President of the Continental Congress Totally Explained

Everything about President Of The United States In Congress Assembled totally explained

The President of the Continental Congress was the presiding officer of the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates that emerged as the first national government of the United States during the American Revolution. The president was a delegate elected by the other delegates to preside over meetings of Congress. He wasn't the equivalent of a modern head of state, and had less authority than the governors of the individual colonies or states.
The first President of Congress was Peyton Randolph, who was elected on September 5 1774. The term of the last president, Cyrus Griffin, ended on November 2 1788. Because of the limited role of the office, the Presidents of Congress are among the lesser known leaders of the American Revolution. The best-known President of Congress is John Hancock, remembered for his large, bold signature on the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted and signed during his presidency.

Title and role

The presiding officer of the Continental Congress was usually styled "President of the Congress" or "President of Congress". Thereafter, the president was occasionally referred to as the "President of the United States in Congress Assembled", although "President of the Congress" continued to be used in most official documents.

List of presidents

The following men served as the president of the First Continental Congress:

Peyton Randolph (September 5, 1774 – October 21, 1774)
Henry Middleton (October 22, 1774 – October 26, 1774)

The following men served as the president of the Second Continental Congress:

Peyton Randolph (May 10, 1775 – May 23, 1775)

John Hancock (May 24, 1775 – October 31, 1777)

Henry Laurens (November 1, 1777 – December 9, 1778)

John Jay (December 10, 1778 – September 27, 1779)

Samuel Huntington (September 28, 1779 – March 1, 1781) When the Articles of Confederation were ratified on March 1, 1781, no elections were held or even discussed for a selecting a new president. Instead, Samuel Huntington continued to serve as President of Congress until he asked to be relieved due to ill health on July 6 1781. On July 9, Samuel Johnston was selected as Huntington's replacement, but he declined the office the next day, and so Thomas McKean was elected as the next presiding officer. The following men served as President of Congress after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation:

Samuel Huntington (March 1, 1781 – July 9, 1781)

Thomas McKean (July 10, 1781 – November 4, 1781)

John Hanson (November 5, 1781 – November 3, 1782)

Elias Boudinot (November 4, 1782 – November 2, 1783)

Thomas Mifflin (November 3, 1783 – October 31, 1784)

Richard Henry Lee (November 30, 1784 – November 6, 1785)

John Hancock (November 23, 1785 – June 5, 1786) Due to Hancock's failing health, he didn't report to Congress, and the following two chairmen acted as president in his stead:

David Ramsay (November 23, 1785 – May 12, 1786)
Nathaniel Gorham (May 15, 1786 – June 5, 1786)

Nathaniel Gorham (June 6, 1786 – November 5, 1786)

Arthur St. Clair (February 2, 1787 – November 4, 1787)

Cyrus Griffin (January 22, 1788 – March 4, 1789)Further Information

Get more info on 'President Of The United States In Congress Assembled'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://president_of_the_continental_congress.totallyexplained.com">President of the Continental Congress Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.