John Hanson:

[sleepyjeff]

My Son came home from school Friday all excited about knowing a bit of history that he was just sure his old man wouldn't know.

Seems that some guy named John Hanson, and not George Washington was really the first President of the United States. Furthermore he was unanimously elected President, established the Great Seal of the US, created the first Sec. of War, and declared that the 4th Thursday of every Novemeber was to be Thanksgiving..........oh, yeah, he was Black too!

Ok. I got my History degree about a million years ago but thought I would remember something like this if it were really true. Did a little research and found:

1-John Hanson was the first Presiding officer of the US congress to be called President of the United States Congress; but that is a far cry from the Executive we now call President of the United States. Also, there were two other presiding officers of the US congress before Hanson(but they were titled a little differently) so even if we accept the leap that Presiding officeres under the Articles of Confederation were "Presidents" it would be false to call Hanson the first.

2- The congressional record for 11-5-1781 reports that "ballots being taken, the honorable, John Hanson was elected"...nothing in the record mentions the vote tally whatsoever; where did the Unanimous come from?

3- Hanson was "President" when the Great Seal was first used but not when it was oredered. He never used it himself.

4- Sec of War was created 10-1-1781; a good Month+ before Hanson was elected "President"; how did he create something as President before he even was?

5- Thanksgiving was not established for the fourth Thursday of November until the 20th century by FDR.

6- Somewhere along the line someone mistook the grandson of an indentured servant for the grandson of a slave. The John Hanson who Presided over congress durring the early years before our Constitution was as white as George Washington and bears no resemblence to a picture my son brought home of a black man(that picture is clearly of a man who would find his contemporaries in the mid- 1850s; not the 1780s)


Do I confront my Son's teacher with my research or just let it alone(GW never chopped down a cherry tree like my 4th grade teacher said and I didn't suffer any harm from the myth)???