There were fourteen presidents of the United States prior to the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. During this time, the majority of the people in the United States identified their local and state governments as being the most important governing bodies, and what little power the national government did have was largely confined to Congress. Therefore, the first fourteen presidents go virtually unrecognized during the study of American History.

President	Home State	Date He Took Office
1. Peyton Randolph	Virginia	September 5, 1774
2. Henry Middleton	South Carolina	October 22, 1774.
**Peyton Randolph (finished Middleton's term)	Virginia	May 10, 1775
3. John Hancock	Massachusetts	May 24, 1775.
4. Henry Laurens	South Carolina	November 1, 1777
5. John Jay	New York	December 10, 1778
6. Samuel Huntington	Connecticut	September 28, 1779
7. Thomas McKean	Delaware	July 10, 1781
8. John Hanson	Maryland	November 5, 1781
9. Elias Boudinot	New Jersey	November 4, 1782
10. Thomas Mifflin	Pennsylvania	November 3, 1783
11. Richard Henry Lee	Virginia	November 30, 1784
12. Nathaniel Gorham	Massachusetts	June 6, 1786
13. Arthur St. Clair	Pennsylvania	February 2, 1787
14. Cyrus Griffin	Virginia	January 22, 1788