The Forgotten Founders Medallions

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Born in a Tavern and ending in a Tavern The United States Founding governments
occupied 11 different capitol buildings experienced 15 years of challenges that included war,
hyper-inflation, a failed constitution, judicial corruption, armed citizen and U.S. Army rebellion. 

The origin of the U.S. Presidency can be traced back to the convening of the American Colonial Congress on September 5, 1774 when the delegates elected Peyton Randolph of Virginia as their President.  Originally just called Congress, the word Continental was added to the name on October 20, 1774 in the Articles of Association primarily to distinguish this Congress from the many Congresses being held throughout the Colonies at that time.

“We, his majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of the several colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, deputed to represent them in a continental Congress, held in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th day of September, 1774” [i]

The Articles of Association were an alliance between the Colonies, later States, and not a Constitution per se.  The Continental Congress would convene under this agreement passing laws, enacting treaties and conducting a war.
 

Under these Articles of Association the delegates of the Continental Congress began to formulate a federal constitution under the presidencies of the well-known John Hancock and Henry Laurens from 1775 until 1777.  The first federal constitution, known as the Articles of Confederation, was passed by the delegates in York-Town (now York), Pennsylvania on November 15, 1777. [ii] The constitution, however, required unanimous ratification by all thirteen States. Maryland held out until February 28^th, 1781.  Consequently, for four years the Continental Congress existed in an indeterminate state that often required a creative melding of the Articles of Association with the Articles of Confederation meeting the needs of the ever fluid central government in its conduction of an ongoing war for independence.
 

On March 1, 1781 the Articles of Confederation were ratified. The Continental Congress ceased to exist and the United States of America in Congress Assembled became the federal government of a “Perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.” [iii]
 

The Articles of Confederation, although erratically enforced from 1777 to 1781, were the true law of the land only for seven years, 1781-1788, with ten men holding the office, President of the United States.  By 1787, the founding fathers agreed that the unicameral government formed by the Constitution of 1777 was grossly inadequate.  Former President of the Continental Congress John Jay wrote the following as the U.S. Foreign Secretary:

“To vest legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one and the same body of men, and that, too, in a body daily changing its members, can never be wise. In my opinion those three great departments of sovereignty should be forever separated, and so distributed as to serve as checks on each other." [iv]

President Arthur St. Clair and his 1787 Congress clearly understood the severity of these inadequacies. On February 21, 1787 they enacted legislation to “… render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union” [v] Specifically, the United States, in Congress Assembled passed the following resolution:

“Resolved that in the opinion of Congress it is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government and the preservation of the Union.” [vi]

This historic resolution produced the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. It resulted in not a revision of the Constitution of 1777, but an innovative Plan of the New Federal Government, known as the Constitution of 1787 that current governs the United States of America.

    There were ten Presidents of the United States serving before George Washington from 1781 to 1788 under the Constitution of 1777 commonly known as the Articles of Confederation. There was only one branch of government, the United States, in Congress Assembled. These men served as Presidents of the United States, in Congress Assembled.  Their predecessors, under the Articles of Association  served as Presidents of the Continental Congress.

Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of 1777, engrossed and signed document enlargement of Articles I and II passed November 15, 1777 naming of the Confederation and delegation of the federal constitutional matters of the United States to the “United States, in Congress Assembled.”  -- Courtesy of The National Archives of the United States, Articles of Confederation, November 15, 1777, Original Manuscript.

The Constitution of 1777 Presidents all presided in the government known as the United States in Congress Assembled which unicamerally conducted  the judicial, legislative and executive business of the United States of America.

• Legislative: The Presidents served in the legislative process much like the current Speaker of the House. Unlike today, there was only one legislative U.S. body and the Presidents had one vote in a federal government where each of the 13 States had only one vote.  In the capacity of presiding over their  respective Congresses, the Presidents vote  represented  1/7^th (7 State Quorum Minimum) to 1/13^th  of  the votes necessary to enact federal legislation. The Presidents called for the government’s assembly and adjournment.  They received, read, answered the official state and foreign correspondence to the United States of America. At their own discretion the Presidents held or disseminated the official correspondence to the Congress and set the legislative agendas.  

• Executive: The Presidents also acted as the Head of State receiving both U.S. and foreign dignitaries  at their perspective Capitols extending the nation’s official welcome and hospitality. The Presidents issued military orders, signed military commissions, and executed federal laws, treaties, proclamations, and resolutions.   

• Judicial: The Presidents also served in a role analogues to the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  When federal hearings were in session. Cases that they presided over  ranged from settling State borders to deciding the fate of mutinous troops.  Decisions were made, once again, one state one vote in quorums numbering 7 to 13.

The United States in Congress Assembled was the government of the United States of America from 1781 to 1789.  The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, The Unites States Supreme Court and the The United States President under today's  Constitution of 1787 is now the government of the United States of America since 1789.

Forgotten Founders Corporation is a Florida  nonprofit corporation, formed solely for general charitable purposes pursuant to the Florida Not for Profit Corporation Act set forth in Part I of Chapter 617 of the Florida Statutes. The specific and primary purposes for which this corporation is formed are:

The Forgotten Founders Corporation, in conjunction with Stanley L. Klos,  has issued ten Medallions to honor the Presidents whose office exercised much influence on United States public affairs and legislation during the founding period. 

Click on Founder's Medallion to Purchase Individual Pieces
 

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