A Founding U.S. Presidential Library - by Stanley L. Klos
A Founding U.S. Presidential
Library
April 18, 2005
by: Stanley L. Klos
Since 1997 our family has
been acquiring and exhibiting Presidential manuscripts, documents and letters of
the U.S. Confederation Period in hopes of rekindling a national awakening of
these Forgotten Founders. In 2003 we established a pilot Confederation
Presidential Museum and Library at the
Skibo Centre
in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
In that same year,
unbeknownst to me, the Norwich Historical Society was in the process of
restoring the tomb of the Samuel and Martha Huntington. In their research
on the Huntingtons the Society stumbled upon our website
SamuelHuntington.org where the
biography made the case that "Samuel Huntington became the first
President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled serving under
the Articles of Confederation, the 1st U.S. Constitution, in 1781, eight years
before George Washington." After careful analysis of the site by
Connecticut's offices of Governor, Representative
Rob Simmons and U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd the decision
was made to entombed Samuel Huntington into the newly restored vault as the 1st
President of the United States with full military honors. I was
given given the distinct honor to keynote the entombment on Tuesday,
November 24, 2003.
In February 2004 I was asked
to return to Norwich and address the Community explaining that ten U.S.
Presidents actually did serve under the
Articles of Confederation
before George Washington. It was during that period, December 2004 and January
2005, that I decided to rush to print my initial book of the confederation
period entitled President Who? Forgotten
Founders. During that February lecture I was introduced to the historic
venue of President Huntington’s Norwich Home and Law office. The historic
integrity of the building was intact and, to my amazement, the home was being
utilized to provide health care benefits to people who could not afford coverage
for their families. A proposal was made to purchase the home, office and grounds
at double the appraised value to partially utilize the complex as a Confederation
Presidential Museum and Library honoring the Forgotten Presidents. The offer was
respectfully declined.
Bill Stanley, the President
of the Norwich Historical Society, urged me not to give up hope on locating the
Presidential Museum in Norwich. I explained that we were looking at
several other sites in Pennsylvania and Virginia intending to move very quickly.
Despite this, I agreed to keep an open mind should the Huntington Complex ever
become available.
In July 2004 we contracted a
27,000 square foot building in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to establish a permanent
museum honoring the Confederation Presidents. This site was chosen for several
reasons:
-
Two U.S. Confederation
Presidents were Governors from Pennsylvania and one was a Prothonotary of
Western Pennsylvania.
-
It was the Articles of
Confederation that formed the "Perpetual Union" of the United States
with slavery as the glaring birth defect. This ultimately led to the
Civil War and this founding story was not being told within the
Gettysburg National Military Park Venue.
-
Gettysburg currently
attracts over 2 million tourists a year interested in U.S. History.
-
Abraham Lincoln, in his
Gettysburg Address, reached deeply into the ethos of the Confederation
Founding seeking to justify the Perpetual Union's preservation, opening
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal ..."
Frankly, we viewed this
location as an ideal venue to honor the Forgotten U.S. Presidents and the
Confederation Period. A formal presentation was made, in early December
2004, before Gettysburg Borough Council. The plan was overwhelming embraced by
Gettysburg Borough Council and two of the three Adams County Commissioners.
On December 22, 2004 our corporation acquired the building.
In early January 2005 the
President of the Norwich Historical Society, Bill Stanley, contacted us to
seeking our support in permanently establishing a U.S. Confederation
Presidential Library in Samuel Huntington’s Norwich home. Mr. Stanley claimed
to have the financial backing of the Mohegan Tribe with Connecticut State
elected officials soon to follow. This request took me by surprise but after
careful consideration, I agreed to shelve the Gettysburg Museum for the
following reasons.
- Samuel Huntington was the
1st President of the “Perpetual Union” of the United States and his
homestead in Norwich, as well as his birth home in Scotland Connecticut,
provide splendid venues that lend undeniable historic creditability to the
Confederation Presidential Library founding.
- Native American relations
during the Confederation period were second only to conducting the
Revolutionary War. The
Mohegan Tribe’s
interest in financially seeding the
Norwich
Presidential Museum is a resource that will insure the proper interpretation
of Native American Affairs during this crucial period in American History.
- The current use of Samuel
Huntington’s home for United Community & Family Services is a noble
mission that will be broadcast far and wide with the establishment of the
Presidential Library at their historic site.
- The willingness of the
founding committee to establish a Foundation Board of Directors comprised, in
part, of gubernatorial appointments from the U.S. Confederation Presidents’
home States will insure competent and balanced representation of all the
Presidential Founders.
We agreed to help in this
mission and I turned over my Presidents of the Confederation Foundation
Strategic Plan to the Norwich, Historical Society of Connecticut on January
18th, 2005. Today, April 18, 2005, Bill Stanley and his
supporters are announcing, in Norwich, their plans to restore the Samuel
Huntington Complex, build a Visitor's Center and create a Presidential Library
honoring the ten U.S. Presidents who served under the 1st Federal Constitution.
I urge all my readers and
website browsers to
download the Brochure (http://www.estoric.com/NorwichBrochure.pdf)
that is available for distribution in PDF format. Please feel free to
utilize the brochure to promote the Confederation Presidential Library and pass
this email on to your friends. Bill Stanley is also asking for
letters of support to be emailed to the
Norwich Bulletin.
(http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CUSTOMERSERVICE03)
Today is truly a great day
for America as important as the current U.S. Constitution may be, it lacks the
soul of the Confederation Founding. The time has finally come to
re-introduce America to its Founding Spirit of Independence and the men
who led the fledgling nation. This period has been veiled all too long under the
current Constitution of 1787.
With kind personal regards I
remain your most humble and obedient servant,
Stanley L. Klos
CONFEDERATION Presidents
of the
United
States of America
Samuel Huntington
(CT)
1st President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781
to July 6, 1781
Thomas McKean
(DE)
2nd President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
July 10, 1781
to November 5, 1781
John Hanson
(MD)
3rd President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
November 5, 1781
to November 4, 1782
Elias Boudinot
(NJ)
4th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
November 4, 1782
to November 3, 1783
Thomas Mifflin
(PA)
5th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
November 3, 1783
to June 3, 1784
Richard Henry Lee
(VA)
6th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
November 30, 1784
to November 23, 1785
John Hancock
(MA)
7th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
November 23, 1785
to June 6, 1786
Nathaniel Gorham
(MA)
8th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
June 1786 - November 13, 1786
Arthur St. Clair
(PA)
9th President of the
United States
in Congress Assembled
February 2, 1787
to October 29, 1787
Cyrus Griffin (VA)
10th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789