Presidents before Washington?

“The original 13 colonies that formed the United States of America declared their independence from England in 1776. George Washington was sworn in as the 1st President of the United States of America in 1789. Who ran the country in the intervening 13 years?”

That is almost a trick question. There really wasn’t a “country” – as we normally use the term – to run until our current constitution was ratified into law in 1789. The original 13 colonies were aligned as a fairly loose group, or confederation, of 13 fully independent republics under the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” – adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and ratified into law in 1781. That created a new nation with a framework similar to the modern European Union, but without the EU’s organization and with no power, to speak of, at all.

The folks that actually ran the confederation were the Continental Congresses and, after the Articles of Confederation were enacted into law, “The United States, in Congress Assembled”. They elected a chairperson who served until they elected a replacement. That office was known as “President of the Continental Congress”, or, after the Articles of Confederation, “the President of the United States in Congress Assembled” – frequently shortened to, simply, “the President of the United States”.

The office of President of the Continental Congress is probably most analogous to the modern-day Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Like the Speaker, the President of the Continental Congress was expected to refrain from participating in debate, and was expected to vote last and only if his vote would be decisive. However, unlike the Speaker, the President of the Continental Congress had no power to assign delegates to committees.

The Articles of Confederation replaced the Continental Congress and imposed a few changes on the office of the President. As mentioned before, the formal title of the presiding officer became “The President of the United States, in Congress Assembled”, reflecting the change in the name of the congress to “The United States, in Congress Assembled”. Except for John Hanson, most of the Presidents used this title only for treaties and on the diplomatic credentials for ministers.

In their only explicit mention of the office, the Articles also term limited the President of the Continental Congress. A delegate could not serve as President of the Continental Congress in more than one year out of any three.

The office of President of the Continental Congress, and of the United States in Congress Assembled, had very little relationship to the modern office of President of the United States – beyond the name. Our modern President is the head of the executive branch of government, while the earlier Presidents were merely the chair of a body that most resembled a legislature, although it possessed legislative, executive, and judicial powers.

Still, there were a group of 14 men, 10 of whom could legitimately title themselves “President of the United States” prior to George Washington being sworn in as our 1st President. And, since they were the elected head of the ruling bodies of the time, I think you could make the case that they ran the country in the years between the start of the revolution and the inauguration of George Washington.