The Forgotten Presidents
1st Continental Congress
Peyton Randolph – 4 September to 21 October, 1774. (resigned due to poor health)
Henry Middleton – 21 October to 26 October, 1774.
2nd Continental Congress
Peyton Randolph – 10-23 May, 1775. (resigned due to poor health – died later that
year)
John Hancock – 24 May, 1775 to 30 October, 1777.
Henry Laurens – 1 November, 1777 to 9 December, 1778. (President when Articles
of the Confederation was adopted)
John Jay – 10 December, 1778 to 27 September, 1779. (1st Chief Justice of
Supreme Court)
Congress of the Confederation
Samuel Huntington – 2 March, 1781 to 6 July, 1781 (resigned due to poor health)
Thomas McKean – 10 July, 1781 to October, 1781 (resigned due to other
obligations)(Only individual to serve in Congress from its beginning in 1774 until the
peace treaty was signed in 1783) Federalist.
John Hanson – 5 November, 1781 to November, 1782. Anti-federalist.
Elias Boudinot – 4 November, 1782 to 2 November, 1783.
Thomas Mifflin – 3 November, 1783 to 29 November, 1784. (signed the Treaty of
Paris of 1783 ending the war with England).
Richard Henry Lee – 30 November, 1785 to 2 November, 1785. ( Author of
Northwest Ordinances.
John Hancock – 23 November, 1785 to 5 June, 1786.
Nathanial Gorham – 6 June, 1786 to 1 February, 1787. Wanted to invite European
royalty to form a constitutional monarchy in America.
Arthur St. Clair – 2 February, 1787 to 21 January, 1788. Anti-federalist.
Cyrus Griffin – 22 January, 1788 to 30 April, 1789. (Served beyond the 1 year limit
until George Washington’s inauguration. (Anti-federalist)(Accepted the
Constitution once Bill of Rights was promised.)