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http://www.barnesreview.org/Nov_2004/George_Washington/george_washington.html
George Washington Wasn�t Our First President
BY VANCE BEAUDREAU
Contrary to the thinking of the public today, the United States of America was not formed in 1789 with the adoption of the Constitution after the ratification process had been successful. Yet this is what we have been taught or led to believe. Along with that teaching we were taught of the greatness of George Washington, who was alleged to us to be the first president and the Father of our country.
Why was I misled in grade school? When the information below was relayed to some of my friends, they seemed upset with me. Some simply did not believe what I told them.
The Federalists were allied with the monarchists in their drive for a strong federal government to rule over states. Some wanted an American king. They were opposed by noted anti-Federalists such as Thomas McKean, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur St. Claire, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, George Clinton, Robert Yates, Melanchton Smith, John Winthrop, Elbridge Gerry, Robert Whitehill, William Findley and John Smilie.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress from the various American Colonies operating under the Articles of Association approved the historic Declaration of Independence, which was penned by Thomas Jefferson. This drastic action had become necessary due to the tyrannical British empire rule over the Colonies, which reached new levels of abuse when on April 1, 1774, King George III began responding with harsh measures against Boston. The Sons of Liberty (Colonial activists) had dumped British tea into Boston Bay in late 1773, known today as the �Boston Tea Party� in protest over high tariffs, as any good Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR) historian could tell you. Sporadic fighting had been perpetrated by British troops in Boston and other areas in 1775-1776. The Continental Congress of the Articles of Association, operating under its president, John Hancock, elected George Washington to serve as commander of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775 to defend the Colonies.
Just eight days after the passage of the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draw up a constitution on Friday, July 12, 1776. Thomas McKean was prominent on that committee since he was chief justice of Pennsylvania.
Of course, the Declaration of Independence brought a military response from King George III, who stated: �The lines have been drawn. Blows must decide.� War had started, and the British were determined to put down our rebellion cruelly with the military force of the worldwide British empire.
A congressionally appointed committee worked out the details for more cooperation between the Colonies needed to prosecute the war of defense against the British invasion and to form a more cohesive constitution in order to be acceptable to foreign governments such as France and Spain for possible treaties or alliances.
The Continental Congress finally unveiled their second historic document some 16 months later, the Constitution of the United States of America. This document, also called the Articles of Confederation, was accepted by the American Congress on November 15, 1777, for ratification. Shortly after this constitutional step by the Americans, relations with France became strong. On February 6, 1778, American and French representatives signed two treaties in Paris: a treaty of amity and commerce and a treaty of alliance. France then officially recognized the United States, and both countries pledged to fight until American independence was won. Later that summer, on July 10, 1778, France declared war against Britain, which, of course, was of great importance to the new American nation.
The Founding Fathers who were involved in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were predominantly practicing Christians, mostly of Protestant denominations, who were also landowners. The government they created reflects this cultural heritage. The official and legal date that the United States of America began was March 1, 1781 upon ratification of the constitution by the 13 states. The first president elected after ratification of the Constitution was Thomas McKean, who began serving on July 10, 1781. McKean was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the principal writer of the constitution of 1781 (Articles of Confederation).
Gen. George Washington, who was commissioned under President John Hancock of the Continental Congress (Articles of Association), also served during the war against the British under congressional presidents Henry Laurens, John Jay and Samuel Huntington before finally serving under the president of the United States, Thomas McKean.
President McKean became the commander-in-chief over Gen. George Washington on July 10, 1781, and it was during McKean�s administration that Washington and the French defeated Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781.
Federalists of old as well as U.S. government officials today have held little respect for the constitution of 1781, reminding us that it was just the Articles of Confederation of what amounted to a provisional government during the revolutionary war. They believe that the �real� Constitution of the United States was enacted on April 30, 1789, and they often insist that this is the date of the creation of the United States. Such a position is easily exposed as false, however, by the historical facts, as the United States of America was officially and legally established some eight years earlier on March 1, 1781, and not on or about April 30, 1789.
To illustrate the reality of the actual much earlier establishment of the United States of America a few historical facts and dates are rather conclusive:
On February 6, 1778, France officially recognized the United States of America, 83 days after the Continental Congress had certified the Articles of Confederation for the ratification process.
On March 1, 1781�The constitution (also called the Articles of Confederation) was ratified, and this was the official beginning of the United States of America. Article I of that constitution states:
�The stile of this confederacy shall be �The United States of America�.�
April 19, 1782�Netherlands recognized the United States of America.
June 20, 1782�Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States of America.
February 3, 1783�Spain followed by Sweden, Denmark and Russia all recognized the United States of America.
September 3, 1783�The Paris Peace Treaty was signed among the king of England, George III, and the United States, and independence was granted to each of the 13 states therein.
October 16, 1786�Congress established the U.S. mint.
On April 30 1789, President George Washington officially en acted the amended constitution of 1781 (amended Articles of Confederation) and Article VI specifically lists a savings clause that goes further than the language appears, to wit:
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the [original Articles of] Confederation.
In the face of all of this evidence, it becomes impossible to not recognize that the United States of America had been created and internationally recognized between eight and 11 years prior to the Federalist amended Constitution of 1789 and the inauguration of President George Washington.
The Revolutionary War
The Revolutionary War was fought by this American confederacy. On April 19, 1775, some 800 British troops attempted to take a Colonial armory and were met by militiamen at Concord and Lexington. After a long series of battles, which included many losses and setbacks and a couple of successful battles for the American Colonial confederacy, France declared war against Britain on July 10, 1778. French military assistance began arriving, and the French fleet began harassing the British fleet around the coastal waters of America.
On August 14, 1781, Washington abruptly changed his plans and abandoned his attack on New York in favor of Yorktown after receiving a letter from French Adm. Count de Grasse indicating the entire 29-ship French fleet with 3,000 soldiers was heading for the Chesapeake Bay to blockade British Gen. Lord Cornwallis. Washington then coordinated with French Gen. Rochambeau to rush their best troops south to Virginia to destroy the British position in Yorktown.
On September 5-8, 1781, off Yorktown, a major naval battle between de Grasse and the outnumbered British fleet of Adm. Thomas Graves resulted in a victory for the French. The British lost three ships and retreated to New York for reinforcements, leaving the French in control of Chesapeake Bay. The French fleet established their blockade, cutting Cornwallis off from any retreat by sea. French naval reinforcements then arrived from Newport with eight more warships, bringing the total of French warships blockading and bombarding Cornwallis�s Yorktown fortifications to 37.
On September 28, 1781, Washington, with a combined allied army of 17,600 men, began the siege of Yorktown. French naval cannons bombarded Cornwallis and his 9,000 men day and night while the allied lines slowly advanced and encircled Cornwallis. British supplies ran dangerously low with no hope of reinforcements or new supplies.
October 19, 1781�As the British band played the tune, �The World Turned Upside Down,� the British army marched out in formation and surrendered to generals Washington and Rochambeau. This victory sealed success for the American Revolution.
In September 1783 a peace treaty was signed between Great Britain and the American confederacy called the United States of America and on January 14, 1784, the Treaty of Paris was ratified by Congress. The Revolutionary War was then officially over.
In 1786 treaty talks with Spain for rights to navigate the Mississippi, the mouth of which Spain controlled, failed because of regional conflicts between Northern and Southern states revealing underlying economic conflicts between Northern industrialist states and Southern agricultural states very early in the life of the new nation.
Another thing that happened in this era was that, as a result of the victory against the British and the end of Colonial monarchical rule in the United States, it is reported that upward of 100,000 people immigrated out of the United States into Canada to continue to live under monarchy. These folks were called Tories. They were loyal to the crown and, no doubt, played a supportive role helping the British fight the second war against the United States, in 1812.
The Grand Confederacy
A marvelous work of our Founding Fathers was created in 1777 when they, while in Congress under the Articles of Association, voted to develop and then adopted the Constitution for the United States of America and certified it for the ratification process. War with the British empire was developing into a rage and ratification was difficult due to British troops interdictions, but nevertheless was finally accomplished March 1, 1781.
However, lessons were learned in lack of coordination and authority for the United States to act as a general government rather than individual States, especially during time of war. This revealed a need for a more complete amended and expanded Articles of Confederation or Constitution of the Confederacy called the �United States of America� to produce a more cohesive union.
That amended document, also called a Constitution, that was given to us by our forefathers provides for a republican form of government for the American confederacy of states rather than a monarchical centralized government with a king. The extreme individualism of the member states was sacrificed by the establishment of a super state for the federal or central government. But the danger was to some extent reduced by James Madison�s inclusion of the separation of powers which provided checks and balances between the executive branch, judicial branch and the legislative branch while weakening the fourth check and balance of state�s rights. The fifth check and balance was the jury of peers and the sixth was the citizen�s militia. Madison, a Federalist leader, also had to placate Thomas Jefferson, a leader of the anti-Federalists who was serving as ambassador in France at the time, by preparing the Bill of Rights and submitting this to Congress in order to gain Jefferson�s reluctant approval of the amended and expanded Constitution in order to ensure ratification of that Constitution in 1789.
The victory against the British at Yorktown, which was followed by a cessation of arms by the British in most of America, ushered in one of the most blessed periods of American and even of human history as the people enjoyed unprecedented freedom and independence. This burst forth a new affluence, and happiness resulted from the unrestrained free enterprise of small businesses and shops without the burden of the British taxes. Peace, liberty and security existed in small laissez faire communities where churches flourished and crime levels were low. This blessed period lasted, with a few bumps, for over 30 years until the second war with Great Britain of 1812 erupted.
The British-American War of 1812
�What, again?� Many Americans must have asked this of themselves and their neighbors. �What this time?� Well, the reasons for this second war included the British harassment of American ships, which were competing, with British merchant ships on the high seas and the kidnapping and impressment of American sailors to serve on British ships. But the underlying problem likely was the action by President James Madison, who cancelled the First American Bank, which was privately owned and perhaps partly owned covertly or indirectly by English investors who wanted to extract interest from the �colonies.� President and Congress had declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812, due to their lack of respect for American sovereignty.
The British gained some victories before Gen. Andrew Jackson was sent to New Orleans to meet an expected invasion there, which would have given the British control of the Mississippi River outlet from the Great Lakes region. Twelve thousand British troops were disembarking at Barataria Bay to lay siege upon New Orleans and would not recoil from slingshot. The British were trained fighting troops comprised of the Royal North Britain Fusiliers, the Old Fighting Third, the Royal Highlanders and other noted British units that had fought under the Iron Duke of Wellington at Waterloo against Napoleon.
Jackson needed more men, guns, powder and flints. His army was a frayed militia straight from months of fighting Indians at Mobile. The men were battle-hardened but tired, their powder horns nearly dry, and their flint boxes were empty. And no matter how good the musket man, their weapons were useless without flint chip and gunpowder.
Even with the arrival of a company of long rifles from Kentucky, Jackson�s forces remained outnumbered. At most, he had mustered close to 3,800 militia, Kentuckians and a few local people.
But, then came the unexpected. The pirate Jean Laffitte barged into the general�s headquarters one day at Maspero�s warehouse. To the general he was frank:
You want flints? I have 7,500 flints available at a snap of my fingers. You want powder? I have kegs-full. You want rifles, axes, men? They�re yours. I have a thousand fighting men. Jackson, I and my followers want to fight for America, but as free men, not as indentured servants. For a pardon for me and my Baratarians, we will help you send the enemy to hell. That is my promise.
It didn�t take Jackson long to consider. He liked Laffitte�s manners, his honesty, his guts. �Friend,� he extended his palm, �I give you my word.�
Jackson with the help of the French pirate and his 1,000 men in the swamps in Louisiana won a stunning victory killing 2,600 British troops and their general while losing only 13 men. The British fled, New Orleans was saved and the security of the Mississippi waterway was preserved. Britain has never again attempted a direct military conquest of the confederacy of the United States of America. (Yes, America was still a confederacy in 1814.)
Confederated Republic vs. Centralized Democracy
There are many types of government such as monarchy, fascism, corporatism, capitalism, democratic socialism, communism. Historical facts show that all of these are highly centralized in nature under the control of bureaucrats and leaders by whatever name and alleged ideology and the results have always been the subjugation of the people. Thus, since all of these forms of government function around a central control, they are all Federalists.
Anti-Federalists who were opposed to monarchy as a form of government made up the main group of Founding Fathers who issued the Declaration of Independence and who fashioned the Constitution of the confederacy of the United States of America in 1777, which was ratified in 1781. They did not want a strong centralized government, because it resembled a monarchy too closely. Instead they created a confederacy of sovereign state republics.
But problems surfaced during the Revolutionary War that begged for congressional action to produce amendments that would facilitate better cooperation between the several sovereign states of the confederacy. The Federalists, in particular, seized upon this as an opportunity to change the confederacy into a centralized super state, and they spoke and voted for a committee of Congress to work on amendments to the Constitution. Thus on February 21, 1787 Congress called for a Constitutional Convention to be held on May 14, 1787 at the Philadelphia statehouse to revise and update the ratified Constitution of 1781.
Thomas Jefferson, a key anti-Federalist leader, was serving a foreign mission in France at the time and thus was unable to stop the Federalist attack upon the confederacy. Patrick Henry was present and did what he could to stop the Federalists, but they ultimately won a stronger version of amendments than was acceptable to the anti-Federalists. James Madison had to write a Bill of Rights and get it endorsed by Congress on or about June 25, 1788 as a compromise in order to gain ratification of the newly amended Federalist leaning Constitution.
The Constitution of the confederacy of the United States as newly amended and revised was ratified on June 25, 1788, without the Bill of Rights, which was ratified September 15, 1791. On July 2, 1788, President Cyrus Griffin announced that the ratification of the amended Constitution had been achieved. March 4, 1789, was set by Congress to be the date the amended Constitution would go into effect for the legislature, but it was April 30, 1789, before President George Washington enacted the newly amended Constitution creating a stronger central government.
The Federalists began claiming that this was the first constitution, and the date that the United States was formed was April 30, 1789. Many history books today make this false Federalist claim. It was, however, simply the date that the new amendments would take legal effect for the executive branch. George Washington was a Federalist and a war hero and thus the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton began calling him �our first president.� He was not the first president, of course, but the 11th.
Add nine to all your establishment numbers: George W. Bush would be the 52nd president of the United States.
Bibliography:
Arthur, Stanley Clisby, Jean Laffitte, Gentleman Rover, New Orleans, Harmanson, 1952.
Boorstin, Daniel J., �The Mythologizing of George Washington,� in The Americans: The National Experience, New York, Vintage Books, 1965.
Brown, Wilburt S., The Amphibious Campaign for New Orleans, 1814-1815, PhD Thesis, University of Alabama, 1963.
Feinberg, Barbara Silberdick, The Articles of Confederation: The First Constitution of the United States, Twenty-First Century Books, Millbook Press, 2002. | 