If you've ever lived in a planned development or a condominium, you know how important rules are to maintain order in a place where so many people live. Imagine, then, what it was like for the early colonists on the American continent who came from a structured government in Great Britain and found themselves in the wilderness without a plan for government.

Most people associate Robert's Rules of Order with the United States, but parliamentary law and procedure started with parliament in England around the thirteenth century. Some of the groups who traveled here by ship began to experiment with charters and other systems on the trip over, and before long, there were many strains of the parliamentary law hybrid sprouting up in the colonies.

The early settlers weren't just people in search of religious freedom. Some were businessmen and entrepreneurs, and some were politicians and military officers. It was natural for them to use the traditional parliamentary law developed in Great Britain in the thirteenth century, adapting it as needed. After all, they were proponents of change!

Thomas Jefferson and Parliamentary Practice

Most people know that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but many don't know that he authored the Manual of Parliamentary Practice, published in 1801. There would be a need, after all, for a form of parliamentary law that would help those governing the new country. As “victims” of British oppression in the colonies, Jefferson and other American leaders wanted to make certain that the country had a working democratic government.

Jefferson drew up a plan for American government that used some elements of British parliamentary procedure, such as the rules for the British House of Commons. The U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives owe their procedure for running our government to Jefferson's plan.

A Good Idea Gets Duplicated

As the “big” governing organizations began doing their jobs, many other levels beneath them began to come into existence. Some of these were concerned with state and local governing bodies, but many weren't created to make or enforce laws. Other organizations from fraternal to business groups needed some form to guide their meeting business. After all, who wants to sound like the president of the United States at the local fraternal hall?