Before George Washington? (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:01) Join us on Patreon and become part of (00:00:04) our journey to uncover history's untold (00:00:06) stories. Your support helps us create (00:00:08) in-depth content, bring hidden (00:00:10) narratives to life, and keep history (00:00:12) alive for everyone. They told you the (00:00:15) first president of the United States was (00:00:17) George Washington. They carved his face (00:00:20) into stone. They printed his portrait on (00:00:23) currency. They wrapped his image in myth (00:00:25) and called it destiny. From elementary (00:00:28) school classrooms to marble monuments in (00:00:30) the capital, the story was simple, (00:00:32) polished, and final. America began under (00:00:35) Washington. But what if that story was (00:00:38) not the whole truth? What if the very (00:00:41) foundation of American leadership was (00:00:43) built on a quiet erasure? What if the (00:00:46) first president was not the man on the (00:00:47) dollar bill and the truth was (00:00:49) deliberately compressed into a footnote (00:00:51) so small that generations never saw it? (00:00:54) Because before George Washington placed (00:00:56) his hand on the Bible in 1789, another (00:01:00) man had already held the title of (00:01:02) President of the United States. His name (00:01:04) was John Hansen. And the fact that most (00:01:07) Americans have never heard that name is (00:01:09) not an accident. It is a story of (00:01:12) constitutional confusion, political (00:01:14) mythmaking, and the deliberate shaping (00:01:16) of national memory. To understand how (00:01:18) this happened, you have to go back to a (00:01:20) time before the Constitution, before the (00:01:23) Polished Republic, back to a fragile (00:01:25) confederation stitched together by war. (00:01:28) >> In 1776, the 13 colonies declared (00:01:32) independence from Britain. (00:01:34) >> But independence was only the beginning. (00:01:37) What followed was chaos. unpaid (00:01:39) soldiers, collapsing currency, foreign (00:01:42) threats, and states that behave like (00:01:44) small, suspicious countries rather than (00:01:46) a unified nation. The fledgling United (00:01:48) States needed structure. It needed (00:01:52) coordination. (00:01:53) It needed leadership. So in 1781, after (00:01:57) years of debate, the states ratified the (00:02:00) Articles of Confederation, creating the (00:02:02) first national government of the United (00:02:04) States. This government did not have an (00:02:07) executive branch like we know today. (00:02:09) There was no powerful presidency, no (00:02:12) cabinet, no centralized authority (00:02:14) commanding armies or vetoing (00:02:16) legislation. Instead, there was Congress (00:02:20) and Congress elected a presiding (00:02:22) officer. That office carried a formal (00:02:25) title, President of the United States (00:02:27) and Congress assembled. On November 5th, (00:02:30) 1781, (00:02:32) that office was filled by John Hansen. (00:02:35) Hansen was not a general. He was not a (00:02:38) towering plantation owner from Virginia. (00:02:41) He was a merchant and statesman from (00:02:43) Maryland. But when Congress selected him (00:02:46) as its presiding officer, he became by (00:02:49) title president of the United States. (00:02:51) This was not symbolic. Under the (00:02:54) Articles of Confederation, Congress was (00:02:56) the national government. There was no (00:02:59) separate executive. The president of (00:03:02) Congress signed documents, corresponded (00:03:04) with foreign powers, oversaw (00:03:06) administrative matters, and in many ways (00:03:09) embodied the leadership of the nation. (00:03:11) Hansen served a one-year term. During (00:03:14) that time, the Revolutionary War was (00:03:17) still underway. He dealt with financial (00:03:19) instability, troop demobilization, and (00:03:22) diplomatic recognition. He presided over (00:03:25) Congress as it accepted the British (00:03:27) surrender at Yorktown's aftermath and (00:03:29) navigated the fragile early sovereignty (00:03:32) of the New Republic. And yet, his name (00:03:34) is rarely mentioned outside specialized (00:03:37) historical discussions. Why? Because (00:03:40) after the war ended and the weaknesses (00:03:42) of the Articles of Confederation became (00:03:44) undeniable, a new document was drafted, (00:03:47) the Constitution of 1787. (00:03:50) This constitution created a radically (00:03:52) different office, a singular executive (00:03:54) with defined powers, independent (00:03:56) authority, and national visibility. It (00:03:59) created what Americans now recognizes (00:04:01) the presidency. In 1789, George (00:04:05) Washington was elected under this new (00:04:07) constitutional framework. He was not the (00:04:10) first man to hold the title president of (00:04:12) the United States, but he was the first (00:04:15) president under the Constitution. (00:04:17) That distinction matters. But over time, (00:04:21) nuance was erased. The founders (00:04:23) themselves understood the difference. (00:04:26) They did not consider the presidency (00:04:28) under the articles equivalent to the (00:04:29) executive created in 1787. (00:04:32) The earlier office was primarily (00:04:35) procedural, a presiding officer chosen (00:04:37) by Congress, not a nationally elected (00:04:40) executive. Yet, as American mythology (00:04:43) grew, complexity became inconvenient. A (00:04:47) nation prefers clean origin stories. (00:04:50) Washington became the first president, (00:04:52) not because no one held the title before (00:04:54) him, but because the new constitutional (00:04:57) order redefined what the presidency (00:04:59) meant. The old office faded into (00:05:01) obscurity. But obscurity is not the same (00:05:04) as non-existence. (00:05:06) John Hansen was not alone. Before (00:05:09) Washington, several men served as (00:05:11) president of Congress under the Articles (00:05:13) of Confederation, including Payton (00:05:15) Randolph, Henry Lawren, John J, and (00:05:18) others. Hansen's distinction lies in (00:05:21) being the first to serve a full one-year (00:05:23) term after the articles were fully (00:05:25) ratified by all 13 states. And that (00:05:28) ratification detail is where the (00:05:30) controversy lives. Some historians argue (00:05:33) that because Maryland was the last state (00:05:35) to ratify the articles in 1781 and (00:05:38) Hansen was elected after that (00:05:39) ratification, he was technically the (00:05:41) first president of the fully unified (00:05:43) United States government. This claim has (00:05:46) been amplified in certain circles as (00:05:48) proof that Washington was not the first (00:05:50) president. But the reality is more (00:05:52) layered. The presidency under the (00:05:55) articles had no independent executive (00:05:57) power. It had no veto authority. It had (00:06:01) no control over a standing army. It was (00:06:04) not elected by the people or an (00:06:06) electoral college. It was chosen by (00:06:09) members of Congress and largely (00:06:11) functioned as a moderator and (00:06:12) administrator. Calling Hansen the first (00:06:15) president in the same sense as (00:06:17) Washington would be misleading. Yet (00:06:19) erasing him entirely is equally (00:06:22) misleading. The shock is not that (00:06:24) Washington was not first. The shock is (00:06:27) that American civic education rarely (00:06:29) explains the transition between two (00:06:32) completely different governmental (00:06:33) systems. The real foundational lie is (00:06:36) not that Washington served first. It is (00:06:39) that the story of American leadership (00:06:41) begins neatly in 1789. (00:06:44) It does not. It begins in confusion, (00:06:47) experiment, and fragility. During (00:06:50) Hansen's presidency, Congress (00:06:52) established Thanksgiving as a national (00:06:54) day of observance in 1782. (00:06:57) It adopted the great seal of the United (00:06:59) States. It managed foreign affairs and (00:07:02) struggled to pay soldiers. It dealt with (00:07:05) mutinies and financial crisis. These (00:07:08) were not ceremonial tasks. They were (00:07:10) existential. (00:07:12) Yet when the Constitution replaced the (00:07:14) articles, previous system was treated (00:07:17) almost like a draft that never counted. (00:07:19) The national memory pivoted hard toward (00:07:22) the stronger executive model, and the (00:07:24) earlier presidents of Congress became (00:07:26) historical footnotes. Why would a nation (00:07:29) simplify its own origin? Because power (00:07:32) shapes narrative. The Constitution was (00:07:35) framed as a corrective to weakness. (00:07:38) Federalists argued that the articles (00:07:40) created a government too feeble to (00:07:42) survive. By elevating Washington as the (00:07:45) first president, the new system (00:07:47) symbolically reset the clock. It framed (00:07:50) 1789 as year 1. The earlier period (00:07:54) became a prelude rather than a (00:07:56) beginning. This was not necessarily a (00:07:59) malicious conspiracy. It was nation (00:08:02) building through storytelling. But (00:08:04) storytelling always chooses emphasis. (00:08:07) And when emphasis becomes repetition, (00:08:10) repetition becomes truth. Over time, (00:08:13) monuments, textbooks, and civic rituals (00:08:16) reinforce the narrative. Washington was (00:08:19) father of his country. He set (00:08:21) precedents. He defined the executive (00:08:24) branch. He stepped down voluntarily, (00:08:27) shaping democratic norms. All that is (00:08:30) true. But what disappeared in the (00:08:32) retelling was a messy prologue. The (00:08:35) presidency did not emerge fully formed. (00:08:38) It evolved. Under the Articles of (00:08:40) Confederation, the central government (00:08:43) had no power to tax. It could not compel (00:08:46) states to provide troops or funds. (00:08:49) Economic instability led to unrest like (00:08:51) Shea's rebellion in 1,786 (00:08:54) to87. (00:08:56) These crises exposed structural (00:08:58) weaknesses. The Constitutional (00:09:00) Convention of 1787 was not simply an (00:09:04) upgrade. It was a reinvention. The (00:09:07) Executive Office created in article 2 of (00:09:09) the Constitution bore little resemblance (00:09:12) to the presiding officer of Congress (00:09:14) under the Articles. Washington's (00:09:16) presidency represented a new experiment (00:09:18) entirely. But here is where document (00:09:21) shock enters the story. The Articles of (00:09:24) Confederation explicitly use the title (00:09:26) President of the United States and (00:09:28) Congress assembled. That phrase is (00:09:31) preserved in historical records. It is (00:09:33) not folklore. It is written law. That (00:09:37) means technically that someone held the (00:09:39) title before Washington. The shock is (00:09:42) not fabricated. (00:09:44) It is documented. (00:09:46) The question is not whether Hansen held (00:09:49) the title. He did. The question is (00:09:52) whether holding that title made him (00:09:54) equivalent to the constitutional (00:09:55) presidency Americans celebrate. It did (00:09:58) not. But the refusal to explain that (00:10:01) difference clearly has fueled decades of (00:10:03) confusion and in some cases deliberate (00:10:06) mythmaking. In the 20th century, certain (00:10:09) advocacy groups and state historians (00:10:11) promoted Hansen as the real first (00:10:13) president. Sometimes to elevate regional (00:10:16) pride or challenge federal narratives. (00:10:19) Statues were erected. Claims were (00:10:22) printed in pamphlets. The nuance (00:10:24) disappeared again, this time in the (00:10:26) opposite direction. History swung from (00:10:29) erasure to exaggeration. (00:10:31) The truth lives in the middle. (00:10:34) Washington was the first president under (00:10:36) the United States Constitution. (00:10:39) Hen was the first president of Congress (00:10:41) after full ratification of the Articles (00:10:43) of Confederation. Both statements are (00:10:46) accurate, but only one made it into (00:10:49) national memory. This selective (00:10:51) remembering reveals something deeper (00:10:53) about American identity. The country (00:10:56) prefers strong beginnings. It prefers (00:10:59) heroic founders over experimental (00:11:01) committees. It prefers marble certainty (00:11:04) over procedural evolution. And so, the (00:11:07) fragile confederation years are (00:11:09) compressed into a blur between 1776 and (00:11:12) 1789. That compression has consequences. (00:11:17) When citizens believe their institutions (00:11:19) sprang into existence fully formed, they (00:11:22) misunderstand how governments evolve. (00:11:24) They lose sight of how constitutional (00:11:27) design responds to crisis. They forget (00:11:30) that American democracy was not (00:11:32) inevitable. It was negotiated, revised, (00:11:35) and sometimes nearly abandoned. John (00:11:38) Hansen's obscurity is not a scandal in (00:11:41) the sense of conspiracy. It is a symptom (00:11:43) of how nations curate memory. But in a (00:11:46) broader sense, it does change (00:11:48) everything. Because if the first chapter (00:11:51) of the presidency has been simplified, (00:11:53) what else has been streamlined for (00:11:55) comfort? What other transitions have (00:11:57) been flattened into clean narratives? (00:12:00) The early republic was unstable. The (00:12:03) article's government was weak by design. (00:12:05) Many Americans feared centralized (00:12:07) authority after living under British (00:12:10) rule. The pendulum swung towards state (00:12:12) sovereignty and then swung back when (00:12:14) that model proved insufficient. (00:12:17) Washington's presidency did not emerge (00:12:19) from triumph alone. It emerged from (00:12:22) failure. Understanding Hansen's role (00:12:25) forces us to confront that failure. It (00:12:27) reminds us that the United States had a (00:12:30) first attempt at national government (00:12:32) that did not work as intended. It (00:12:34) reminds us that the presidency itself (00:12:36) was born from revision. And it (00:12:39) challenges the idea that history is a (00:12:41) straight line. If Hansen is remembered (00:12:44) only as a trivia question, was (00:12:46) Washington really first? The deeper (00:12:48) lesson is missed. The deeper lesson is (00:12:51) institutional transformation. The (00:12:54) presidency Americans know today is not (00:12:57) static. It has expanded dramatically (00:13:00) since 1789. (00:13:02) Executive power has grown through war, (00:13:04) legislation, judicial interpretation, (00:13:07) and precedent. From Washington's (00:13:09) cautious leadership to the sweeping (00:13:11) authority exercised during the civil war (00:13:13) under Abraham Lincoln to the global (00:13:15) executive power of modern (00:13:17) administrations, the office has (00:13:19) continuously evolved. Recognizing the (00:13:21) earlier presidency under the articles (00:13:23) reveals that evolution in its earliest (00:13:26) stage. It shows that titles alone do not (00:13:29) define power. Structures do and (00:13:33) structures can change. In the end, the (00:13:35) accusation embedded in this story is not (00:13:38) that America lied about Washington. It (00:13:41) is that America simplified itself. It (00:13:44) presented a polished origin instead a (00:13:46) complicated birth. John Hansen's (00:13:49) relative obscurity is not an injustice (00:13:51) of race or suppression in the way other (00:13:54) historical erasers have been. It is a (00:13:56) reminder that institutional memory is (00:13:59) selective. But selective memory shapes (00:14:02) civic understanding. When citizens learn (00:14:05) that there was a president before (00:14:06) Washington, even if only in a different (00:14:09) governmental form, they are forced to (00:14:11) reconsider what first really means, they (00:14:14) are forced to look closer. And when (00:14:16) people look closer at their foundations, (00:14:19) they often discover cracks. Not fatal (00:14:21) ones, but human ones. That discovery (00:14:24) does not weaken democracy. It (00:14:27) strengthens it. Because mature nations (00:14:30) do not fear complexity. They embrace it. (00:14:34) America's first president was hidden not (00:14:36) in a secret archive, not in a burned (00:14:39) document, but in the quiet margins of a (00:14:41) transitional government that did not (00:14:43) survive. And understanding that hidden (00:14:45) chapter changes everything about how we (00:14:48) see beginnings. It reveals that power is (00:14:51) defined by structure, that titles can (00:14:53) shift meaning, and that national memory (00:14:55) is shaped as much by storytelling as by (00:14:58) fact. George Washington remains the (00:15:00) first president under the Constitution. (00:15:03) John Hansen remains the first president (00:15:05) of the United States in Congress (00:15:07) assembled after full ratification of the (00:15:10) Articles of Confederation. Both are (00:15:12) true, but only one became legend. The (00:15:16) question is not whether Washington (00:15:18) deserves his place. He does. The (00:15:21) question is whether we are willing to (00:15:23) tell the whole story. Because the moment (00:15:25) we admit that the presidency had an (00:15:27) earlier form, weaker, different, (00:15:30) experimental, we acknowledge that (00:15:32) America itself was once uncertain, (00:15:34) unfinished, and fragile. And that (00:15:37) realization changes everything. It (00:15:40) reminds us that the nation was built not (00:15:42) only by giants carved in stone, but also (00:15:45) by administrators whose names faded when (00:15:47) the structure they served was replaced. (00:15:50) History does not always erase with fire. (00:15:53) Sometimes it erases with simplification. (00:15:56) And sometimes the most powerful (00:15:58) revelations are not about scandal but (00:16:01) about structure.