Quick, who was the first President of the United States?
George Washington! Right? Wrong! From 1781 until 1787 the United States operated under the Articles of Confederation. There was no executive branch during this period. Instead Congress ran everything, with delegations of 2 to 7 people from every state. While in recess, a Committee of States consisting of one delegate from each state ran things. Congress elected a President. There were nine presidents prior to the adoption of the Constitution and the election of George Washington as President.
Now, the United States as a confederacy couldn’t do anything unless at least nine states agreed and in many cases all had to agree. In addition, the national government couldn’t collect taxes (it had to beg the states to send it money). Consequently when it had to put down Shays Rebellion in Massachusetts, not every state bothered to help with the effort. Overall there was precious little done and this period is largely forgettable, so it’s not too surprising that folks don’t remember it much.
The actual first President of the United States in Congress Assembled was Samuel Huntington.
This book contains only the text of the Articles. There is no commentary. So it’s really not all that useful, especially since readers can obtain the text accompanied by high quality commentary for free on the Internet. But I like having these little books of historical documents around.
Also, I wanted to get an actual book back up as the first item on the site rather than a boring site maintenance message.
Title: The Articles of Confederation
Imprint / publisher: Applewood Books
Publication Date: August 2006 (originally November 1777)
Format: Hardcover
Length: 28 p.
ISBN-10: 1-55709-460-8
Subject: Constitutions — United States — Early works to 1800
Subject: Constitutional history — United States — Sources
LC classification: JK130 1777 .B7
