British and American Foundings of Parliamentary Science 1775-1801

Upon declaring independence from Britain in July 1776, the United States Congress urgently needed to establish its credentials as a legitimate government that could credibly challenge the claims of the British Crown. In large measure this legitimacy rested upon setting in place the procedural and legal structures upon which all claims of governmental authority rest. In this book, Professor Aschenbrenner explores that ways in which the nascent United States rapidly built up a system of parliamentary procedure that borrowed heavily from the British government it sought to replace. In particular he looks at how, over the course of twenty-five years, Thomas Jefferson drew upon the writings of the Chief Clerk of the British Parliament, John Hatsell, to frame and codify American parliamentary procedures. Published in 1801, Jefferson’s ’Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States’ presents rules, instances, citations and commentary as modern readers would expect them to appear, quoting Hatsell and other British authorities numerous times. If the two nations suffered any unpleasant relations in the First War for American Independence - Aschenbrenner concludes - one would be hard pressed to detect it from Jefferson’s Manual. Indeed, direct comparison of the House of Commons and the Continental Congress shows remarkable similarities between the ambitions of the two institutions as they both struggled to adapt their political processes to meet the changing national and international circumstances of the late-eighteenth century.

Peter Aschenbrenner is Adjunct Professor at Purdue University. He studied history at the University of Wisconsin and took his law degree at the University of California, where he also served on the law review (Note and Comment Editor). During forty years practicing law in Alaska, Professor Aschenbrenner was appointed to serve as U.S. Magistrate Judge (1974-1991) and also to the Commission on Judicial Conduct (2004-2012). He has authored sixteen books on Alaska law and published twenty-nine articles in The Journal of the Alaska Bar Association on Constitutional Law. Professor Aschenbrenner contributes to The Journal of Public Law (London) as Reporter, At-Large, United States. He also served on the Supreme Court (United Kingdom) Research Project (1999-2000).