Photo from eBay A postcard of Boudinot’s Boxwood Hall home in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Now, it should be clear that we’re not talking about that “President” or that “Continental Congress.”

Yes, there’s a lot going on in that sentence.

But that doesn’t mean the sentence is factually incorrect because it isn’t.

And through in the proposed colony and it’s quite the story.

Photo from eBay An image of Revolutionary statesman Elias Boudinot.

Let’s start with a little biographical sketch of Elias Boudinot.

He was born in Philadelphia in 1740. According to the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey, Boudinot attended a school established by Benjamin Franklin, who was a next door neighbor as a child.

He attended Princeton (where he would subsequently serve on the board of trustees for nearly 50 years) and became an attorney in 1760, setting up shop in Elizabethtown, N.J.

He would eventually become a revolutionary and many sources deem him a Founding Father.

The Society of Cincinnati page on Boudinot states that he “began his service in the Revolutionary War as Colonel and Commissary General of Prisoners for the Continental Army during the American Revolution from 15 May 1777 to 11 May 1778, when he resigned to accept office as Delegate to the Continental Congress.”

That source notes that he operated a spy service for much of the war, passing mis-information to famed military commanders like William Howe and Henry Clinton.

Additional details on his Revolutionary service can be found at eliasboudinot.com – he was initially appointed an Essex County committeeman as part of the protest effort. He wasn’t among the representatives selected to represent New Jersey in the more famous Continental Congress but was appointed to the colony’s Committee of Correspondence and Committee of Safety.

According to the website that bears his name, Boudinot “agreed to serve, at the request of General Washington, as the Commissary General of Prisoners” after Washington was tasked with leading the colonial army. “In fact, Washington would utilize Commissary General Elisa Boudinot to coordinate intelligence activities, many of which stemmed from British prisoners sympathetic to the independence of the United States.”

That site included a letter that Boudinot wrote about this season of his life: “In the spring of 1777 General Washington wrote me a letter dated Morristown April 1st, 1777, requesting me to accept a commission as commissary-General of Prisoners in the Army of America. I waited on him and politely declined the task, urging the wants of the Prisoners and having nothing to supply them: He very kindly objected to the conduct of gentlemen of the country refusing to join him in his arduous Struggle. That he had nothing in view but the salvation of his Country, but it was impossible for him to accomplish it alone: That if men of character and influence would not come forward and join him in his exertions, all would be lost — Affected by this address and Supposing that I could be of some service to the Prisoners and at the same time have an eye on the military Power and prevent its encroachments on the Civil authority, I consented to accept the Commission, on the General’s assurance that I should be supplied by the secret Committee of Congress with hard money for the relief of Prisoners and that I should only be subject to his orders, in the conduct of my department.”

Boudinot resigned that post to accept a seat in the Continental Congress in 1778. He also served there in 1781, 1782 and 1783.

This is where we can refer to Mr. Boudinot as Mr. President.

It’s important to remember that the U.S. Constitution as we know it was still a decade in the future.

Living under the Articles of Confederation, which established a very weak central government, specifically the inability to regulate commerce (i.e. – it couldn’t tax). The problem there might be obvious to us today but not so much when the document went into effect in 1781 and the popular view was that state governments should handle most of their own affairs.

Guess what the title of the person leading the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation? President of the United States in Congress Assembled.”

Other presidents of the Continental Congress included John Hancock, John Jay and Thoms McKean (think McKean County). To be clear, this office and what we now know as president had no real similarities. Boudinot the president had precious little power, though it did have some document signing and ceremonial purposes.

He was, however, involved in what we now know as the federal government from its inception.

According to the Society of the Cincinnati, he was a member of the New Jersey Convention that voted to ratify the new governing document.

And he would go on to be the only one of the Continental Congress presidents to serve in the Congress we now know as he was elected as a representative from New Jersey for the First, Second and Third Congresses (or 1789-1795).

According to his House biography, he was elected as a “Pro-Administration” candidate.

From there, he was appointed by George Washington, the first actual president, to head the United States Mint, a post he held into the Jefferson years, resigning in 1805.

The county connection will follow next week….