''A Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States'', written by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

in 1801, is the first American book on

parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...

. As

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice p ...

, Jefferson served as the Senate's presiding officer from 1797 to 1801. Throughout these four years, Jefferson worked on various texts and, in early 1800, started to assemble them into a single manuscript for the Senate's use. In December 1800 he delivered his manuscript to printer Samuel Harrison Smith, who delivered the final product to Jefferson on February 27, 1801. Later, the House of Representatives also adopted the ''Manual'' for use in its chamber. Jefferson's ''Manual'' was based on notes Jefferson took while studying parliamentary procedure at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William ...

. A second edition with added material by Jefferson was printed in 1812. The ''Manual'' is arranged in fifty-three categories from (1) The Importance of Adhering to Rules to (53)

Impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

. Each section includes the appropriate rules and practices of the British Parliament along with the applicable texts from the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nati ...

and the thirty-two Senate rules that existed in 1801.

U.S. Senate

The Senate traditionally has not considered Jefferson's ''Manual of Parliamentary Practice'' to be its direct authority on parliamentary procedure. However, starting in 1828 the Senate began publishing a version of Jefferson's ''Manual'' for their use, removing the Senate Rules from within the text and placing them in a separate section. In 1888, when the Senate initiated publication of the ''Senate Manual'', a copy of the manual was included in each biennial edition. This practice continued until 1977.

U.S. House of Representatives

The House of Representatives formally incorporated Jefferson's ''Manual'' into its rules in 1837, stipulating that the manual "should govern the House in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the standing rules and order of the House and the joint rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives." Since then, the House has regularly printed an abridged version of the ''Manual'' in its publication entitled ''Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives''.

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First edition
published in 1801

{{Authority control 1801 non-fiction books Books by Thomas Jefferson United States House of Representatives Parliamentary authority Books about politics of the United States Books written by presidents of the United States

U.S. Senate

U.S. House of Representatives

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