In 1779, Hanson was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress after serving in a variety of roles for the Patriot cause in Maryland.

Samuel Huntington and Thomas McKean had each preceded him under the Articles of Confederation, as had five other men as President of the Continental Congress before ratification.

[7] Samuel Hanson was a planter who owned more than 1,000 acres (4.0 km2),[1] and held a variety of political offices, including serving two terms in the Maryland General Assembly.

[1] In 1757, he was elected to represent Charles County in the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, where he served for twelve years, sitting on many important committees.

[1][7] When relations between Great Britain and the colonies became a crisis in 1774, Hanson became one of Frederick County's leading Patriots.

With the other delegates, he signed the Association of Freemen on July 26, 1775, which expressed hope for reconciliation with Great Britain but also called for military resistance to the enforcement of the Coercive Acts.

[3] With hostilities underway, Hanson chaired the Frederick County Committee of Observation, part of the Patriot organization that assumed control of local governance.

Responsible for recruiting and arming soldiers, Hanson proved to be an excellent organizer, and Frederick County sent the first southern troops to join George Washington's army.

[15] In June 1776, Hanson chaired the Frederick County meeting that urged provincial leaders in Annapolis to instruct Maryland's delegates in the Continental Congress to declare independence from Great Britain.

[16] While Congress worked on the Declaration of Independence, Hanson was in Frederick County "making gunlocks, storing powder, guarding prisoners, raising money and troops, dealing with Tories, and doing the myriad other tasks which went with being chairman of the committee of observation".

[17][7] "Hanson came to Philadelphia with the reputation of having been the leading financier of the revolution in western Maryland, and soon he was a member of several committees dealing with finance.

[17] When Congress received notice of this, Hanson joined Daniel Carroll in signing the Articles of Confederation on behalf of Maryland on March 1, 1781.

[19] Hanson found the work tedious and considered resigning after just one week, citing his poor health and family responsibilities.

[23] When the Articles went into effect in March 1781, Congress did not bother to elect a new president; instead, Samuel Huntington continued serving a term that had already exceeded a year.

In poor health, he died on November 15, 1783,[1] while visiting Oxon Hill Manor in Prince George's County, Maryland, the plantation of his nephew Thomas Hawkins Hanson.

[32] Small versions of these two statues (maquettes) sit on the president's desk in the Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House.

[34] In the 21st century, Maryland lawmakers have considered replacing Hanson's statue in Statuary Hall with one of Harriet Tubman.

[36] Smith's book asserts that the American Revolution had two primary leaders: George Washington on the battlefield and John Hanson in politics.