John Hancock served as president of the Second Continental Congress when it adopted the Declaration of Independence for America250’s founding anniversary.
Hancock, a wealthy merchant from Massachusetts, became president of the Continental Congress in May 1775. In that role, he presided over the debates and formal proceedings surrounding independence. His large signature appears on the engrossed parchment Declaration, making his name especially associated with the document.
Hancock did not primarily draft the Declaration. Congress appointed a five-member committee, and Thomas Jefferson wrote the principal draft. Congress then debated and revised the text before approving it on July 4, 1776.
The title “president” meant presiding officer of Congress, not president of the United States. The U.S. presidency was created by the Constitution more than a decade later. George Washington became the first person to hold that separate executive office in 1789.