**Thank you Russ Pickett for allowing me to share this with my friends ... an awesome step back into history**
Peyton Randolph
" 1st President of the Continental Congress "
" Virginia "
( September 5, 1774 - October 22, 1774 - 1st Term )
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Date & Place of Birth
September, 1721, Williamsburg, Virginia
Passed Away
October 22, 1775, Philadelphia, Pa.
Place of Burial
College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Parents
John & Susannah Beverley Randolph
Married
Betty Harrison
Children
None
When delegates first gathered in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress, they elected the former King's Attorney of Virginia as the moderator and president of their meeting. He was a propitious choice. He was a legal prodigy — having studied at the Inner Temple in London, served as his native colony's Attorney General, and tutored many of the most able men of the South at William and Mary College — including the young Patrick Henry.
His home in Williamsburg was the gathering place for Virginia's legal and political gentry — and it remains a popular attraction in the restored colonial capital. He had served as a delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and had been a commander under William Byrd in the colonial militia. He was a scholar of some renown — having begun a self-guided reading of the classics when he was thirteen.
He served the Continental Congress as president twice. During his first term in office he was forced to retire due to poor health on October 22, 1774 and Henry Middleton ( see below ) became the second person elected to the position. He returned to the position for a few short days again on May 10, 1775 however his heath once again forced him to resign. He never lived to see independence, yet was numbered among the nation's most revered founders.
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Click Here - to visit "Peyton Randolph's" Homes Website
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Henry Middleton
" 2nd President of the Continental Congress "
South Carolina
( October 22, 1774 - May 10, 1775 )
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Date & Place of Birth
1717, The Oaks, near Charleston, South Carolina
Passed Away
June 13, 1784, Charleston, South Carolina
Place of Burial
Middleton Gardens, Charleston, South Carolina
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
America's second president of the Continental Congress was one of the wealthiest planters in the South, the patriarch of the most powerful families anywhere in the nation. His public spirit was evident from an early age.
He was a member of his state's Common House from 1744-1747. During the last two years he served as the Speaker. During 1755 he was the King's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was a member of the South Carolina Council from 1755-1770. His valor in the War with the Cherokees during 1760-1761 earned him wide recognition throughout the colonies — and demonstrated his cool leadership abilities while under pressure.
He was elected as a delegate to the first session of the Continental Congress and when Peyton Randolph was forced to resign the presidency, his peers immediately turned to Middleton to complete the term. He served as the fledgling coalition's president from October 22, 1774 until Randolph was able to resume his duties briefly beginning on May 10, 1775.
Afterward, he was a member of the Congressional Council of Safety and helped to establish the young nation's policy toward the encouragement and support of education. In February 1776 he resigned his political involvements in order to prepare his family and lands for what he believed was inevitable war — but he was replaced by his son Arthur who eventually became a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, served time as an English prisoner of war, and was twice elected Governor of his state.
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Click Here - to visit "Henry Middleton's" homes website
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Peyton Randolph
" 3rd President of the Continental Congress "
" Virginia "
( May 10, 1775 - May 23, 1775 - 2nd Term )
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See Above For All Information During His 1st Term
John Hancock
" 4th President of the Continental Congress "
" Massachusetts "
( May 24, 1775 - October 31, 1777 - 1st Term )
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Date & Place of Birth
January 12, 1737, Braintree, Massachusetts
Passed Away
October 8, 1793, Quincy, Massachusetts
Place of Burial
Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts
Parents
John & Mary Hawke Hancock
Married
Dorothy Quincy on Aug. 28, 1775 in Fairfield Conn. - ( 1744-1818 )
Children
Lydia - ( 1776 - 1776 )
John George Washington - ( 1778 - Jan. 27, 1787 )
The third president of the Continental Congress was a patriot, rebel leader, merchant who signed his name into immortality in giant strokes on the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The boldness of his signature has made it live in American minds as a perfect expression of the strength and freedom — and defiance — of the individual in the face of British tyranny.
As President of the Continental Congress during two widely spaced terms — the first from May 24 1775 to October 30 1777 and the second from November 23, 1785 to June 5, 1786 — Hancock was the presiding officer when the members approved the Declaration of Independence. Because of his position, it was his official duty to sign the document first — but not necessarily as dramatically as he did.
Hancock figured prominently in another historic event — the battle at Lexington British troops who fought there April 10, 1775, had known Hancock and Samuel Adams were in Lexington and had come there to capture these rebel leaders. And the two would have been captured, if they had not been warned by Paul Revere. As early as 1768, Hancock defied the British by refusing to pay customs charges on the cargo of one of his ships. One of Boston's wealthiest merchants, he was recognized by the citizens, as well as by the British, as a rebel leader — and was elected President of the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress.
After he was chosen President of the Continental Congress in 1775, Hancock became known beyond the borders of Massachusetts, and, having served as colonel of the Massachusetts Governor's Guards he hoped to be named commander of the American forces — until John Adams nominated George Washington.
In 1778 Hancock was commissioned Major General and took part in an unsuccessful campaign in Rhode Island. But it was as a political leader that his real distinction was earned — as the first Governor of Massachusetts, as President of Congress, and as President of the Massachusetts constitutional ratification convention. He helped win ratification in Massachusetts, gaining enough popular recognition to make him a contender for the newly created Presidency of the United States, but again he saw Washington gain the prize.
Like his rival, George Washington, Hancock was a wealthy man who risked much for the cause of independence. He was the wealthiest New Englander supporting the patriotic cause, and, although he lacked the brilliance of John Adams or the capacity to inspire of Samuel Adams, he became one of the foremost leaders of the new nation — perhaps, in part, because he was willing to commit so much at such risk to the cause of freedom.
 ( Photo by Reed Gerard ) |
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Henry Laurens
" 5th President of the Continental Congress "
" South Carolina "
( November 1, 1777 - December 9, 1778 )
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Date & Place of Birth
March 6, 1724, Charleston, South Carolina
Passed Away
1792, "Mepkin," near Charleston, South Carolina
Place of Burial
Cremated
Parents
John & _____ Laurens
Married
currently unknown
Children
John
There were others
The only Continental Congress President ever to be held as a prisoner of war by a foreign power, Laurens was heralded after he was released as "the father of our country," by no less a personage than George Washington.
He was of Huguenot extraction, his ancestors having come to America from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the Reformed faith illegal. Raised and educated for a life of mercantilism at his home in Charleston, he also had the opportunity to spend more than a year in continental travel. It was while in Europe that he began to write revolutionary pamphlets — gaining him renown as a patriot.
He served as vice-president of South Carolina in1776. He was then elected to the Continental Congress. He succeeded John Hancock as President of the newly independent but war beleaguered United States on November 1, 1777. He served until December 9, 1778 at which time he was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Unfortunately for the cause of the young nation, he was captured by an English warship during his cross-Atlantic voyage and was confined to the Tower of London until the end of the war. After the Battle of Yorktown, the American government regained his freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange — Henry Laurens for Lord Cornwallis. Ever the patriot, Laurens continued to serve his nation as one of the three representatives selected to negotiate terms at the Paris Peace Conference in 1782.
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John Jay
" 6th President of the Continental Congress "
" New York "
( December 10, 1778 - September 27, 1779 )
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Date & Place of Birth
December 12, 1745, New York, New York
Passed Away
May 17, 1829, Bedford, near New York, New York
Place of Burial
John Jay Cemetery, Rye, New York
Parents
Peter & Mary Anna Van Courtland Jay
Married
Sarah Van Brugh Livingston on April 28, 1774 - (1756 - 1802)
Children
Peter Augustus - ( Jan. 24, 1776 - Feb. 20, 1843)
America's first Secretary of State, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of its first ambassadors, and author of some of the celebrated Federalist Papers, Jay was a Founding Father who, by a quirk of fate, missed signing the Declaration of Independence — at the time of the vote for independence and the signing, he had temporarily left the Continental Congress to serve in New York's revolutionary legislature. Nevertheless, he was chosen by his peers to succeed Henry Laurens as President of the United States — serving a term from December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779.
A conservative New York lawyer who was at first against the idea of independence for the colonies, the aristocratic Jay in 1776 turned into a patriot who was willing to give the next twenty-five years of his life to help establish the new nation. During those years, he won the regard of his peers as a dedicated and accomplished statesman and a man of unwavering principle.
In the Continental Congress Jay prepared addresses to the people of Canada and Great Britain. In New York he drafted the State constitution and served as Chief Justice during the war.
He was President of the Continental Congress before he undertook the difficult assignment, as ambassador, of trying to gain support and funds from Spain. After helping Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Laurens complete peace negotiations in Paris in 1783, Jay returned to become the first Secretary of State, called "Secretary of Foreign Affairs" under the Articles of Confederation. He negotiated valuable commercial treaties with Russia and Morocco, and dealt with the continuing controversy with Britain and Spain over the southern and western boundaries of the United States.
He proposed that America and Britain establish a joint commission to arbitrate disputes that remained after the war — a proposal which, though not adopted, influenced the government's use of arbitration and diplomacy in settling later international problems. In this post Jay felt keenly the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and was one of the first to advocate a new governmental compact. He wrote five Federalist Papers supporting the Constitution, and he was a leader in the New York ratification convention.
As first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jay made the historic decision that a State could be sued by a citizen from another State, which led to the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. On a special mission to London he concluded the "Jay Treaty," which helped avert a renewal of hostilities with Britain but won little popular favor at home — and it is probably for this treaty that this Founding Father is best remembered.
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Samuel Huntington
" 7th President of the Continental Congress "
" Connecticut "
( September 28, 1779 - July 9, 1781 )
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Date & Place of Birth
July 3, 1731, Windham, Connecticut
Passed Away
January 5, 1796, Norwich, Connecticut
Place of Burial
Old Norwichtown Cemetery, Norwich, Connecticut
Parents
Nathaniel & _____ Huntington
Married
Martha Devotion
Children
None
An industrious youth who mastered his studies of the law without the advantage of a school, a tutor, or a master — borrowing books and snatching opportunities to read and research between odd jobs — he was one of the greatest self-made men among the Founders. He was also one of the greatest legal minds of the age — all the more remarkable for his lack of advantage as a youth.
In 1764, in recognition of his obvious abilities and initiative, he was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut. The next year he was chosen to serve on the Executive Council. In 1774 he was appointed Associate Judge of the Superior Court and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, was acknowledged to be a legal scholar of some respect. He served in Congress for five consecutive terms, during the last of which he was elected President. He served in that off ice from September 28, 1779 until ill health forced him to resign on July 9, 1781.
He returned to his home in Connecticut — and as he recuperated, he accepted more Counciliar and Bench duties. He again took his seat in Congress in 1783, but left it to become Chief Justice of his state's Superior Court. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1785 and Governor in 1786. According to John Jay, he was "the most precisely trained Christian jurists ever to serve his country."
 ( Photo by Erik Lander ) |
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Thomas McKean
" 8th President of the Continental Congress "
" Delaware "
( July 10, 1781 - November 4, 1781 )
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Date & Place of Birth
March 19, 1734, New London, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Passed Away
June 24, 1817, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Place of Burial
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.
Parents
William & Letitia Finney McKean
Married (1st)
Mary Borden - in 1763 - ( ?? - 1773 )
Children with Mary
Joseph - ( 1764-1826 )
Robert - ( 1766-1802 )
Elizabeth - ( 1767-1811 )
Letitia - ( 1769-1845 )
Mary - ( 1771-1781 )
Anne - ( 1773-1804 )
Married (2nd)
Sarah Armitage - in 1774
Children with Sarah
Sarah - ( 1777-1841 )
Thomas, Jr. - ( 1779-1852 )
Sophia - ( 1783-1819 )
Maria - ( 1785-1788 )
During his astonishingly varied fifty-year career in public life he held almost every possible position—from deputy county attorney to President of the Continental Congress. Besides signing the Declaration of Independence, he contributed significantly to the development and establishment of constitutional government in both his home state of Delaware and the nation.
At the Stamp Act Congress he proposed the voting procedure that Congress adopted that each colony, regardless of size or population, have one vote—the practice adopted by the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation, and the principle of state equality manifest in the composition of the Senate. And as county judge in 1765, he defied the British by ordering his court to work only with documents that did not bear the hated stamps.
In June 1776, at the Continental Congress, McKean joined with Caesar Rodney to register Delaware's approval of the Declaration of Independence, over the negative vote of the third Delaware delegate, George Read—permitting it to be "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States." And at a special Delaware convention, he drafted the constitution for that State. On September 22, 1777 he was serving as the Speaker of the House in the Delaware State General Assembly and he assumed the office of "Governor" of the State of Delaware after the British captured Delaware's 1st Governor, John McKinley. He was appointed the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania one month later on October 20, 1777.
McKean also helped draft — and signed — the Articles of Confederation. It was during his tenure of service as President of the Continental Congress — from July 10, 1781 to November 4, 1782 — when news arrived from General Washington in October 1781 that the British had surrendered following the Battle of Yorktown.
As Chief Justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, he contributed to the establishment of the legal system in that State, and, in 1787, he strongly supported the Constitution at the Pennsylvania Ratification Convention, declaring it "the best the world has yet seen."
At sixty-five, after over forty years of public service, McKean resigned from his post as Chief Justice. A candidate on the Democratic-Republican ticket in 1799, McKean was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. As Governor, he followed such a strict policy of appointing only fellow Republicans to office that he became the father of the spoils system in America. He served three tempestuous terms as Governor, completing one of the longest continuous careers of public service of any of the Founding Fathers.
( Photo by Erik Lander ) |
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John Hanson
" 9th President of the Continental Congress "
" Maryland "
( November 5, 1781 - November 3, 1782 )
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Date & Place of Birth
April 3, 1715, Mulberry Grove, Charles County, Maryland
Passed Away
November 22, 1783, Oxon Hill, Prince George's County, Maryland
Place of Burial
Addison Graveyard, Oxon Hill, Maryland
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
He was the heir of one of the greatest family traditions in the colonies and became the patriarch of a long line of American patriots — his great grandfather died at Lutzen beside the great King Gustavus Aldophus of Sweden; his grandfather was one of the founders of New Sweden along the Delaware River in Delaware; one of his nephews was the military secretary to George Washington; another was a signer of the Declaration; still another was a signer of the Constitution; yet another was Governor of Maryland during the Revolution; and still another was a member of the first Congress; two sons were killed in action with the Continental Army; a grandson served as a member of Congress under the new Constitution; and another grandson was a Maryland Senator.
Thus, even if Hanson had not served as President of the Continental Congress himself, he would have greatly contributed to the life of the nation through his ancestry and progeny.
As a youngster he began a self-guided reading of classics and rather quickly became an acknowledged expert in the juridicalism of Anselm and the practical philosophy of Seneca — both of which were influential in the development of the political philosophy of the great leaders of the Reformation. It was based upon these legal and theological studies that the young planter — his farm, Mulberry Grove was just across the Potomac from Mount Vernon — began to espouse the cause of the patriots.
In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Legislature of Maryland. Then in 1777, he became a member of Congress where he distinguished himself as a brilliant administrator. Thus, he was elected President of the Continental Congress in 1781. He served in that office from November 5, 1781 until November 3, 1782. He was the first President of the Continental Congress to serve a full term after the full ratification of the Articles of Confederation — and like so many of the Southern and New England Founders, he was strongly opposed to the Constitution when it was first discussed. He remained a confirmed anti-federalist until his untimely death.
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Elias Boudinot
" 10th President of the Continental Congress "
" New Jersey "
( November 4, 1782 - November 3, 1783 )
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Date & Place of Birth
May 2, 1740, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Passed Away
October 24, 1821, Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey
Place of Burial
Saint Marys Cemetery, Burlington, New Jersey
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
He did not sign the Declaration, the Articles, or the Constitution. He did not serve in the Continental Army with distinction. He was not renowned for his legal mind or his political skills. He was instead a man who spent his entire career in foreign diplomacy. He earned the respect of his fellow patriots during the dangerous days following the traitorous action of Benedict Arnold. His deft handling of relations with Canada also earned him great praise.
After being elected to the Congress from his home state of New Jersey, he served as the new nation's Secretary for Foreign Affairs — managing the influx of aid from France, Spain, and Holland. Then in 1783 he was elected to the Presidency of the Continental Congress. He served in that office from November 4, 1782 until November 2, 1783. Like so many of the other early presidents, he was a classically trained scholar, of the Reformed faith, and an anti-federalist in political matters. He was the father and grandfather of frontiersmen — and one of his grandchildren and namesakes eventually became a leader of the Cherokee nation in its bid for independence from the sprawling expansion of the United States.
( Photo by Russ Dodge ) |
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Thomas Mifflin
" 11th President of the Continental Congress "
" New Jersey "
( November 4, 1783 - November 29, 1784 )
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Date & Place of Birth
January 10, 1744, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Passed Away
January 20, 1800, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Place of Burial
Trinity Lutheran Churchyard, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
By an ironic sort of providence, Thomas Mifflin served as George Washington's first aide-de-camp at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and, when the war was over, he was the man, as President of the Continental Congress, who accepted Washington's resignation of his commission.
In the years between, Mifflin greatly served the cause of freedom — and, apparently , his own cause — while serving as the first Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. He obtained desperately needed supplies for the new army — and was suspected of making excessive profit himself.
Although experienced in business and successful in obtaining supplies for the war, Mifflin preferred the front lines, and he distinguished himself in military actions on Long Island and also near Philadelphia.
Born and reared a Quaker, he was excluded from their meetings for his military activities. A controversial figure, Mifflin lost favor with Washington and was part of the Conway Cabal — a rather notorious plan to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. And Mifflin narrowly missed court-martial action over his handling of funds by resigning his commission in 1778.
In spite of these problems — and of repeated charges that he was a drunkard — Mifflin continued to be elected to positions of responsibility — as President and Governor of Pennsylvania, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, as well as the highest office in the land — where he served from November 3, 1783 to November 29, 1784.
Most of Mifflin's significant contributions occurred in his earlier years — in the First and Second Continental Congresses he was firm in his stand for independence and for fighting for it, and he helped obtain both men and supplies for Washington's army in the early critical period. In 1784, as of the President of the Continental Congress, he signed the treaty with Great Britain which ended the war. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he did not make a significant contribution — beyond signing the document.
As Governor of Pennsylvania, although he was accused of negligence, he supported improvements of roads, and reformed the State penal and judicial systems. He had gradually become sympathetic to Jefferson's principles regarding State's rights, even so, he directed the Pennsylvania militia to support the Federal tax collectors in the Whiskey Rebellion. In spite of charges of corruption, the affable Mifflin remained a popular figure. A magnetic personality and an effective speaker, he managed to hold a variety of elective offices for almost thirty years of the critical Revolutionary period.
( Photo by Ryan Gleason ) |
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Richard Henry Lee
" 12th President of the Continental Congress "
" Virginia "
( November 30, 1784 - November 22, 1785 )
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Date & Place of Birth
January 20, 1732, Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Passed Away
June 19, 1794, Chantilly, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Place of Burial
Burnt House Fields, Lee Family Estate, Coles Point, Va.
Parents
Thomas & Hannah Ludwell Lee
Married (1st)
Ann Aylett on Jan. 3, 1757 - ( 1738 - 1768 )
Children
Thomas - ( Oct. 20, 1758 - 1805 )
Ludwell - ( Oct. 13, 1760 - Mar. 23, 1836 )
Mary - ( Jul. 2, 1764 - 1795 )
Hannah - ( 1766 - 1801 )
Married (2nd)
Anne Gaskins Pinckard on Jul. 12, 1768
Children
Anne - ( Dec. 1, 1770 - Sep. 9, 1804 )
Henrietta - ( Dec. 10, 1773 - ca.1804 )
Sarah - ( Dec. 27, 1775 - May 8, 1837 )
Cassius - ( Aug. 18, 1779 - Jul. 8, 1798 )
Francis Lightfoot - ( Jun. 18, 1782 - Apr. 13, 1850 )
His resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States," approved by the Continental Congress July 2, 1776, was the first official act of the United Colonies that set them irrevocably on the road to independence. It was not surprising that it came from Lee's pen — as early as 1768 he proposed the idea of committees of correspondence among the colonies, and in 1774 he proposed that the colonies meet in what became the Continental Congress.
From the first, his eye was on independence. A wealthy Virginia planter whose ancestors had been granted extensive lands by King Charles II, Lee disdained the traditional aristocratic role and the aristocratic view. In the House of Burgesses he flatly denounced the practice of slavery. He saw independent America as "an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose."
In 1764, when news of the proposed Stamp Act reached Virginia, Lee was a member of the committee of the House of Burgesses that drew up an address to the King, an official protest against such a tax. After the tax was established, Lee organized the citizens of his county into the Westmoreland Association, a group pledged to buy no British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed.
At the First Continental Congress, Lee persuaded representatives from all the colonies to adopt this non-importation idea, leading to the formation of the Continental Association, which was one of the first steps toward union of the colonies. Lee also proposed to the First Continental Congress that a militia be organized and armed — the year before the first shots were fired at Lexington; but this and other proposals of his were considered too radical — at the time.
Three days after Lee introduced his resolution, in June of 1776, he was appointed by Congress to the committee responsible for drafting a declaration of independence, but he was called home when his wife fell ill, and his place was taken by his young protégé, Thomas Jefferson. Thus Lee missed the chance to draft the document — though his influence greatly shaped it and he was able to return in time to sign it.
He was elected President of the Continental Congress — serving from November 30, 1784 to November 22, 1785 when he was succeeded by the second administration of John Hancock. Elected to the Constitutional Convention, Lee refused to attend, but as a member of the Congress of the Confederation, he contributed to another great document, the Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the formation of new States from the Northwest Territory. When the completed Constitution was sent to the States for ratification, Lee opposed it as anti-democratic and anti-Christian. However, as one of Virginia's first Senators, he helped assure passage of the amendments that, he felt, corrected many of the document's gravest faults — the Bill of Rights. He was the great uncle of General Robert E. Lee and the scion of a great family tradition.
( Photo by Ryan Gleason ) |
Click Here - to visit "Richard Henry Lee's" Find A Grave record
John Hancock
" 13th President of the Continental Congress "
" Massachusetts "
( November 23, 1785 - June 5, 1786 - 2nd Term )
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See Above For All Information During His 1st Term
Nathaniel Gorham
" 14th President of the Continental Congress "
" Massachusetts "
( June 6, 1786 - February 1, 1787 )
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Date & Place of Birth
May 27, 1738, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Passed Away
June 11, 1796, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Place of Burial
Phipps Street Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
Another self-made man, Gorham was one of the many successful Boston merchants who risked all he had for the cause of freedom.
He was first elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1771. His honesty and integrity won his acclaim and was thus among the first delegates chose to serve in the Continental Congress. He remained in public service throughout the war and into the Constitutional period, though his greatest contribution was his call for a stronger central government. But even though he was an avid federalist, he did not believe that the union could — or even should — be maintained peaceably for more than a hundred years.
He was convinced that eventually, in order to avoid civil or cultural war, smaller regional interests should pursue an independent course. His support of a new constitution was rooted more in pragmatism than ideology. When John Hancock was unable to complete his second term as President of the Continental Congress, Gorham was elected to succeed him — serving from June 6, 1786 to February 1, 1787.
It was during this time that the Congress actually entertained the idea of asking Prince Henry — the brother of Frederick II of Prussia — and Bonnie Prince Charlie — the leader of the ill-fated Scottish Jacobite Rising and heir of the Stuart royal line — to consider the possibility of establishing a constitutional monarch in America. It was a plan that had much to recommend it but eventually the advocates of republicanism held the day. During the final years of his life, Gorham was concerned with several speculative land deals which nearly cost him his entire fortune.
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Arthur St. Clair
" 15th President of the Continental Congress "
" Pennsylvania "
( February 2, 1787 - Janaury 21, 1788 )
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Date & Place of Birth
March 23, 1734, Thurso, Caithness, Scotland
Passed Away
August 31, 1818, Hermitage, near Youngstown, Pennsylvania
Place of Burial
Old St. Clair Cemetery, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
Born and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland during the tumultuous days of the final Jacobite Rising and the Tartan Suppression, St. Clair was the only President of the Continental Congress born and bred on foreign soil.
Though most of his family and friends abandoned their devastated homeland in the years following the Battle of Culloden — after which nearly a third of the land was depopulated through emigration to America — he stayed behind to learn the ways of the hated Hanoverian English in the Royal Navy. His plan was to learn of the enemy's military might in order to fight another day. During the global conflict of the Seven Years War — generally known as the French and Indian War — he was stationed in the American theater.
Afterward, he decided to settle in Pennsylvania where many of his kin had established themselves. His civic-mindedness quickly became apparent he helped to organize both the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania militias, led the Continental Army's Canadian expedition, and was elected Congress. His long years of training in the enemy camp was finally paying off.
He was elected President of the Continental Congress in 1787 — and he served from February 2 of that year until January 21 of the next. Following his term of duty in the highest office in the land, he became the first Governor of the Northwest Territory and the founder of Cincinnati.
Though he briefly supported the idea of creating a constitutional monarchy under the Stuarts' Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was a strident Anti-Federalist — believing that the proposed federal constitution would eventually allow for the intrusion of government into virtually every sphere and aspect of life. He even predicted that under the vastly expanded centralized power of the state the taxing powers of bureaucrats and other unelected officials would eventually confiscate as much as a quarter of the income of the citizens — a notion that seemed laughable at the time but that has proven to be ominously modest in light of our current governmental leviathan.
St. Clair lived to see the hated English tyrants who destroyed his homeland defeated. But he despaired that his adopted home might actually create similar tyrannies and impose them upon themselves.
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Cyrus Griffin
" 16th & Last President of the Continental Congress "
" Virginia "
( January 22, 1788 - April 30, 1789 )
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Date & Place of Birth
July 16, 1748, Farnham, Richmond County, Virginia
Passed Away
December 14, 1810, Yorktown, Virginia
Place of Burial
Bruton Parish Episcopal Church, Williamsburg, Virginia
Parents
currently unknown
Married
currently unknown
Children
currently unknown
Like Peyton Randolph, he was trained in London's Inner Temple to be a lawyer—and thus was counted among his nation's legal elite. Like so many other Virginians, he was an anti-federalist, though he eventually accepted the new Constitution with the promise of the Bill of Rights as a hedge against the establishment of an American monarchy — which still had a good deal of currency.
The Articles of Confederation afforded such freedoms that he had become convinced that even with the incumbent loss of liberty, some new form of government would be required. A protégé of George Washington — having worked with him on several speculative land deals in the West — he was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional ratifying process.
It was during his term in the office of the Presidency of the Continental Congress — the last before the new national compact went into effect — that ratification was formalized and finalized. He served as the nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789.
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