Much as Jefferson had updated Hatsell’s work, Cushing’s 1844 Manual of Parliamentary Practice: Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies is an update of Jefferson’s Manual.
In 1844, when Luther Cushing published his Manual of Parliamentary Practice [2], he was serving what would become a fourteen-year term as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Cushing worked within the legal sector, graduating from Harvard Law School in 1826 and then working for the famous Charles Sumner and George S. Hillard in Boston. He held several prestigious positions within the legislative and legal fields, as a Reporter for the Massachusetts Supreme Court and as a judge in the Court of Common Please (Boston). Cushing’s Manual “became a main reference for proceedings in deliberative assemblies” [3] and until his death in 1856, he updated it with new editions at least four times [3]. According to One Hundred Influential American Books Printed Before 1900, Cushing’s text was the manual to consult for issues of legislative proceedings: "As soon as it appeared, Cushing's Manual...became a guide for the procedure of all organized assemblies. Its sale was extensive, and thousands of copies were abroad as well as in this country. . . It was so thorough and complete in its original form that it is in constant use today by legislative bodies. From town-meeting to cabinet meeting, the Manual gave order to the democratic process" [2]. If this was the case, members of the Colored Conventions meetings after 1844 would have been familiar with this manual overviewing political rituals and deportment.
"Professionalization" and Cushing's Manual
In the brief precursor to the text itself, Cushing lays out its use and why he composed it. He states that the work is intended “especially for those [meetings] which are not legislative in their character” and notes the obvious, that his manual updates Jefferson's famous version [1]. An endorsement letter by Samuel H. Walley, Jr., asserts that Cushing's Manual will prove valuable to “public assemblies, to discharge their duties acceptably and profitably to the community” [1]. Certainly, the Colored Conventions might be just such a public assembly even if Cushing, like Jefferson and Hatsell before him, would not have imagined Black delegates as part of their political community.
In this excerpt from a 1877 edition, E.L.C. (probably Edmund Lambert Cushing) notes that "unprofessional men" or rather, those men who may be exemplified by some of the delegates less familiar with constitutional bodies and politics, may fail to understand that any "deliberative assembly" has leave to create their own binding rules. This language indicates how political entities were shifting during the nineteenth century. Even as the delegates of the Colored Conventions themselves shifted from the Black elite and upper-middle class to a more representative common-man as the century progressed, so to did the understanding of the Rules of the Conventions. Where at early conventions everyone was assumed to be well-read and to have a good understanding of political practices, such knowledge could not be as facilely understood in later Colored Conventions [4].
Examination of the rules and debates that erupted about rules adoption at Colored Conventions may give us insight into the backgrounds of the delegates. For instance, in the exerpt about the Rules of the 1855 National Colored Convention (featured in the image below), the use of Cushing's Manual is voted down, an action that caused the Rules Committee to resign. This may indicate tension between the 'old-guard,' or the Black elite who started and first attended Conventions, and the increasing presence and political power of new delegates who were sometimes less-educated and wealthy. Such tension would only further rise in the postbellum period, as greater numbers of the the "common man"--including recently freed enslaved farmers--swelled the attendence at conventions [4].
Use Over Time
Cushing's Manual, published in 1844, emerged as the Colored Conventions were again gaining momentum and were becoming larger in size and attendence. As it specifically addresses non-legislative bodies who are coming together for the purpose of debate and discussion, his manual was timely in meeting the purposes of the Conventions as well. As references to Cushing's Manual appear in the minutes of several Colored Conventions, it seems that this purpose was recognized by the delegates as well.
Figure 1. Below are excerpts from 3 Colored Conventions. Clockwise, from left: 1879 National Conference on Colored Men [Nashville, TN], 1870 Colored People's Educational Convention [Jefferson City, MO], and 1855 National Colored Convention [Philadelphia, PA] [5]
References
[1] Cushing, Luther Stearns, Manual of Parliamentary Practice: rules of proceedings and debate in deliberative assemblies. Boston: William J. Reynolds and Co., 1854. Digitized by Making of America Books. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ahm3718.0001.001/2?page=root;rgn=full+text;size=100;view=image.
[2] “Luther Stearns Cushing (1848-1853).” Massachusetts Court System (government website). Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2016. http://www.mass.gov/courts/court-info/sjc/about/reporter-of-decisions/luther-stearns-cushing.html.
[3] “Manual of Parliamentary Practice, Rules of Proceeding and Debate… Cushing, Luther S.” The Lawbook Exchange (commercial website). The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2016. http://www.lawbookexchange.com/pages/books/57603/luther-s-cushing/manual-of-parliamentary-practice-rules-of-proceeding-and-debate.
[4] Sandefer, Selena. "The Emigration Debate and the Southern Colored Convention Movement." Forthcoming in Foreman, Casey and Patterson eds. Colored Conventions in the Nineteenth Century and the Digital Age. Follow this link: http://coloredconventions.org/exhibits/show/postbellumsouthernconventions to an exhibit that re-images Sandefer's essay.
[5] National Conference of Colored Men of the United States (1879: Nashville, TN), “Proceedings of the National Conference of Colored Men of the United States, Held in the State Capitol at Nashville Tennessee, May 6, 7, 8 and 9, 1879,” ColoredConventions.org, accessed May 13, 2016, http://coloredconventions.org/items/show/323; Colored People's Educational Convention (1870: Jefferson City, MO), “Proceedings of the Colored People's Educational Convention held in Jefferson City, Missouri, January , 1870,” ColoredConventions.org, accessed May 13, 2016, http://coloredconventions.org/items/show/308; Colored National Convention (1855: Philadelphia, PA), “Proceedings of the Colored National Convention, held in Franklin Hall, Sixth Street, Below Arch, Philadelphia, October 16th, 17th and 18th, 1855,” ColoredConventions.org, accessed May 13, 2016, http://coloredconventions.org/items/show/281.
