Transcripts For CSPAN3 John Hanson And The Articles Of Confe

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the maryland inn. My name is mike radek. This lady beside me is peg. She has been our innkeeper for years and helps me run the property for events like this. I want to welcome you to another treaty of paris center event. And represents the art mission between the Historic Inns of annapolis. Posting pictures and forgotten sketches of the 14 forgotten president s before George Washington. I will turn this over to mark. I hope you have on young enjoyable afternoon. Thank you mark. [applause] mark thank you again for coming today. We are very delighted to have Peter Hanson Michael as our speaker. He serves as the president of the john hanson Memorial Association. Both in Frederick Maryland where hansen rose to political prominence. His book is called remembering john hanson which has 12 National Book prizes. Peter Hanson Michael descends from john hansons immigrant grandfather. He is the author of palace of yawns which in 2014 one a National Book award. His latest book running on empty, america has its say on economic equality is due out. He is a graduate of the university of maryland, berkeley and princeton and lives with his wife vickie. Please join me in welcoming Peter Hanson Michael. [applause] peter thank you mark. Is this loud enough . There is no volume. I will just speak into the mic. It is nice to be here with you all. If you are of a certain age you might remember this from history books as i do. If youre a younger person you are probably never taught that our nation had two governments. We are under the second one. In the 1780s, prior to the constitutional government, we had the original government with its own constitution the articles of confederation. It was a week government. No one was more aware of this than the president s who each served a oneyear term. The first year government did the nation quite a favor by replacing itself through the Constitutional Convention. A credit to them. The first president was john hanson. The only maryland or marylander to serve in the nations highest office. I would point out that washington Jefferson Lincoln and president s into the 20th century, clearly recognize that john hanson was the actual first president of the United States. That is a historical fact that has been lost in the american memory over the last 50 years. What i will ask you to do today is to spread the word and get the history correct. Tell your children and grandchildren about our actual history. This slideshow will be illustrated. There will be information on each slide. With an illustration on each slide. This is Mulberry Grove. Where hanson was born. His father constructed the home in 1700. He was built there in 1715. He was schooled in england in finance. That paid off during the revolutionary war and his presidency. I had the privilege of spending the night in his home a couple thanksgivings ago. It is currently for sale. The owners are elderly and one is ill. I am trying to find a way that this ends up in Public Ownership and becomes a National Memorial honoring hanson and the revolution. If you have any ideas on that by all means, let me know. Why would comfortable john Hanson Living in a home that his father built pull up stakes in the 50s, which in his era was considered well along in years and moved to the front tier. Frederick frontier. Frederick, maryland. This is the valley where frederick is located. I took this picture from the top of sugarloaf mountain. It is 1200 feet high. That counts as a mountain in western maryland. The reason was that opportunity moved west. Hanson saw it and he went up and reckon ordered reconnoitered the county. He saw the french and german and swiss immigrants were much more attuned to the idea of nationhood than the people in Charles County where he came from which were still mostly british loyalists. It was also the largest and fastestgrowing and most populous county in maryland at the time. It was settled by the forwardlooking immigrants i have mentioned. Other than the governorship itself, the head of the county was the most powerful executive position in maryland. Hanson would have done no good as the governor of maryland. This was colonial days. He would have had to have been appointed by the british. That is not what he had in mind. He went to this county where his ideas resonated and they elected him to every office he ever sought and two offices he did not seek. If you are good that can happen. This is his portrait. The date is unknown. This looks to be a man in his 40s or a little younger. Painted by an artist named john. When the revolutionary war broke out in massachusetts, the first militias to reach general washington and help them out were two militias which john hanson mustard. They were they were true sharpshooters. Up they went in a 22 date march. 22day march. He helped arm maryland. He owned a flintlock factory. A flintlock is part of an Old Revolutionary era musket. It holds the flint and sets the gun off. He manufactured those. He took the lead in financing the war in maryland. Maryland ended up sending a higher proportion of its population into the Continental Army than any other state. As you might know, the National Hall in the United States capital has two statues of the native sons and daughters of every state. One of the two for maryland both placed there in 1903, there in the capital. The sculptor made this fullsized model which is about seven feet tall. If you have been to the Maryland Senate chapter there are two one of which is of hanson on the deus. Dias. Hanson twice kept the nation whole. That is one of the reasons why he was twice elected as president. In late june, 1776, when there were 12 colonies on this new thing called the declaration of independence, the doubting maryland was out. The predecessor to the maryland General Assembly was not sure they were not sure what the other colonies were doing. Thank you. It was supportive but was not short wanted to do this. Hanson took the lead among many in the maryland legislative body sing this isnt going to work saying this isnt going to work. The british would love this. We have to go in on the declaration of independence. The Second Continental Congress was sitting there in philadelphia waiting on word from maryland. They finally said, we can only wait so long. We will wait until july 2 and if maryland is not in at that point, it is out. They were sitting there literally the afternoon when a rider came in from maryland and said maryland is in. That made it unanimous. Hanson took the lead in keeping the nation whole the first time. You probably know this, but the work was all that all but done. It got accepted in a very the document didnt take effect until august 2. On july 3, john adams wrote a letter saying forever enshrined in our nations memory will be the date of july the second. How was john to know. This is the declaration of independence here, with the famous signature of john hancock. One of the myths about john hanson, and there are quite a few, is that he was a signer of the declaration. He wasnt. He was a signer of the articles of confederation, but not the declaration of independence. At the same time that the declaration was put forth, there was a motion put forth to form a Continental Congress and have it draft a constitution. By the fall of 1777, the committee reported in. We dont have a government yet. The Second Continental Congress was a consultative body of 13 colonies and states that were trying to form a government. This committee came up with its draft of a charter in the articles of confederation in september 1777. Congress looked it over and tweaked a few things and in november signed off on it and said this is what we want to submit to the states. They had separate governments. Because they declared independence they were 13 separate nationstates, much as you see in the European Union today. In late 1777, out the articles went to the 13 states for ratification. The other was the western lands impasse. Six of the 13 colonies had been granted socalled western lands by the British Crown and seven had not. By that time in the maryland General Assembly, what hanson saw was this would not work. They would outweigh in population the seven states without land grants and run the show. He said this wont work and it will lead to division and a breakdown of the nation that we are trying to form. Three of these western land grants extended all the way to the Pacific Ocean and one of them, virginia is 200 miles into the Pacific Ocean. This is the connecticut landgrant here. Here is virginia. Here is georgia. If hanson had not done his work, what we would have is, seattle connecticut, San Francisco virginia, and san diego georgia. That doesnt sound right. The Second Continental Congress was stuck on this for five years until maryland said, he persuaded us on this. There was a doctrine of maryland that hanson authored saying maryland will not join unless this is solved. The General Assembly said, hanson, you have convinced us and we are electing you as our delegate to congress, go see if you can convince them. All others had failed. Eight months after he arrived he got all six of those states to swing around and agree to seed those cede those western lands as the population in the west rose. If that had not happened, it is not sure there ever would have been that first constitution. So hanson, the second time, saved his nation. Where things today have been forgotten about that area period period is that we had two governments. The first consonantal congress lasted three days, set up a boycott of British Goods and called for a Second Congress to begin the following year. The Second Continental Congress lasted six years and was the coordinating body among the colonies and states and then this interim body the last breath of the Second Continental Congress that existed during the 249 days between the time when the articles were ratified, hansons signature the last, and when the first government came into existence on the first monday of november that year, november the fifth. You are not a nation until you have a government and a head of state. That did not happen until november 5 1781, which is the actual day that our nation became a nation. Everyone at the time it knew that. As its first act, they elected john hanson as its president unopposed. This is a drawing, artist unknown, of the signing of the articles of confederation and this is presumably hanson who withheld his signature on marylands order until the lansing impasse had been settled. Quilt in hand, quill in hand getting us ready for nationhood. This is the new government issued by charles thompson. You probably cannot read it but it states that john hanson was elected president and that went out to all the states, to the ambassadors, general washington and others. We have this question which seems thorny but is simple. Who was the first president . We had two governments and each government had its first president. John hanson, the first president of the original government. Washington, or famously, the first president of the second government. As washington stated hanson preceded him and was the actual first president of the United States. This has been recognized i president s all the way to the 20th century. The Second Continental Congress, as it was getting ready to ratify the articles got chased out of philadelphia, and ended up for a short period in pennsylvania. This is a courthouse where they met in york, and where the articles were actually signed. What was laid on hanson . Every president we have had except hanson was handed a functioning government. Hanson was handed a blank slate and had to create a government from whole cloth and he had to do it right and make it stick and make it successful. He could not afford to fail and this is one reason why the icons of his era and others who sat in the new government. Jefferson, adams, john hancock and benjamin franklin, chose hanson above all others. He was the first head of state and created the first cabinet. He established the government structure, much of which we still have in place today. He inaugurated peace negotiations. One of the best strokes of luck the nation ever had was the month before the government was created, we won the battle at yorktown, which did not end the revolutionary war that in effect it did. The conference was established. European nations began recognizing the United States diplomatically. A great trivia question. Does anybody know which nation first recognized the United States . Morocco . Morocco. You get the goldstar. Good for you. It was the kingdom of morocco. I lived there as a teenager. If you go and take a tour, your tour guide is likely to point this out. The Postal Service was founded. Ben franklin put something together that resembled the national Postal Service but it wasnt national, it was a coordination between colonies and states. The state militia was nationalized into the army and navy that we know today. This was a unitary government. The government sat as the legislative and judiciary, and it was hanson who acted not just as a chief judge, but the only judge in settling things, including a dispute about where the border between connecticut and new york might be. You settle that one and we had celebrated the fourth of july from town to town on thanksgiving day since the time of the pilgrims. It was up to the first government and hanson to decree these to be official recognitions. They were not National Holidays until the flank Franklin Roosevelt administration. But it was hanson who decreed them to be official observances. Why change governments . The first government was weak. It was weak because of the language in the articles of confederation. Why would the framers come up with a week document . They had just thrown off an oppressive power in Great Britain and what they were reluctant to do was set up another strong government that might oppress them again. They deliberately made the government week but went too far. There was no taxing authority so the first government couldnt even fund itself. It had to go hat in hand and say would you please. I only got 10 of what they other needed. Ever needed. The articles could only be amended with the unanimous consent of 13 states. In his first month in office he put forth a proposed change to the articles that would allow the government to fund itself through an import duty. It failed on a 121 vote. 12 states went for it but rhode island said no and that was the end of it. The articles were never amended and that got amended in the constitution. Here are some of the other features of the first government and the 1st constitution that did not work very well, that got changed in our constitution. No one was more acutely aware of the shortcomings than the nine men who served as its president. This is a john hanson metal. It was issued by the United States Capital Historical Society in 1981 on the 200th anniversary of john hansons inauguration. I meant to say at the outset that this month is the 300 anniversary of john hansons birth, specifically on april 14. There is a nice ceremony that will take place in the Maryland Senate monday night which i will attend. There are various celebrations going on here and there. Encourage your community to do it as well. Lost grave and mass grave. There is no american president ial couple that have suffered crueler fates with john and jane hanson, with the possible exception of abraham and mary lincoln. The couple was traveling in november, 1783, a year after he completed his term as president. They were visiting their nephew at oxon hill manor. Used to be all of this area right here. This is the woodrow bridge coming across the potomac into maryland. Here is his huge cloverleaf that you see and down here is the beginning of the National Harbor development. Hanson was buried on the property in the family crypt that held hansons and addisons a previous family who had lived there and jane went back to live 29 years as a widow. A developer brought bought the property an archaeologist hired by the state did a survey when the state was going to put in this big interchange discovered and wrote up that the family crypt in which hanson and others had rested, had been directly robbed. All of the caskets were missing and the people in them and their whereabouts today are unknown. Unknown. In 1993, under a new developer the one that developed National Harbor, the site was accidentally bulldozed and leveled. I rediscovered the exact site in 2011. I have a lot of help from the Maryland National parks and Planning Commission and this is the spot. There is an old intact graveyard and 400 feet