http://www.bookrags.com/biography/henry-martyn-robert/

Encyclopedia of World Biography on Henry Martyn Robert

Anyone who has ever attended a civic or organizational business meeting has probably seen Robert's Rules of Order in action. But what few people know is that General Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) had a long and varied career, one that had an impact on the landscape of the United States, as well as on how its decisions are made.

Robert was born on May 2, 1837 on his grandfather's plantation near Robertville, South Carolina. His father was the Reverend Joseph Thomas Robert, a Baptist minister and teacher. Reverend Robert did not support slavery, and by the time his son was 16, the family had moved to Ohio. It was from Ohio that Robert received his appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point when he was 16.

In 1857, Robert graduated from the Military Academy with honors. Although he returned to teach at the academy the following year, he was given his first significant engineering assignment in August of 1859.

http://www.robertsrules.com/speech.html

Excerpts from

SPEECH BY HENRY M. ROBERT III

Describing Purpose and Features of

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief

Presented September 21, 2004 to the convention

of the National Association of Parliamentarians

(Reprinted with permission from Fourth Quarter 2003

issue of the National Parliamentarian)

Madam President; Fellow Members of NAP:

Our President has graciously asked me to speak for a few minutes, at this opening meeting of the 34th Biennial Convention of the National Association of Parliamentarians, about my family's legacy to the field of parliamentary law.

That legacy was of course left to us by my grandfather, General Henry Martyn Robert, whose name I am privileged to share. Although I never knew my grandfather personally, I have very vivid recollections of how his son and namesake, my father, would speak of him to me from the time I was a little boy. It is, perhaps, natural for a young boy to look up to his father as an almost all-powerful and all-knowing being. Certainly that was the way I thought of my father. However, both my father and my mother spoke of my grandfather in such terms that, great as was my admiration for my own father, it paled in comparison to the respect, bordering on awe, I was brought up to have for my grandfather.

Over my own lifetime, as I have studied General Robert's life and works, that respect, while it has matured, has not diminished; it has increased. Indeed, it has come into clearer focus from my conversations with Bill Reed, the President's husband, who is in the course of preparing a scholarly biography of my grandfather. There is much to admire in his relations with his family, his care of his friends, his church activity, his lifelong devotion to great literature, and his quite remarkable career as a civil engineer in the Army and after his retirement from the service. What is of most interest to this gathering, however, is naturally what he has left to parliamentary law.

The story of how he came to feel the need for a manual of parliamentary law, and then to write and publish his first edition, has been often told, including in the introduction to Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. I shall not repeat it here.

In the almost half-century between the first edition's publication and his death, he significantly re-edited and expanded it three times- with the last, the 325-page 1915 Robert's Rules of Order Revised, requiring, he said, more work than the three previous editions combined. He thereafter wrote the 599-page treatise, Parliamentary Law, and a text for classroom teaching, Parliamentary Practice. In all of this, he was greatly influenced by the vast quantity of letters he received from those seeking resolution of parliamentary quandaries not clearly answered in the then-existing work.

With this experience, he fully grasped the need for continuing development of parliamentary law and consequent revision of the parliamentary manual. Accordingly, he looked to my father to carry on the legacy. In a letter to his publisher dated September 17, 1922, he wrote: "After my death I expect my son, Prof. Henry M. Robert, Jr., of the [U.S.] Naval Academy to continue my work. He has delivered lectures on parliamentary law and is now preparing the index to [the book] 'Parliamentary Law.' He is enthusiastic about both these books, and I expect him to revise them when, say in 20 years, it may be advisable."

My father indeed succeeded to the mission of responding to the many questions of parliamentary law that continued to come in after my grandfather's death. He taught courses in the subject and served as parliamentarian, and planned to take on the intended revision following his retirement. Sadly, he died prematurely, in 1937.

Remaining members of the family agreed that my grandfather's second wife, Isabel Robert, and my mother, Sarah Corbin Robert, should be commissioned to continue. Both had assisted my grandfather as he completed his later works on parliamentary law, and my mother had substituted for my father in teaching courses on the subject at Columbia University.

Based on General Robert's marginal notes in his personal copy of the 1915 edition, they produced the 1943, or fifth, edition. They introduced a few clarifying changes of their own for the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Edition of 1951. It would be 1955 before the family agreed that the major revision General Robert had envisioned for perhaps 1942 should finally be attempted. The resulting seventh edition, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, would take another fifteen years before coming to fruition in 1970. It was in writing that edition, at first under my mother's tutelage, that I myself took up the family legacy. As you know, we have taken it through three subsequent editions since, with the aid of, eventually, three other parliamentarians.

From almost the beginning, a certain tension has been recognized between the need for a manual that comprehensively provides definitive answers to the many parliamentary questions that arise in practice, on one hand, and the desirability of a work that is easily accessible and quickly understandable, on the other.

It will be remembered that my grandmother, General Robert's first wife, influenced him to add a second part to the material he originally composed for the first edition, especially for the benefit of persons with no experience in meetings. This second part, titled "The Organization and Conduct of Business," he separately published as the Parliamentary Guide. So at the very beginning of the enterprise, there was a recognition of the potentially divergent needs: a quick study for the beginner, and a more comprehensive manual for reference. Although the Parliamentary Guide was offered for only 25 cents, in comparison to the 75 cents for the Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, the Guide did not sell well and was soon discontinued. The manual itself, rapidly becoming known by the short title, Robert's Rules of Order, that the publisher had placed on the cover, was then only 192 pages long. Very possibly its length was not so daunting as to drive anyone to the less comprehensive volume.

Primarily in light of the many questions my grandfather received over the years, Robert's Rules of Order expanded to 218 pages in 1893 and to 325 when issued as Robert's Rules of Order Revised in 1915. Even at that length, it did not answer all the questions - and, to keep it short, he had been obliged to adopt a compressed style that, while suited to a reference work, impaired easy understanding of important aspects. These limitations induced him to write, as I have recounted, the 599-page Parliamentary Law. When we wrote Newly Revised, we included a great deal of the material from that work, bringing the pages to 594. Subsequent editions have brought it up to 704 pages. By now, we must recognize, the length is likely to be daunting to the beginner or casual reader.

I have noted that my grandfather originally sought to meet such a reader's needs by issuing the less-than-fully-successful Parliamentary Guide. After completing Rules of Order Revised and while at work on Parliamentary Law, he again tried to meet these needs by writing Parliamentary Practice. It is instructive to quote from its preface: "The object of [Rules of Order Revised] being to furnish a set of rules of order to be adopted by societies, it is necessary that the rules should be exhaustive .... If the book were adapted to the needs of the novice it would not be suitable for adoption as the rules of order of a society. ... The author decided to write a book for beginners, whether they are simply readers or students in classes."

Thus, a very important part of my grandfather's - and the family's - legacy has been striving to fulfill his aim that "[s]ome knowledge of parliamentary law may be justly regarded as a necessary part of the education of every man and woman, every boy and girl."

It is no secret to members of this assembly that for the past half-century there has been controversy among parliamentarians concerning the length of Robert's Rules in its various editions and the complexity of the rules it describes. Some have blamed these, at least in part, for what has been called a widespread failure of knowledge and observance of the rules in many assemblies.

As you know, efforts have been made to put forth competing parliamentary authorities promoted as simpler and shorter substitutes for Robert's. We in the Robert family and authorship have pointed out an inherent problem with this approach: to the extent the rules themselves are "simplified" they will fail to provide clear answers to many parliamentary situations that arise in practice.

As my grandfather noted, "Robert's Rules of Order was published ... with a view to furnishing a set of rules of order that any assembly might adopt, and thus avoid waste of time in constant discussion of what is parliamentary law in particular cases." In an effort to make parliamentary procedure more widely accessible, known, and employed, the approach of "simplification" unfortunately resurrects the very problem that Robert's Rules first emerged to solve. When there are large gaps in the rules, one or more of three major problems occur: much time is spent in debating what the rules are or should be, the chair unilaterally imposes a result, or the majority imposes a result that frequently disregards the rights of the minority.

When virtually everyone agrees, an assembly may be able to get by without resort to elaborate rules. When there is serious division, however, it is in human nature that each side will attempt to construe any ambiguity in the rules in such a way as to foster its substantive objectives. The ideal is that the rules applicable to a contentious subject are so clear that the contending sides cannot plausibly differently interpret them to their own advantage. Only then does parliamentary law fully play its role as the neutral arbiter that channels disputes into productive debate over substance, instead of time-wasting and manipulative maneuvering over procedure.

Are we condemned to choosing between simple and understandable rules that leave many questions unanswered, on the one hand, or rules comprehensive enough to answer most questions but so complex and daunting that few will tackle them, on the other? Must the Robert legacy be, to this extent, unfulfilled?

At the last NAP Convention I announced that we thought we had found a solution to this dilemma. It was to compose a brief, accessible work, not as a substitute for Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, but as an introduction to it. It would be so carefully cross-referenced and otherwise tied to the larger book that readers of the shorter one would be guided to resort to RONR when needing answers to any of the many questions the brief book would not address.

I said then, "necessary as the full content of RONR is, we think it must be admitted that, 80% or more of the time, meetings can get by with 20% or less of what is in the book. ... There is reason to believe that very many persons who could greatly profit from learning merely the basics of parliamentary procedure shy away from attempting to do so, simply because they see the subject as a great body of complicated rules which they lack the time, the ability, or the inclination to master. The size of RONR undoubtedly contributes to this impression. "Within the Robert authorship, ownership, and publishing circle, we have talked about the possibility of a shorter publication ancillary to RONR ever since the 1970 edition of that book came out. We have heretofore held off from such a move, however, fearing that organizations might try to adopt the short work as parliamentary authority, thus adding to the confusion and precipitating an erosion of the subject's content.

"We now think we know how to avoid that danger; and it is our perception that the need grows ever more pressing for a brief and simple book that will stand up unmistakably as the "official" RONR derivative work of its kind - with the same authors, the same copyright ownership, and the same publisher as the parent manual."

The authorship team has been hard at work in the interval. I am now pleased to be able to announce the ... publication ... of our new product [,] Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief ....

It is divided into six parts, with a total of twenty chapters and some appendices. After an introductory part entitled "Why Have Rules", Part II, entitled "So You're Going to a Meeting" will cover, in successive chapters: what happens at a meeting, how decisions are made at a meeting through handling motions, debate, elementary amendments, postponing and referring to a committee, and how a group changes its mind. Part III will focus on voting and elections. Part IV is entitled "Bylaws and Other Rules and How to Use Them." Part V, called "Beyond the Basics", will include guidance on how to look up the rules in RONR, the answers to frequently asked questions, and a summary of motions. The final part, Part VI, will contain chapters with helpful guidance on the duties of the president or vice-president, secretary, treasurer, board member, committee chairman or member, and convention delegate or alternate. Lastly, appendices, organized for ready reference, will contain a very simplified table of rules relating to motions and wording to be used by the chair and members in the course of a meeting.

....

In his preface to the 1921 Parliamentary Practice, my grandfather wrote, "Its characteristic feature is the illustration of nearly every point in common parliamentary practice by giving the exact words of both the chairman and the member throughout the procedure." Guided by this example, RONR In Brief is full of sample dialogues demonstrating how the basic rules are appropriately applied. Every effort has been made to write using a vocabulary and style suitable for those with no background in parliamentary procedure.

We cannot now, of course, know with certainty what the reception of this book will be, or how fully either you, our parliamentary colleagues, or the general public will judge that it has met our objectives. We can only express our hope for its potential.

We dare to hope that it will prove the vehicle for spreading a basic knowledge of parliamentary procedure far beyond its present confines. We dare to hope that it will prove suitable for widespread use in classes at the high school, college, and adult education levels. We dare to hope that it will be attractive to the leadership of many organizations to obtain copies at discount prices for their general membership, in the expectation that it will lead to a significant improvement in the smooth, efficient, and fair conduct of their meetings. We dare to hope that city and county councils, and the vast array of boards and commissions associated with government, will find it an essential resource for their members. We dare to hope that corporate board members facing an airplane trip will think it valuable to pick up in the airport for a quick read while inflight.

We believe that the brief book has been written carefully enough that its readers will not be tempted wrongly to treat it as somehow a substitute for RONR as a parliamentary authority, but rather will be led to resort to that manual as the fundamental rulebook and source of necessary further information. So we dare to hope that RONR In Brief will prove a worthy tool for dramatically increasing the accessibility of parliamentary law to the general public without sacrificing, but rather enhancing, resort to the detailed rules in RONR in order to answer, with as little ambiguity as possible, whatever procedural questions may arise.

In the words of my grandfather, "It is difficult to find another branch of knowledge where a small amount of study produces such great results in increased efficiency in a country where the people rule, as in parliamentary law." He and the family members who have followed in his footsteps have left the legacy of bringing order to millions of meetings. With the impending publication of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief, we hope and trust that we will take another significant stride in our continuing effort to fulfill that noble legacy.

Henry M Robert III at NAP NTC 2010:

The story of how my grandfather came to write what was first entitled Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies is told in the introduction to the editions of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised and is well known to most of you.

He drew in particular on his experience in San Francisco where he incurred a situation that which would seem scarcely conceivable to most people today.

Persons who had moved there from different parts of the country had differing notions of what were the commonly accepted rules of parliamentary procedure which they held indeed must be followed.

Apparently entire meetings would be taken up with arguing about what was the proper procedure to employ or the effect of procedural steps that had been taken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9966gAu7SSw

http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-martyn-robert

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military, Oxford University Press

Robert, Henry Martyn (1837-1923) military engineer, born in South Carolina. Robert joined the Army Corps of Engineers after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy. During the Civil War he sided with the North and taught military engineering at the Academy. In 1867 he became chief engineer for the Military Division of the Pacific, in San Francisco, where he helped design harbors and lighthouses. During this and other assignments, he continued an early interest in the rules of parliamentary procedure. In 1876 and prepared and published privately Robert's Rules of Order, a manual of rules for the orderly conduct of meetings that he distributed widely. The book was a success, and Robert updated and expanded it several times.

http://www.nndb.com/people/407/000166906/

Henry M. Robert

AKA Henry Martyn Robert

Born: 2-May-1837

Birthplace: Robertville, SC

Died: 11-May-1923

Location of death: Hornell, NY

Cause of death: unspecified

Remains: Buried, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Gender: Male

Religion: Baptist

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Administrator, Military, Engineer

Nationality: United States

Executive summary: Robert's Rules of Order

Military service: US Army Corps of Engineers (1857-1901, Brig. Gen.)

Active in civic and church groups, Brigadier General Henry M. Robert grew frustrated at meetings slowed down by interruptions and off-topic conversation. Unable to find a workable set of rules for meetings, he spent several years researching and writing his own rules. The first edition was self-published by Robert in 1876, and his Robert's Rules of Order remains the standard.

In his military career, Robert engaged in battle against Indians and Confederates, and in engineering he helped construct defenses against the British in the Pig War of 1859, Civil War defenses for Philadelphia Harbor and Washington DC, and a 17-foot sea wall protecting Galveston, Texas, after it was damaged by a 1900 tidal wave. He retired in 1901 as Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In 1940, seventeen years after his death, Robert's publisher presented his widow with the millionth copy of Robert's Rules of Order. His father, Joseph Thomas Robert, was a staunch abolitionist and served as the first President of the Augusta Institute, now known as Morehouse College, which was established to educate freed slaves.

Father: Joseph Thomas Robert (Baptist minister, b. 26-Nov-1807, d. 8-Sep-1830)

Mother: Adeline Elizabeth Lawton Robert (b. 10-Dec-1810, d. 6-Jun-1865)

Sister: Martha Amanda Robert (b. circa 1831)

Sister: Adeline Elizabeth Robert (b. circa 1832)

Brother: Joseph Thomas Robert Jr. (teacher, b. 1835, d. 1925)

Brother: James Robert (b. 1839, d. 1923)

Sister: Cordelia Eliza Robert (b. 1840)

Brother: George Robert (b. 1845, d. infancy)

Wife: Helen Marie Thresher Robert (b. Apr-1837, m. 24-Dec-1860, d. 10-Oct-1895, five children)

Daughter: Helen Robert (b. circa 1868)

Daughter: Mary Louisa Robert (b. circa 1870)

Daughter: Corinne Robert (b. circa 1872)

Son: Henry Martyn Robert, Jr. (mathematician, b. 1874, d. 1937)

Daughter: Portia Robert (b. circa 1876)

Wife: Isabel Livingstone Hoagland (b. circa 1840, m. 8-May-1901)

    University: US Military Academy, West Point (1857)

    Teacher: Philosophy, US Military Academy, West Point (1857-58)

    Teacher: Practical Engineering, US Military Academy, West Point (1865-66)

    Huguenot Ancestry

    Risk Factors: Malaria

Official Website:

http://www.robertsrules.com/

Author of books:

Robert's Rules of Order (1876)

The Water-Jet as An Aid to Engineering Construction (1881)

Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law (1921)

Parliamentary Law (1923)

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3186731&id=I613457355

ID: I613457355

Name: Henry Martyn ROBERT

Given Name: Henry Martyn

Surname: Robert

Sex: M

Birth: 2 May 1837 in Robertville, Beaufort District, South Carolina

Death: 11 May 1923 in Hornell, New York

Burial: 1923 Arlington, Virginia

Event: Arlington National Cemetary Unknown Arlington, Virginia

Occupation: engineer and author

Event: U.S. Military Academy at West Point Education

Religion: Baptist

Change Date: 30 Jun 2005

Note:

Name Prefix: Gen.

Chronology of the Life of Gen. Henry Martyn Robert:

By Gerald E. "Gerry" Olsen, PRP

1837 (May 2)-Henry Martyn Robert born in Robertville, South Carolina.

1853-Appointed to U.S. Military Academy at West Point at age 16.

1857-Graduated from U.S. Military Academy with honors at age 20 (returns twice, first to teach in 1858 and to head Department of Practical Engineering in 1865).

1858-Assigned to Washington Territory in charge of engineering operations.

1860 (December 24)-Marries Helen Marie Thresher in Dayton, Ohio, at age 23 (Children-four daughters, one son).

1860-61-Helps plan defenses of Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia Harbors.

1863-First encounter with parliamentary law in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

1867-Assigned to West Coast in charge of lighthouse and harbor construction and to scout Arizona.

1868-Begins intensive study of parliamentary law

1869-Publishes first pamphlet on parliamentary law in San Francisco.

1873-Assigned to Milwaukee supervising construction of lighthouses and river and harbor improvements.

1873-74-Writes manuscript of Robert's Rules of Order in Milwaukee.

1875-Four thousand unbound copies of RO set and printed in Milwaukee.

1876 (Feb. 19)-Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (RO) published by S.C. Griggs Company in Chicago. HMR is 38.

1876 (July)-Second Edition of Robert's Rules of Order published with sixteen additional pages.

1889-1895-Helps engineer and supervises construction of deep-sea port at Galveston Island, Texas.

1893, 1915, 1943, 1951, 1970, 1981, and 1990-New editions of RO, ROR, and RONR published.

1895-Helen Marie Thresher Robert dies.

1901 (April 30)-Receives rank of Brigadier General, Chief of Engineers in U.S. Army.

1901 (May 2)- Retires from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at age 64. He served 44 years.

1901 (May 8)-Marries Isabel Livingstone Hoagland in Owego, New York.

1901-1904-Designs and supervises building of Galveston Sea Wall.

1915-Robert's Rules of Order Revised with new material and new copyright published.

1921-Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law published.

1923-Parliamentary Law published.

1923 (May 11)-Dies in Hornell, New York, at age 86, followed by services at Owego, New York, and burial in Arlington National Cemetary in Washington D.C.

Gerald E. Olsen, PRP, is a retired teacher and lives in Camarillo, California. He portrayed General Henry Martyn Rober in military uniform and spoke at the luncheon in honor of educational workshop presenters at the 1999 NAP Convention.

Gen. Robert, who gave his name to the book that has brought order to millions of meetings, was sparely built but gregarious and determined U.S. Army Engineer Officer of Huguenot descent born May 2, 1837. Led to study Parliamentary law over a number of years by experiences in civil and church organizations, he published the first edition of Robert's Rules of Order on February 19, 1876. After his retirement from the Army in 1901, he practiced consulting engineering and devoted the last decade of his life to writing on parliamentary procedure. He died on May 11, 1923.

Father: Joseph Thomas ROBERT b: 26 Nov 1807 in Robertville, Beaufort District, South Carolina

Mother: Adeline E. LAWTON b: 10 Dec 1810 in St. Helena Island, Beaufort, SC

Marriage 1 Helen Marie THRESHER b: 3 Apr 1837 in Roxbury, Suffolk, MA

    Married: 24 Dec 1860 in Dayton, Ohio

Children

    Has No Children Helen M. ROBERT b: Abt 1868 in Dayton, Ohio

    Has No Children Mary Louisa ROBERT b: Abt 1870 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    Has No Children Corinne ROBERT b: Abt 1872 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    Has No Children Portia ROBERT b: Abt 1876 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    Has No Children Henry Martyn ROBERT b: 21 Jan 1874 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Marriage 2 Isabella Livingstone HOAGLAND

    Married: 8 May 1901 in Owego, New York

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro96

ROBERT, HENRY MARTYN (1837–1923). Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rule of Order and consulting engineer of the Galveston seawall, was born on May 2, 1837, in Robertville, South Carolina, son of Rev. Joseph Thomas and Adeline (Lawton) Robert. His ancestor Pierre Robert was pastor of the first Huguenot colony in South Carolina. Reverend Robert was against slavery and moved his family to the Midwest when Henry was a child. Robert was appointed to West Point from Ohio and graduated fourth in his class in 1857. From 1867 until his retirement he was involved with most of the major river and harbor improvement and fortification projects undertaken by the United States government. He worked on the Columbia River and on rivers in Oregon and Washington. He built lighthouses on lakes Michigan, Erie, Ontario, and Champlain, and on the Saint Lawrence River. He made river and harbor improvements on Long Island Sound and New York Harbor. He was engineer-commissioner for improvements on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and was a member of various boards of engineering, such as the New York Board of Engineers, the New York Harbor Line Board, and the Philadelphia Line Board.

In 1889 President Grover Cleveland appointed him to a board of engineers to recommend a western Gulf port for the government to develop to handle tonnage that was increasing each year. Robert selected Galveston as the only site that could meet the conditions to become a major Gulf port. Congress approved his proposal and appropriated the funds. After the Galveston hurricane of 1900 Robert served as consulting chairman of the board of engineers to design means of protection against future tidal waves. The recommendations of this board resulted in a seawall that successfully saved the city of Galveston on two subsequent occasions, 1909 and 1915. After each tidal wave Robert was called back to report on seawall damage and to make further recommendations. He was also asked to help design a highway and railroad bridge between Galveston and the mainland. Just before he reached retirement age he was promoted to brigadier general, chief of engineers, United States Army, on April 30, 1901.

Robert also became this country's leading parliamentarian. Robert's Rules of Order, first published in February 1876, remained in print in the 1990s as an authoritative reference work on parliamentary procedure. Robert married Helen Thresher on December 21, 1860, and they had four children. Six years after she died, he married Isabel Livingston Hoagland, on May 8, 1901. Robert died on May 11, 1923, in Hornell, New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, 3d ed., 1891. E. J. Mehren, "Henry Martyn Robert: Soldier, Parliamentarian, Author and Engineer," Engineering News-Record 84 (April 22, 1920). Thais M. Plaisted, "General Henry M. Robert, Parliamentarian," Social Studies 48 (May 1957).

Charles R. Kline

Charles R. Kline, "ROBERT, HENRY MARTYN," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro96), accessed April 24, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2119

United States Army Brigadier General. Born in Robertville, South Carolina, he graduated from West point in 1857 and was commissioned an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers. During the Civil War, he worked on the defenses of Washington, Philadelphia, and the New England coast. From 1867 to 1895, he was senior engineer in charge of river, harbor and coast improvements along the Pacific and Gulf coasts on the Great Lakes and on Long Island Sound. He is best known as the author of a book on parliamentary law, "Roberts Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies" (1876). In April 1901, he was appointed Brigadier General, Chief of Engineers and retired on May 2, 1901. (bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith)

http://sciway3.net/clark/jasper/men.htm

HENRY MARTYN ROBERT.

It is singular that the name of General Henry Martyn Robert, a native of Robertville, has not received greater honor. It is certain that no other military officer or engineer ever left behind him a literary production so widely sold and used throughout the world. His book, RULES OF ORDER, is the authority on parliamentary procedure.

Robert was descended from the Huguenot emigrant, Rev. Pierre Robert. The son of Rev. Joseph T. Robert and Adeline Lawton Robert, both of wealthy plantation families around Robertville, the boy’s upbringing was quite different from that of his Carolina cousins. Taken to the midwest to live as a small boy, it was natural to adopt the ways and sympathies of his surrounding area.

The young man was graduated from the United States Academy at West Point in 1857. For a year, he taught Philosophy at the Academy. In 1860, as a young lieutenant, he took charge of a route-exploring trip in the Northwest, ordered for military purposes.

His record in the Civil War on the Northern side includes these tours of duty: defense engineer in Washington in 1861, in Philadelphia in 1862; and in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for the War’s duration. As a captain during the ten years following the War, he served as an engineering officer in the Military Division of the Pacific; and later was in charge of rivers, harbors, and fortifications.

In the early years, Major, then Colonel, Robert was sometimes called upon to preside at various meetings and discussions. When he sought written helps, or rules, to follow in moderating, he discovered there were none to be had. He decided to undertake the writing of such a guide, using inventiveness and common sense. When he had finished the work, a job printer in the city of Milwaukee produced the first, modest edition of RULES OF ORDER. This was in 1876. Later on, Colonel Robert engaged a Chicago publisher to get out 1000 copies of the book, again at his own expense.

After serving as engineer commissioner of the District of Columbia, the versatile army officer received in 1901 his promotion to Brigadier General. Shortly afterward, General Robert’s specialized duties included heading the army board which designed the sea wall at Galveston, Texas. In 1911, he improved ports in Mexico.

In 1915, General Robert revised his now-popular RULES OF ORDER, making the revision so painstaking and complete that a new copyright was secured. After that, the officer-writer authored "Parliamentary Practice," and "Parliamentary Law."

The general was married twice, and had four children. His death occurred in New York state, in 1923, and he was interred in Arlington cemetery. Today, his papers, correspondence, and original material are preserved in the Library of Congress. Robert’s RULES OF ORDER has run through many editions, and sales usually average 5o,ooo copies a year. He left the work to the management of his daughter-in-law.

Not fighting, but the constructive feats of engineering and writing brought fame to General Robert. Therefore, his Carolina kinsmen must have forgiven him long since for his deployment on the Federal side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Martyn_Robert

Henry Martyn Robert (May 2, 1837 – May 11, 1923) was the author of Robert's Rules of Order, which became the most widely used manual of parliamentary procedure and remains today the most common parliamentary authority in the United States.

Robert was born in Robertville, South Carolina, and raised in Ohio, where his father moved the family because of his strong opposition to slavery. Robert's father, Reverend Joseph Thomas Robert, later became the first president of Morehouse College where there is a dormitory on the campus named after him. Robert was nominated to West Point from Ohio, and graduated fourth in his class in 1857. He became a military engineer.

Under command of Silas Casey during the Pig War he built the fortifications on San Juan Island. In the American Civil War, he was assigned to the Corps of Engineers and worked on the defenses of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and several New England ports.

Robert served as Engineer of the Army's Division of the Pacific from 1867-1871. He then spent two years improving rivers in Oregon and Washington and six years developing the harbors of Green Bay and other northern Wisconsin and Michigan ports. He subsequently improved the harbors of Oswego, New York, Philadelphia, and Long Island Sound and constructed locks and dams on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. As Southwest Division Engineer from 1897 to 1901, Robert studied how to deepen the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River.

Robert was president of the Board of Engineers from 1895 to 1901. He was made brigadier general on April 30, 1901, and was appointed Chief of Engineers. He served until May 2, 1901, when he retired from the Army. Following his retirement, he chaired a board of engineers that designed the Galveston, Texas seawall following the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

He died in Hornell, New York, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

He is most famous for his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies -- a collection of rules regarding parliamentary procedure, published in 1876. He wrote the manual in response to his poor performance in leading a church meeting at a Baptist church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He resolved that he would learn about parliamentary procedure before attending another meeting. The rules are loosely based on procedures used in the United States House of Representatives, but the rule book was not intended for use in national and state legislatures.

Henry Martyn Robert May 2, 1837 – May 11, 1923 (aged 86)

Bibliography

• Robert's Rules of Order. Chicago: S. C. Griggs. 1876.

• Robert's Rules of Order Revised. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company. 1915.

• Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law. New York: Century Co.. 1921.

• Parliamentary Law. New York: Century Co.. 1923.

http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/coe2.htm#21

Brigadier General Henry M. Robert

Chief of Engineers

(April 30, 1901-May 2, 1901)

Born May 2, 1837, in South Carolina, Henry Robert graduated fourth in the Military Academy class of 1857.   After receiving his commission in the Corps of Engineers, he taught at the Military Academy and then explored routes for wagon roads in the West and engaged in fortification work in Puget Sound.   During the Civil War he worked on the defenses of Washington and Philadelphia.   Robert served as Engineer of the Army's Division of the Pacific in 1867-71.   He then spent two years improving rivers in Oregon and Washington and six years developing the harbors of Green Bay and other northern Wisconsin and Michigan ports.   He subsequently improved the harbors of Oswego, Philadelphia, and Long Island Sound and constructed locks and dams on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.   As Southwest Division Engineer from 1897 to 1901, Robert studied how to deepen the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River.   Robert was president of the Board of Engineers from 1895 to 1901.   He was made brigadier general on April 30, 1901, and was appointed Chief of Engineers.   He served until May 2, 1901, when he retired from the Army.   He died May 1, 1923, in Hornell, New York.   He became famous for his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order, a compendium of parliamentary law first published in 1876 and better known today as Robert's Rules of Order.

Robert's Rules of Order by Henry M. Robert

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9097

Pocket Manual of Rules Of Order For Deliberative Assemblies

Part I. Rules of Order.

A Compendium of Parliamentary Law, based upon the rules and practice of Congress.

Part II. Organization and Conduct Of Business.

A simple explanation of the methods of organizing and conducting the business of societies, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies.

By Major Henry M. Robert,

Corps of Engineers, U.S.A.

Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Company. 1876.

Copyright, A.D. 1876, by H. M. Robert

Printed by Burdick & Armitage, Milwaukee

PREFACE.

There appears to be much needed a work on parliamentary law, based, in its general principles, upon the rules and practice of Congress, and adapted, in its details, to the use of ordinary societies. Such a work should give, not only the methods of organizing and conducting the meetings, the duties of the officers and the names of the ordinary motions, but in addition, should state in a systematic manner, in reference to each motion, its object and effect; whether it can be amended or debated; if debatable, the extent to which it opens the main question to debate; the circumstances under which it can be made, and what other motions can be made while it is pending. This Manual has been prepared with a view to supplying the above information in a condensed and systematic manner, each rule being either complete in itself, or giving references to every section that in any way qualifies it, so that a stranger to the work can refer to any special subject with safety.

To aid in quickly referring to as many as possible of the rules relating to each motion, there is placed immediately before the Index, a Table of Rules, which enables one, without turning a page, to find the answers to some two hundred questions. The Table of Rules is so arranged as to greatly assist the reader in systematizing his knowledge of parliamentary law.

The second part is a simple explanation of the common methods of conducting business in ordinary meetings, in which the motions are classified according to their uses, and those used for a similar purpose compared together. This part is expressly intended for that large class of the community, who are unfamiliar with parliamentary usages and are unwilling to devote much study to the subject, but would be glad with little labor to learn enough to enable them to take part in meetings of deliberative assemblies without fear of being out of order. The object of Rules of Order in deliberative assemblies, is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for which it was designed, in the best possible manner. To do this, it is necessary to somewhat restrain the individual, as the right of an individual in any community to do what he pleases, is incompatible with the best interests of the whole. Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty. Experience has shown the importance of definiteness in the law; and in this country, where customs are so slightly established and the published manuals of parliamentary practice so conflicting, no society should attempt to conduct business without having adopted some work upon the subject, as the authority in all cases not covered by their own rules.

It has been well said by one of the greatest of English writers on parliamentary law: "Whether these forms be in all cases the most rational or not is really not of so great importance. It is much more material that there should be a rule to go by, than what that rule is, that there may be a uniformity of proceeding in business, not subject to the caprice of the chairman, or captiousness of the members. It is very material that order, decency and regularity be preserved in a dignified public body."

H. M. R.

December, 1875.

http://www.searchdictionaries.com/?q=henry+martyn+robert

The complete real estate encyclopedia

Robert's Rules of Order    Rules for the conduct of meetings in an orderly manner. First used in 1876 by American army officer Henry Martyn Robert, who was asked to preside over a church meeting and discovered that neither he, nor anyone else, knew a proper or consistent way to conduct meetings. Today, almost all organizations, including those for condominiums, co-op apartments, homeowners groups, and others, adopt Robert's Rules of Order in their bylaws. (The official Web site at www.robertsrules.com warns that the earliest edition of the Rules are no longer copyright protected, and so may be found in reprint, masquerading as current editions.)

From Aristotelian to Reaganomics: a dictionary of eponyms with biographies in the Social Sciences,  By Richard C. S. Trahair, 1994

ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER.  An authority on parliamentary procedures.

   Henry Martyn Robert (1837-123) was born in Robertville, South Carolina, son of a pastor. He attended the United States Military Academy (1853-57), and taught natural and experimental philosophy, and military engineering. He became an officer in charge of San Juan Island, Washington Territory, and in the U.S. Civil War he rose to major. As an engineer, he was responsible for defending the New England coastline, Washington, and Philadelphia. Until 1901 he worked on improving America's rivers, coasts, and harbors, and he retired as a brigadier-general and chief of Army Engineers. In response to events at an unruly church meeting, Robert set down procedures for the orderly conduct of a meeting. They were published as Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876). The book was one of several works, which included The Water Jet as an Aid to Engineering Construction (1881) and a topical index of army engineering reports (1881). The book on rules of order was revised in 1915; in 1921 it was entitled Parliamentary Practice and in 1923 it became Parliamentary Law. It was revised again in 1943.

Sources

Robert's rules of order, with a guide and commentary by Rachel Vixman, 1967.

Starr, Harris E., ed. 1944. Dictionary of American biography. Supplement 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

From: DALTON SAID [mailto:daltonhsaid@msn.com]

Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 2:31 PM

To: Paul McClintock

Subject: Re: Church history question, FBC New Bedford

Dear Mr. Paul McClintock,

I apologize for taking so long to answer your email. Recently I was traveling abroad on vacation. I returned in time to get involved in the year-end holidays. Since then I have been trying little by little to check and update my endless list of emails. Yours finally caught up my attention, from among a sea of junk stuff. Sorry!

It's possible that you got your answer by this time. Nonetheless, I'll tell you what I know. We have a book on the history of First Baptist Church of New Bedford, published in 1979 with the Title, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, written by two late members of the church, Avis M. Pillsbury and Mildred E. Hatch. Their extensive research labor was based both on church historical records and a variety of documents from several outside sources.

Here's how he is introduced in the book: "Many of the [church] members had names still common today in New Bedford. ... ... Many were active in the Civil War period, and in 1862 a man came in from outside the city, and made a niche for himself among them. Little did anyone know that this man was to become nationally and internationally known... ... Henry Martyn Robert was this man--a graduate, fourth from the top, in the Class of 1857, at West Point. In 1862, the U.S. Army assigned this young lieutenant engineer to New Bedford, where he was responsible for the construction of the Fort at Clark's Point (Fort Taber)--and for coordinating local harbor defenses, during the turbulent Civil War period." (p. 33)

Here it is, on p. 35: "Sometime during 1863, he was chosen to be moderator of a public meeting which was held in the First Baptist Church, (supposedly, according to all available records)--to discuss the Port of New Bedford's defense against possible Confederate raiders. The long meeting, said to have lasted fourteen hours, got out of hand and was cantankerous. It is said that Mr. Robert vowed 'If he got out of the meeting alive, he would learn to control the next one he became involved in.'"

"It seems quite evident that he may have begun to write some rules for parliamentary procedure while still  garrisoned at Fort Taber, but it was not until 1869 that his resolve took shape in a preliminary guide book, a digest of eight pages, expanded later into his 'Rules of Order' which was published in February 1876, becoming famous almost overnight. ... ..."

I hope this can be of some help to you.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dalton Said

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul McClintock

To: daltonhsaid@msn.com

Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 1:20 AM

Subject: Church history question, FBC New Bedford

Dear Rev. Dr. Said,

In reference to the First Baptist Church of New Bedford, http://www.rixsan.com/nbvisit/attract/baptist.htm says "Capt. Robert was inspired to write his text (1876) after having difficulty maintaining order at a church meeting focused on the defense needs of the harbor."

I'm trying to find out if this was a church business meeting, or a civic meeting using the church facilities for a meeting place.

Can you tell me which?

Given the focus of the meeting as stated above, it would seem likely that it was a civic meeting, not a church business meeting, and if so, to use the phrase "church meeting" would be misleading.  I sometimes make reference to the history of Robert's Rules of Order in talks or articles, and I'd like to ensure that I'm not perpetuating a misconception.

The meeting was in 1863 according to http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/041794.html.  If minutes are still available for that year, the answer may be found in them.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Sincerely,

Paul McClintock

www.paulmcclintock.com

P.S.  Note that I have also asked one of the current authors of Robert's Rules of Order (below).  I'm hoping someone can provide a definitive answer.  If I get a clear answer from Dan first, I'll forward it to you and cancel my request to you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Paul McClintock

Date: Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 8:07 PM

Subject: RONR history

To: dhonemann@gmail.com

Dan,

I saw a website today (http://icarus.uic.edu/stud_orgs/gsc/documents/RobertRulesOfOrder.pdf) saying H. M. Robert "was asked to preside over a church meeting and to his embarrassment, he realized that he did not know how."

My question is, was it a "church meeting" or a "meeting held at a church"?

RONR 10th edition p. xxxv doesn't say. 

http://robertsrules.com/history.html says "he was asked to preside over a church meeting...."

BUT, http://www.rixsan.com/nbvisit/attract/baptist.htm says "Capt. Robert was inspired to write his text (1876) after having difficulty maintaining order at a church meeting focused on the defense needs of the harbor."

Despite the latter's use of the phrase "church meeting," it appears to me that this was likely not a church business meeting, inasmuch as the defense needs of the harbor was a civic matter rather than a church matter, but more likely a civic meeting held at the church.  I would guess it was a mass meeting.

The use of the "church meeting" phrase implies it was a business meeting of the church.  Do you know if it was a church business meeting, or if it was a mass meeting of citizens concerned with civil defense?

If the latter, could the www.robertsrules.com history page be amended to a phrase that doesn't imply it was a church business meeting?

Thanks,

Paul McClintock

http://www.trivia-library.com/a/history-of-the-work-robert-rules-of-order.htm

History of the Work Robert's Rules of Order

About the history of the work Robert's Rules of Order, information about the guide of laws.

DOROTHY ROSE BLUMBERG'S 5 BEST ODDITIES

Robert's Rules of Order. "A manual of parliamentary procedure, 1st published in 1876, written by Brig. Gen. Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) of Robertville, S.C.

"'Where there is no law, but each man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of liberty,' wrote General Robert. His famous Rules were intended to provide a maximum of liberty within a necessary framework of order. The son of a minister, Robert had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at 20 (he was an acting assistant professor during his senior year), and, after serving all through the Civil War on the Union side, returned to the Academy (1865-1867) to take charge of the department of military engineering. His experience and talents in that field were later put to use when he took part in designing a sea wall 17' high and 71/2 mi. long to protect Galveston from Gulf floods, and a 2 mi. causeway (finished in 1909) to connect that island city with the Texas mainland.

"The 1st edition of the Rules of Order was a modest one, 4,000 copies 'enough to last 2 years,' Robert estimated. That should be ample time, he felt, to test the efficiency of the manual and to produce criticism useful for a revised edition. In 1893 a revised edition appeared, and another in 1915; the 75th-anniversary printing that came out in 1951 is based on the 1915 plates.

"As a guide to the best use of his manual, Robert appended a study outline. Suggesting that classes be formed among an organization's members, he recommended that the simplest rules be learned 1st, and added that it is better to know how to find a correct ruling than to worry about memorizing it."

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Henry_Martyn_Robert

Henry Martyn Robert

    Page created by Leydoig, 8 September 2008

    Contributors: Leydoig x6, Nbrewer x4

    Last modified by Nbrewer, 10 September 2009

Born: 2 May 1837 Died: 11 May 1923

U.S. General Henry Martyn Robert has been remembered as the man who standardized parliamentary procedure in the United States. But, before he penned his Rules, Robert began his career as an engineer.

Early Life and Training

Robert was born 2 May 1837 on his grandfather’s slave plantation in a small town near Robertville, S.C. He first exhibited his technical promise in Ohio, where his parents had relocated around his second birthday. Young Robert was precocious and opportunistic, and at age 15 received a coveted appointment to West Point to study military engineering. Upon his graduation in 1857, he was not only commissioned as an officer, but also invited to stay on as an assistant professor of natural philosophy, astronomy and practical military engineering. However, his engineering talents were soon needed elsewhere.

Corps of Engineers and Robert's Rules of Order

Assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers, in 1858 he led a detachment to the isthmus of Panama to explore the possibilities for a canal. In 1859, he built a fort on San Juan Island to protect the northwest United States from the British in British Columbia (the border with Canada had not yet been settled). In 1861, he helped to build the defenses of Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. From there he was posted to Philadelphia, and then to New Bedford, Mass. It was in New Bedford that he was first asked to preside over a church meeting; and it was here he first observed that, during the discussion of contentious subjects, meeting decorum tended to break down. When it came time to make decisions, each member referred, either implicitly or explicitly, to different rules of order, depending on their personal background and geographic origin. The result was a disorder that made prevented goals being accomplished and made the engineer uncomfortable.

In 1867, Robert was promoted to major and posted to San Francisco as the Corps’ chief engineer in the region. In that capacity, he oversaw the construction of harbor and river improvements in the Pacific Northwest. His position made him prominent in the community, and he became a board member of both the San Francisco YMCA and the First Baptist Church, among other organizations. Seeking order, he decided to try to congeal his thoughts about volunteer meetings on paper and put them into action. Robert began compiling a 16-page rules of order guide, which he intended for use with the various organizations to which he and his wife belonged. Due to a hectic schedule, Robert did not complete the manuscript that became the Rules of Order until the winter of 1874. Transferred to Wisconsin that year, the harsh weather prevented the Corps from carrying out several of its initiatives, giving Robert more time to work on his own project.

Robert’s background in military discipline may have, in part, led to his famous work. However, in the military methods for raising objections, for overruling the chair and so forth, are intentionally omitted from military protocol. If one looks closely at Robert’s Rules of Order — its structure, its analytical approach, its emphasis on practical solutions — one could argue more compellingly that his engineering training was the real origin of his rules. When it was completed he shopped it to publishers, but none were interested. While some saw the use for such a book, they assumed it could only come from a lawyer or legislator. Robert self-published and his book became a publishing and cultural phenomenon. By 1892, 140,000 copies had been printed.

Later Career and Galveston Seawall

Robert continued his engineering career with the Army, making improvements to harbors in Long Island, New York and Philadelphia, constructing locks and dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and improving the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River. Shortly before his retirement in 1901, he was named Chief of Engineers in the Army and was also made brigadier general. After leaving the military, he continued his engineering work and designed a seawall for Galveston, Texas, after a devastating hurricane there in 1900.

Robert was married twice, first in 1860 to Helen Marie Thresher, with whom he had five children.  After his first wife died in 1895, he married Isabel Livingstone Hoagland in 1901.  Robert died in Hornell, New York in 1923, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/galveston.htm

The shoreline of Galveston Island, a barrier island connected to the mainland of Texas by a causeway, is protected by the Galveston Seawall which was built following the storm of 1900 which killed some 6,000 island residents. Following the devastating storm, plans and designs were made to construct a seawall for future protection. Former Chief of Engineers, Brigadier General Henry M. Robert, headed the board which made the plans and designs for the Galveston seawall. Today, the seawall extends a 10mile length, through cooperative efforts between Galveston County and the Corps of Engineers. When hurricanes such as Carla, Beulah and Celia struck the Texas coast in 1961, 1967 and 1970, the Galveston District provided disaster assistance and helped to rehabilitate the stricken areas. When Tropical Storm Allison hit in 2001, the urgent need for flood control was apparent.

Subject:     News from National Association of Parliamentarians®

Date:     Mon, 9 May 2011 11:00:24 -0400 (EDT)

From:     National Association of Parliamentarians® <hq@nap2.org>

Henry M. Robert Day

Galveston, Texas

May 19, 2011

Joe Jaworski, Mayor of the City of Galveston, has proclaimed Thursday, May 19, 2011 as

Henry M. Robert Day

in Galveston, Texas. A Proclamation will be presented to Henry M. Robert III at 3:00 pm May 19 at the Galveston City Hall. A tour of the famous Seawall that Henry M. Robert helped designed will follow the presentation of the proclamation. All members of NAP are invited to attend. The Annual Convention of the Texas State Association of Parliamentarians will be held May 20-22, 2011 at the Hilton Hotel in Clearlake, Texas which is midway between Galveston and Houston. Henry M. Robert III will be the Special Guest of Honor.

For information on the Henry M. Robert day in Galveston, contact President Ronald R. Stinson at 210-415-4872 or RONRstinson@aol.com

For information on the TSAP Convention contact Pat Cook at 713-816-9373. For hotel reservations, call The Hilton, NASA Clearlake, 281-333-9300.

Ronald R. Stinson

President

Galveston: a history, By David G. McComb, University of Texas Press, 1986, 267 pages

[page 138] Upon the recommendation of the special committee, the commissioners appointed three engineers: Henry M. Robert, Alfred Noble, and H. C. Ripley. Robert, who became the spokesman of the group, had recently retired from the Army Corps of Engineers, had been instrumental in the deepening of the Galveston harbor, and was famous as the author of Robert's Rules of Order. Twenty-five years before, while a young soldier in California, he had witnessed the tyranny of a presiding officer in public discussion. "I made the rules for the people, rather than for officers. The people have their rights if this is a self-government, and should not be subject to the whim or caprice of any chairman or presiding officer," he related. This famous book became the law for the running of democratic bodies throughout the world. Robert also knew something about ruling nature.

http://books.google.com/books?id=u34YtRj_G_4C

http://www.amazon.com/Galveston-History-David-G-McComb/dp/029272053X/

http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/041794.html

This is the story of a soldier who wrote a best seller. Over the years, his book has outsold any one volume by Tom Clancy, Charles Dickens, Alex Hailey, James Michener and perhaps even Louis L'Amour. This soldier was born in Robertville, South Carolina, May 2, 1837, son of a distinguished educator and Baptist preacher in South Carolina and Georgia. Henry Martyn Robert was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1853 and graduated fourth in his class in 1857, brevetted a 2nd lieutenant and assigned to the Engineer Corps.

As an assistant professor of natural philosophy, astronomy and practical military engineering, he taught at the academy for a year and in 1859 was assigned to a wagon-road expedition under the command of Capt. Henry D. Wallen, 4th Infantry, with a mission to mark out and open an overland route to "the frontiers of the western states." Specifically, from Fort Dalles in Oregon Territory to Great Salt Lake City in Utah Territory, a distance of some 630 miles.

Lt. Robert was part of the engineer detachment. Other officers assigned were 1st Lt. Robert Johnston, Co. H, 1st Dragoons; 1st Lt. Nelson B. Switzer, Co. E, 1st Dragoons; 2nd Lt. David C. Houston, Co. A, sappers and miners; Assistant Surgeon John F. Randolph, medical staff; Bvt. 2nd Lt. Joseph Dixon, topographical engineers; 1st Lt. John C. Bonneycastle, 4th Infantry, acting assistant commissary of subsistence, and acting assistant quartermaster; 2nd Lt. Marcus A. Reno, 1st Dragoons, acting adjutant (who would spend the twilight of his military career defending his performance at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 under command of another West Pointer, Lt. Col. George A. Custer).

The expedition, nine officers and 184 enlisted men, armed with Sharpe's carbines, sabres and Colt's revolvers, presented an imposing picture as it marched out with 154 horses, 344 mules, 121 oxen, 30 wagons, one ambulance wagon (light-springed), one traveling forge, 132 Mexican pack-saddles (aperejo) and 75 old-pattern cross-tree pack-saddles. Wallen's command left Fort Dalles on June 4, 1859, and bent to its assignment. Several newly named landmarks were added to maps of the region, and Wallen (possibly recognizing the advantages of buttering up the Old Man) named a large saltwater lake, twenty miles long and nine miles wide, after Brig. General William S. Harney, commanding officer of the Department of Oregon.

This same Harney was the original commander of the Utah Expedition sent against the Mormons in 1857, who was called "Squaw-killer" Harney--but not to his face--for a punitive attack on the Sioux at Ash Hollow, Nebraska Territory, in 1855. He got the nickname because so many Indian women and children were slain in the fight.

After a difficult three months on the trail, Wallen's detachment finished its assignment when it reached Camp Floyd, west of Provo, Utah Territory, in mid-August, and reported to Brig. General Albert Sidney Johnston, post commander, who resupplied the expedition and offered the camp hospitality to Wallen's men for the four days needed to requisition provisions for the return march to The Dalles. That four days at Camp Floyd makes it possible for Utah to lay an honorary claim, at least, on Lt. Robert, though it wasn't until he returned to Fort Dalles and subsequently was reassigned to duty in charge of defenses at New Bedford, Massachusetts, during the Civil War period 1862-65, that he began the book.

It was in New Bedford, according to his grandson, Henry M. Robert III, that he started the writing that would make him famous. He had been transferred to New Bedford from more strenuous war duty after a flareup of tropical fever. Robert always had been active in church organizations and civic and educational work, no matter where he was stationed. But it was without warning in 1863 that he was asked to preside over a church business meeting--and didn't know how. But he could not refuse. "My embarrassment was supreme," he later wrote. "I plunged in, trusting to Providence that the assembly would behave itself--[But I resolved] never to attend another meeting until I knew something of parliamentary law."

That's when the odyssey began. From a small book on another subject, he copied four or five items dealing with "rules for deliberative assemblies" and carried them on a scrap of paper in his wallet for several years. By 1867, he had achieved the rank of major and was assigned to San Francisco. He was now active in a large number of organizations in the Bay area, and all had the same difficulty when it came to procedure. The major then decided to compile a working outline that would serve all. It was no simple task, and as each working draft was tried and tested, it seemed there would be new questions to answer.

Army duty transfers took him to Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at times impaired his research. Finally, when he hit upon a format he believed would serve the purpose, he could find no publisher willing to take a chance. So the officer put up his own money to print 4,000 copies of what was to become Robert's Rules of Order. The two-year supply (he thought) sold in four months. That first edition, issued in 1876, was just the beginning.

Robert's Rules has never been out of print and is sold today. It is recognized as the bible of parliamentary procedure. For Henry Martyn Robert--he retired from the U.S. military in 1901 with the rank of brigadier general and died May 11, 1923. His small manual of procedural rules is now in its umpteenth printing in various editions. At last count, it had sold something more than 4,450,000 copies.

http://www.usace.army.mil/History/hv/Pages/038-Church_Meetings.aspx

Historical Vignette 038 - An Army Engineer Brought Order to Church Meetings and Revolutionized Parliamentary Procedure 

Meetings can be lively, heated, even rancorous affairs, and church meetings, as anyone who has attended them can attest, are no exception. Twenty-five year old Army Engineer Henry Martyn Robert found this out while stationed in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1862-63, recovering from a tropical fever he had contracted in Panama. A deeply religious Baptist, he was unexpectedly asked to chair a meeting of the local Baptist Church. The challenge proved formidable.

Robert graduated fourth in his class at West Point in 1857, where he returned as an instructor, and then supervised fortifications construction in the Northwest, and again, at the beginning of the Civil War, around Washington, D.C. In all his assignments he had shown himself to be a promising soldier, competent leader, and an outstanding engineer. Yet, at New Bedford, Robert lost control of the church meeting. He later wrote, "One can scarcely have had much experience in deliberative meetings of Christians without realizing that the best of men, having wills of their own, are liable to attempt to carry out their own views without paying sufficient respect to the rights of their opponents." Embarrassed, he sought guidance from existing manuals of parliamentary procedure and found them to be next to useless, even occasionally absurd.

Robert set out to become a student of parliamentary procedure. While his initial idea may have been simply to develop procedures to save him from any further embarrassment, fate intervened. From 1867 to 1871, then Major Robert served as chief engineer of the Military Division of the Pacific and lived in San Francisco. There he served on the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church and also on the Board of Directors of the YMCA. Contentious issues confronted the parishioners: Should the pastor or the congregation approve new members? Should women be allowed to vote in business meetings? Should the church move to a more respectable part of town? The church's "Constitution and Rules of Order" that guided the conduct of business meetings was neither comprehensive nor precise; one of its instructions was to "love and be kind to one another." Unfortunately, such admonitions did not prevent rancor, and the ineptly drawn guidelines contributed to, rather than diminished, the acrimony.

Robert's experience with the YMCA was even more revealing. An interdenominational organization like the "Y" might have been especially susceptible to bickering; the records of the YMCA show that many disputes over procedural matters emerged during business meetings and the chair's authority was frequently challenged. Though many of the arguments were petty, Robert could not have helped but be further convinced of the need for some sort of parliamentary authority.

Robert began writing a 16-page parliamentary guide for the societies that he and his wife had joined, but he soon decided that a generic guide for all organizations and associations was needed. His workload prevented him from pursuing this far more ambitious project with his transfer to Milwaukee in 1874. During a harsh winter that closed down the harbor, Robert drafted the first part of his manuscript. He finished the manuscript in 1875. After two unsuccessful attempts at getting it published, he went to a private printer in 1876 to have 4,000 copies printed at his expense. The 176-page Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies could be carried in a coat pocket, ready for easy reference. From that time on, Robert solicited letters and comments and, in response, revised his manual, with the most complete and important revision published in 1915, eight years before his death.

The logic of Robert's Rules of Order, based on experience, not abstract law and custom, proved nearly irresistible. Its step by step system established a hierarchy of guiding principles that ensured order while protecting and advancing democratic principles. Other guides to parliamentary procedures fell into disuse by the beginning of the twentieth century, as his Rules of Order gained nearly universal favor.

As for Henry M. Robert, his professional life was long and distinguished. He served as superintending engineer on various parts of the Great Lakes and as engineer of the 4th and 13th lighthouse districts, as Engineer Commissioner in the District of Columbia, Nashville District Engineer, Division Engineer in the Northwest and Southwest Divisions, and finally, as Chief of Engineers at the end of his career. Following his retirement as a brigadier general, he chaired a board of engineers that designed the Galveston seawall following the disastrous hurricane of 1900.

Robert was a man of high moral character, religious conviction, and scientific commitment. His Rules of Order reflects these characteristics. He optimistically presumed that middle-class Christian virtue ensures the emergence of a worthy "general will" once members sliced through superficial procedural issues. Subsequent decades have severely challenged Robert's optimism. No doubt his manual will remain in the parliamentarian's coat pocket (or purse) for a long time.

* * *

November 2001

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=31140

Near Dupont Circle in Washington, District of Columbia — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Henry Martyn Robert

1837–1923

— Brigadier General, U. S. Army —

Inscription. In Memory Of Henry Martyn Robert (1837–1923), Brigadier General, U. S. Army. One of this country’s most distinguished river, harbor and shoreline engineers, he was led by civic concerns to become the noted original author of the familiar parliamentary manual, ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER. Robert served in the city-managerial army position of Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia from 1890 to 1891. Consequently a key initial member of the Rock Creek National Park Commission, he helped create the city’s popular wooded refuge. While Commissioner, he lived in the house that stood on this site at 1812 N Street N. W., for nearly a century until 1982. The front of the house and those of adjacent dwellings of the period remain preserved in position, skillfully blended into the architecture of a modern office building. Erected 2001 by the National Association of Parliamentarians in the 125th year since the first publication of ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER, in September.  Location. 38° 54.429′ N, 77° 2.564′ W. Marker is near Dupont Circle, District of Columbia, in Washington. Marker is on N Street NW just west of Connecticut Avenue NW. Click for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1812 N St NW, Washington DC 20036, United States of America.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Henry_Martyn_Robert.aspx

Henry Martyn Robert

Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2004 | Copyright

Henry Martyn Robert

Anyone who has ever attended a civic or organizational business meeting has probably seen Robert's Rules of Order in action. But what few people know is that General Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) had a long and varied career, one that had an impact on the landscape of the United States, as well as on how its decisions are made.

Robert was born on May 2, 1837 on his grandfather's plantation near Robertville, South Carolina. His father was the Reverend Joseph Thomas Robert, a Baptist minister and teacher. Reverend Robert did not support slavery, and by the time his son was 16, the family had moved to Ohio. It was from Ohio that Robert received his appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point when he was 16.

In 1857, Robert graduated from the Military Academy with honors. Although he returned to teach at the academy the following year, he was given his first significant engineering assignment in August of 1859.

Robert's Redoubt

U.S. Army troops were stationed on San Juan Island, in northern Puget Sound, 80 miles north of Seattle, Washington. There had long been controversy over the boundary of the United States and Canada, then a British colony. In the summer of 1859, the conflict came to a head in what has come to be known as the "Pig War," when an American settler shot and killed a pig that had repeatedly eaten his crops. The pig was owned by Canada's powerful Hudson's Bay Company, and the British Army was soon involved. When three British warships suddenly appeared off San Juan Island, the local commander wrote for help.

Help was sent in the form of a ten-man detachment from the Army Corps of Engineers, commanded by now Second Lieutenant Robert. Robert had come to Washington to help in the federal campaign against the aboriginal people. He had traveled to the West in the most popular method of the time, sailing to Panama, crossing that country on land, then sailing north back to the United States. During this journey, Robert contracted malaria.

Once at San Juan Island, Robert and his engineers began building a dirt fort, digging trenches and piling the dirt to create a barrier. The redoubt was based on designs Robert had studied at West Point. It was planned to feature eight heavy guns taken from the battleship U.S.S. Massachusetts to be used against British ships. After only one gun was in place, did the British realized that the fort was designed well enough to allow a small contingent of men to repel an attack. Negotiations were begun and both sides agreed to reduce their military presence on the island. The work had been physically difficult, done only with pick and shovel, and the redoubt never fired a shot in anger. The fort became known as "Robert's Gopher Hole." If it never knew battle, it certainly succeeded in ending the armed conflict and helping to shape policy.

On Christmas Eve, 1860, Robert married Helen Marie Thresher in Dayton, Ohio. The couple would have five children, four daughters and one son.

When the American Civil War began, Robert chose to remain loyal to the United States. He helped to plan the defenses of Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia Harbor, and was subsequently promoted to first lieutenant. Because the sometimes-sultry climate of the Middle Atlantic States aggravated his lingering malaria, he was soon transferred to New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure

It was in New Bedford that Robert had his first exposure to the thing that would bring him fame. Asked to preside over a meeting at his church, he found that he had no idea how to effectively do the job. According to legend, Robert decided that he would not preside at a meeting until he understood parliamentary procedure.

After a short term heading the Department of Practical Engineering in West Point, Robert became the chief engineer for the Military Division in the Pacific in 1867. He was in charge of lighthouse and harbor construction and also ordered to scout Arizona. He was stationed in the then booming town of San Francisco. While there, he was asked to once again take a leadership role, this time at the First Baptist Church of California. He found that as people came from various parts of the country to take part in the boom, they brought with them many ideas of how a meeting should be run, each based on their own experience. It created an atmosphere in which little of the business of the church could be accomplished. Robert had developed some ideas from his own study of parliamentary law, and saw that there was a need for a general reference tool.

He began to seriously research and study parliamentary law. The basic rules of order originated in the early parliaments of England. European settlers brought them to the United States. But they were an oral tradition. As people moved across the U.S., the rules were adapted and evolved. Robert researched both the historical and most widely adopted current rules to determine a set procedure that would be applicable to modern-day meetings. His research resulted in the publication of a 15-page pamphlet in 1869. It was meant for himself and his friends, so that the business of the church could be better handled.

The Rules of Order were Created

In 1873, Robert was assigned to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, supervising construction of lighthouses on Lake Michigan and river and harbor improvements. During the severe winter of 1873-74, he found himself with time on his hands, unable to perform any duties due to the weather. He decided to use this time to collect all he had researched on parliamentary procedure and write the first manuscript of what would become Robert's Rules of Order . It was the most complete guide to be published at the time. On the suggestion of his wife, who felt that the Rules of Order might be too complex for people who had no parliamentary experience, Robert added two sections. The first dealt with practical matters such as the scheduling of meetings and the preparation of agendas. The second section had to do with the legal rights of assemblies, and the correct procedures for regulating behavior at meetings.

Once he had completed the manuscript in 1875, Robert, following a convention of many writers of the day, paid to have 4,000 unbound copies of Rules of Order typeset and printed by Burdick and Armitage, printers in Milwaukee. In early 1876, Robert found a publisher to handle the sales and distribution of the book. The S.C. Griggs Company in Chicago agreed to publish the Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies. The title pages of the first edition were reprinted to include the publisher and copyright date as 1876.

The book was officially published in February 1876. One thousand copies of the first edition were given free to educators, civic leaders and parliamentarians across the United States. That act must have helped create the tremendous demand; the remaining 3,000 copies were sold out by May. When he had the original 4,000 copies printed, Robert believed that it was at least four year's supply.

Griggs wanted to reprint the book, but the plates needed to be reset. Robert took advantage to make some changes. The second edition of the Rules of Order was published in July of 1876. It featured 16 additional pages, due to a combination of Robert's changes and the use of a larger typeface. The second edition would see 21 printings by 1892, with more than 140,000 copies printed. In 1881, Robert's The Water-Jet as an Aid to Engineering Construction was published.

Robert in Galveston

The U.S. government was looking for a port in the western Gulf of Mexico at the end of the 1880s. President Grover Cleveland appointed Robert to head a board of engineers to select the best location. Robert felt that the island city of Galveston, Texas was the only choice for a seaport. Congress accepted his proposal, and Robert was given the task of building a deep-sea port at the island. The largest hindrance to navigation at Galveston was a large sandbar. Robert designed a series of jetties that increased the speed of the river water entering the gulf, which eventually forced the sandbar into deeper water. The work lasted until 1895, during which Robert was promoted to the rank of colonel.

While working in Galveston, Robert prepared a third edition of Robert's Rules of Order, which was published in 1893. After his wife Helen died in 1895, Robert continued his career as a consulting engineer. His experiences in Galveston led him to jobs at a number of other Texas harbors and riverfronts.

The spring of 1901 was a very eventful one for Robert. On April 30, President William McKinley rewarded him for his 44 years of loyal and productive service, by promoting him to the rank of brigadier general, and appointing him chief of the Corps of Engineers. Though it surely added to his pension, the act must have been mainly a symbolic one, for Robert retired from the Army just two days later, on May 2. He was 64 years old.

Civilian Life

Less than one week later, on May 8, Robert embarked on the next phase of his life by marrying Isabel Livingstone Hoagland in Owego, New York. The newlyweds settled in Owego, in central New York State, and Robert began his career as an engineering consultant. He also began to revise his Rules of Order.

One of his first civilian engineering jobs again involved the city of Galveston. In 1900, the city was devastated by a hurricane with storm tides that almost destroyed the city. Robert was invited to help devise some form of protection against future storms. From 1901 to 1904 he designed and supervised the building of a large seawall. The resulting construction, made of concrete, was 17 feet high, seven miles long, and wide enough to allow a roadway on its top. It protected the city from two later storms, in 1909 and 1915. Robert inspected the seawall after both storms and reported any damage to city leaders. He also worked on designs for a highway and a railway bridge linking Galveston to the mainland.

In 1915, Robert's Rules of Order, Revised, featuring new material and a new copyright was published. Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law was published in 1921. This was followed in 1923 by Parliamentary Law.

On May 11, 1923, Henry Martyn Robert died in Hornell, New York. He was 86. Services were held at Owego, New York. Robert is buried in Section Three of Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, DC. Parliamentary procedure has become a family business. Robert's daughter and grandson have both created revised editions of the Rules of Order.

Many of the engineering improvements Robert designed still stand as a testament to his abilities. The Sea Wall at Galveston is that city's most distinctive feature, and has been called the premiere waterfront boulevard in the United States. Robert is known around the world for bringing order to civic and organizational meetings. If a vote were to be held to declare Henry Martyn Robert the person with the most influence on meetings, without a doubt, the motion would be carried.

Books

Petroski, Henry, Remaking the World, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Online

"Chronology of the Life of Gen. Henry Martyn Robert," http://www.paliamentarians.org (February 4, 2001).

"San Juan Island National Historical Park," National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/ (February 4, 2001).

"In 1876 You Could Buy a Robert's First Edition for 75 Cents,"(From the 4th Quarter 1999 issue of the National Parliamentarian ) http://www.newkent.net/

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140504/PUB04/405010335/1040

My home town: the launch pad of Robert's Rules

May 04, 2014 12:00 AM

A couple months back or so, the Lakeville Board of Selectmen adopted a customized version of Robert's Rules of Order to conduct their meetings by. Though their version, in a nutshell, was tailored to the more informal style of that particular board, the essential purpose of the Rules is there, taking the formerly undefined procedures of the BOS and making them official. With the Freetown-Lakeville Regional and Middleboro School Committees also having adopted Robert's Rules of Order, I wanted to learn a little more about them and what I've found so far is interesting — unexpectedly so. Since the book's contents has such an impact on everyone's daily lives whether they're aware of it or not, I thought I'd take a moment to share a little background on the rules many of our decision-makers follow and also some side details I found personally intriguing.

A History of Robert's Rules — my adaptation

The original Robert's Rules of Order was written was written by U.S. Army Colonel Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923) at the age of 39. According to the official Robert's Rules website, the seeds of this very important piece of literature were planted in Col. Robert's head after unexpectedly being asked to preside over a community meeting on abolitionist concerns and failing miserably at keeping things orderly. After some more searching I was personally fascinated and excited to learn that this meeting took place at the First Baptist Church right in my hometown of New Bedford — an important hub of the Abolitionist Movement — in the midst of our historic downtown, where the colonel vowed to become learned on parliamentary procedure before attempting to preside over a meeting again. His travels over the next few years allotted him opportunities to witness the workings of other groups in various parts of the country which only solidified his conclusion that procedural indecisiveness was the cause for many inefficiencies at public meetings. So, instead of giving up hope on humans' ability to agree on things, he did the most logical thing he could think of, which was to determine best-practices and craft a rule book based that most everybody could live with. Three years after that first meeting in New Bedford, the first edition of Robert's Rules was published in 1876.

The man behind the rules

Col. Robert was born in Robertville, South Carolina but moved to Ohio due to his clergyman father's disagreement with slavery. After graduating from West Point in 1857 he became an engineer in the military. After engineering fortifications to the island of San Juan during the Pig War, his Civil War-era work included his appointment in 1862 as superintendent. of construction for Fort Tabor, which still stands in New Bedford's south end and is one of my kids' favorite play spots. Later in life he served as president of the Board of Engineers, a position appointed by President Grover Cleveland.

It's hardly a dissertation, but I hope the information shared here has been interesting to read, if nothing else. Aside from learning more about where many of our town boards' procedures come from, even if not exact versions, I hope I've encouraged some people to research topics — any little topic that catches your attention. When you take what you know and are willing to dig just a little deeper, as you can see by my own little exploration, you never know what you'll find out that may hold unexpected relevance to your own life.

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https://omny.fm/shows/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class/henry-martyn-robert-s-rules-of-order

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Henry Martyn Robert’s Rules of Order

Published Mar 27, 2024, 6:00 AM

Description

Henry Martyn Robert was connected to multiple historical events, but his most lasting legacy is the set of guidelines he created that offered a standardized way to run meetings.

Research: 

• "Henry Martyn Robert." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 21, Gale, 2001. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631007677/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=a6a24976. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.

• Doyle, Don H. “Rules of Order: Henry Martyn Robert and the Popularization of American Parliamentary Law.” American Quarterly , Spring, 1980, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1980). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2712493

• Fishman, Donald. “The Elusive Henry Martyn Robert: A Historical Problem.” National Parliamentarian. Second Quarter 2012.

• Hansen, Brett. “Weathering the Storm: the Galveston Seawall and Grade Raising.” Civil Engineering. April 2007.

• Hendricks, George Brian, "Rules of Order: A Biography of Henry Martyn Robert, Soldier, Engineer, Churchman, Parliamentarian" (1998). Legacy ETDs. 755. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd_legacy/755

• Kline, Charles R. “Robert, Henry Martyn.” Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas. 6/1/1995. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/robert-henry-martyn

• , Ben and Clio Admin. "Henry Martyn Robert Historical Marker." Clio: Your Guide to History. January 18, 2023. Accessed March 13, 2024. https://theclio.com/entry/163000

• National Park Service. “Henry Martyn Robert.” https://www.nps.gov/people/henry-martyn-robert.htm

• National Park Service. “The Redoubt.” https://www.nps.gov/sajh/planyourvisit/the-redoubt.htm

• Pillsbury, Avis Miller and Mildred E Hatch. “The genealogy of the First Baptist Church of New Bedford, Massachusetts.” Reynolds-DeWalt Printing, Inc. 1979. https://archive.org/details/genealogyoffirst00avis/

• Robert, Henry M. “Robert’s Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies.” Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Company. 1876. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9097/pg9097-images.html

• Saunders, R. Frank, and George A. Rogers. “Joseph Thomas Robert and the Wages of Conscience.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 88, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40584703. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024.

• Smedley, Ralph C. “The Great Peacemaker.” Toastmasters International. 1955, 1993. https://archive.org/details/greatpeacemaker0000ralp/

• S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Historical Vignette 038 - An Army Engineer Brought Order to Church Meetings and Revolutionized Parliamentary Procedure.” 11/2001. https://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/Historical-Vignettes/General-History/038-Church-Meetings/

Transcript

00:01   Speaker 1

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

00:11   Speaker 2

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm Holly Frye. I don't remember exactly what was happening when, like the first seed was planted for this episode, but I am pretty sure I was on discord, which means I was playing a game, whatever it was. Things were winding down and somebody said I moved that the meeting be adjourned. We were not in a meeting, but well, we all knew what that meant, and I found that whole moment hilarious. So that's stuck in my brain, even though the exact surroundings of what was happening did not. And then in the weeks after that, just random references to Robert's Rules of Order kept popping up at odd places in my life, until I was finally like, Okay, who is Robert? Robert was Henry Martin Robert, so unlike what I had always assumed, Robert was his last name, not his first name. My first experience with Robert's Rules of Order was in four AH meetings in the nineteen eighties, and to me, it somehow felt like something out of my parents' generation. But Henry Martin Robert lived way before that, and he was connected to multiple events that we have covered on the show before, most of them really had nothing to do with parliamentary procedure. I know all of you know how much I like to read from old historical documents on the podcast. And if you're thinking, Tracy, are you about to trick us into listening to you read Robert's Rules of Order? No, we are not going to read Robert's.

01:49   Speaker 1

Rules of Order.

01:52   Speaker 2

Because I don't want to, and I also don't want people who are super familiar with it to yell at me about getting anything wrong. This is way about his life than the specifics of Robert's rules, all right.

02:05   Speaker 1

So, Henry Martin Robert was born May second, eighteen thirty seven on his grandfather's plantation near Robertville, South Carolina, And yes, Robertville was named for the Robert family, although they were descended from Huguenots, who probably would have pronounced it in a more French way because who wouldn't want you anyway? The white families in this area were tightly connected through various intermarriages. Henry's parents Joseph Thomas Robert and Adeline Lawton were cousins.

02:34   Speaker 2

Henry was one of six children born to Joseph and Adeline, and four of those children survived until adulthood. This family was devoutly religious. They had been devoutly religious for generations. Those ancestors who first immigrated to North America included Pierre Robert, who became pastor of South Carolina's first French Huguenot church. Eventually, the Robertses had become Baptists, and Henry's father and grandfather were both Baptist ministers. His father, Joseph Thomas Robert, also trained as a doctor.

03:09   Speaker 1

In the years before the US Civil War, there were white clergy who used the Bible and religion to justify slavery, but Joseph Robert's religious convictions eventually led him to oppose slavery. Some of the more recent writing on Henry Martin Robert makes it sound like his father was a vocal abolitionist who manumitted his enslaved workforce and moved the family to the free state of Ohio to get away from the institution. Many of the more recent writings also assigned this viewpoint to Henry's mother, Adeline as well as to Henry himself. The reality is a.

03:43   Speaker 2

Little bit more complicated. Though they did not go straight from South Carolina to Ohio, they moved several times between eighteen thirty nine and eighteen forty nine. The exact reasons for all those moves aren't clearly documented, but it was pretty common for past to move from one congregation to another for all kinds of reasons. The family's first move was to Covington, Kentucky, in eighteen thirty nine. Kentucky was a slave state and there were both pro and anti slavery factions in Covington. They were in Covington for less than two years before moving to Lebanon, Ohio, so a free state, but then five years later they moved to Georgia, a slave state, where Joseph served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Savannah. In eighteen forty nine, they moved back to Robertville. When the family moved yet again to Portsmouth, Ohio, they were in a free state, but they were in a town that had a lot of Southern sympathizers. Although there are family stories about Adeline trying to teach enslave children to read in her youth and coming to oppost slavery as well. She also maintained strong Southern sympathies and clearly missed her plantation life in South Carolina and Henry Martin robert views on slavery are not specifically detailed in his public writings or in the papers that have been made available to historians and biographers. Yeah, I read a whole paper that was published back in twenty twelve that was like, his personal views on almost everything are a total mystery. And while there is a biography that came out after that paper was written, it also is not very specific about his views on pretty much anything. We'll talk about that a little bit more on the Friday Behind the Scenes. While the Roberts family was living in Portsmouth, Ohio, Henry Martin Roberts was appointed to the US Military Academy at West Point in New York, where he hoped to train as an engineer. He was sixteen, That made him one of the youngest cadets in his class. He graduated in eighteen fifty seven, and during his last year at the academy, he also served as a mathematics instructor. Math is, of course a huge part of engineering and a lack of mathema proficiency was one of the main reasons that cadets failed out of that course of study. Henry really excelled at math, though so much so that they had him teaching it before he had even graduated, and then he graduated fourth in his class overall. When he graduated, he became a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers, and for a year he continued teaching at West Point. I will say, if you can do your studies and have the job of teaching and still graduate fourth, I think you're terrifying as an achiever in a good way. After that, his first assignment was to Washington Territory. He set out on October third, eighteen fifty eight, taking a steamship south, crossing the Isthmus of Panama by train and making the rest of the voyage by sea. He contracted malaria while traveling across Panama, and he wasn't really given any time to recover. Once he arrived in Washington, he and his unit were immediately set to work building a road. The United States was at war with indigenous nations in the Pacific Northwest, and the Army Corps of Engineers was building roads and bridges and surveying for railroad lines to facilitate troop movements in that conflict. Yeah, that's not the only place that wars with indigenous people were going on, but he was. That's where he was located at that point. Robert's work building roads was disrupted by an incident we covered on the show almost a decade ago. That was the Pig War, and we will run that episode as a Saturday Classic, but briefly, because of some unspecific treaty language, the United States and the United Kingdom were both claiming to control San Juan Island, which is east of Vancouver Island and northwest of Seattle. On June fifteenth, eighteen fifty nine, an American named Lyman Cutler shot and killed a pig that was rooting through his crops. And this pig was the property of the Hudson's Bay Company, so this became an international incident. As this dispute escalated, Robert and a ten man engineering team were sent to the island to build fortifications in a camp along with a one hundred man army detachment. They built an earthen redoubt that was nicknamed Robert's Gopher Hole. In doing so, they totally changed the landscape of San Juan Island. Much of it had been covered by fir trees which were felled to build that redoubt, leaving a prairie behind. The Remains of this redoubt are still visible today. It's a National Historic Landmark that's part of San Juan Island National Historic Park. This redoubt is sometimes credited with helping to keep this standoff from turning into an active shooting war. It offered cover for cannons from an army steamer that had been dragged up a hill, so that made it possible for a very small American force to hold the island against pretty much any attack that the British could muster. But the building process for this did not go very smoothly. There was a lot of difficult, dirty labor, A lot of it was more physically grueling than the engineers were used to. The army detachment was simultaneously frustrated that Robert was not rationing out enough whiskey and also able to get access to enough illicit alcohol that drunkenness and misbehavior were ongoing problems. There were two mutinies, a court martial and at least one duel that had to be broken up. Eventually, President James Buchanan ordered General Winfield Scott to the island to try to restore calm. By that point, Robert's engineering team had finished the redoubt and were building other defenses and a larger camp. Scott ultimately negotiated a joint occupation of San Juan Island, so those defenses and camp facilities were no longer needed. Robert was sent back to the road project that he had been working on before the Pig War, but in April of eighteen sixty Robert asked to be relieved of duty. He was chronically ill and also frustrated by the work he was doing didn't really line up with what he had been studying at West Point or hoping to do. Another frustration was what he saw as a lack of discipline and protocol in the men who were serving under him. Initially, he did not get a response to this request, and he became very ill. A couple of months later, while trying to blaze a pack trail to Fort Vancouver, he finally received word that he could return to Washington, d C. Once he was relieved by another officer. That happened, and he left in September of eighteen sixty. That, of course, was not long before the start of the US Civil War, and we will get into that after we pause for a sponsor break. Brother against brother is one of the cliches that comes up a lot around the US Civil War, and the Robert family was one that really did have members on opposite sides. Henry Martin Robert's father, Joseph, stayed in the North, something that most sources attribute to his feelings on the issue of slavery. Henry's mother, Adeline, was more conflicted. She stayed with her husband, but she still felt a deep loyalty to her home state of South Carolina. She really hated being cut off from all of her family there because of the war. She was also terrified that her brothers, who joined the Confederate Army, would wind up facing her son Henry in combat because Henry remained with the United States Army.

11:40   Speaker 1

Although South Carolina seceded from the Union over the issue of slavery, Henry Martin Robert's decision to remain in the US Army doesn't seem to have been about slavery at all, or if it was, that's not something that he left any kind of record of in the material that's been available to biographers and historians. Robert thought South Carolina did have the right to secede, but he also thought that if states seceded, they would eventually destroy themselves through factionalism and division. Like his mother, he felt a sense of loyalty to South Carolina, but he thought it was in the state's best interest to preserve the Union. Robert had actually been thinking about leaving the army before the Civil War started. He had been offered a job as a professor. He had also married Helen Marie Thresher in December of eighteen sixty. They had been courting for a couple of years, with a lot of that courtship happening through letters while he was in the Pacific Northwest. But when he heard about the Battle of Fort Sumter in April of eighteen sixty one, he ended his furlough a week early and he went to Washington, d c. He was promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to work under Major John G. Bernard fortifying the area around the capitol. Robert still had not fully recovered from malaria, though, and soon his illness was one again, affecting his ability to work, he was transferred to Philadelphia, where the work was expected to be less strenuous, and then in April of eighteen sixty two he was transferred again, this time to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where it was helped that the cooler climate would help him recover.

13:17   Speaker 2

He had an experience while living in New Bedford that later led him to study and write about parliamentary law. Although some of the details are fuzzy and some of the accounts of this are conflicting, there was a meeting. It was probably a public meeting, it was probably held at a church, and it was probably about the local defenses.

13:39   Speaker 1

If you are familiar with the form.

13:41   Speaker 2

Of governance known as the New England town meeting, meaning that rather than electing a representative government, the entire body of eligible voters acts as the town's legislature and open meetings. This was not that New Bedford was chartered as a city in eighteen forty seven, and by definition of open town meetings are four towns, not cities. So New Bedford had a mayor and a board of aldermen and a common council, but it could also convene more general meetings on matters of public good whatever the details of this meeting. Robert was elected to serve as its chair, maybe because he was there in his officer's uniform so he seemed like a logical person to put in charge. Some accounts say that this meeting went on for fourteen hours and was generally terrible, and others say that it actually didn't go all that badly, But Robert wasn't happy about it. He wasn't expecting to have to chair a meeting and didn't know what to do. In his opinion, his study at West Point and his army service had not prepared him for this at all. Some things he thought he needed to know but didn't know included which motions took precedence over others, which were debatable, and which could be amended. So he said, quote, I plunged in, trusting to providence that the ass Asembly would behave itself. But with the plunge went the determination that I would never again attend to any meeting until I knew something on the subject of parliamentary law. After this experience, he reportedly made himself kind of a little quick reference in case he found himself in this situation again, just a sheet of paper that listed out the types of motions that could be put forth during a meeting according to their rank, along with which of the motions could be debated or amended. He did not start working on the book that would become Robert's Rules of Order until a bit later, though. The first of Henry and Helen's five children was born on April eighteenth, eighteen sixty five. I was a daughter, also named Helen, and about four months later Henry asked for another transfer. He had been dealing with the effects of malaria at this point for more than five years, and he needed the help of aids to carry out his regular duties in the field.

15:58   Speaker 1

He asked to.

15:59   Speaker 2

Be sent to the United States Military Academy to teach instead, and this request was granted and he was put in charge of the Department of Practical Military Engineering at West Point, and he taught there until the autumn of eighteen sixty seven. That year, Robert was promoted to major and named Chief Engineer of the Military Division of the Pacific. He and the family moved to San Francisco, where they lived until eighteen seventy one. A lot of his engineering work from this point on focused on shorelines, rivers, and lighthouses, and he worked on some of the infrastructure around the Presidio in San Francisco. His time in San Francisco also included a lot of work with social, religious and reform organizations. He was on the board of trustees of San Francisco's first Baptist Church and on the board of directors at the YMCA. His work with the Baptist Church included establishing Sunday School for Chinese immigrants. This was about a decade before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act banned all immigration from China to the United States, and San Francisco had a significant population of Chinese workers, who were frequently the targets of racism, discrimination, and violence. He also served as treasurer of the Society for the Rescue of Fallen Women, which was a ministry that essentially tried to rescue women from sex work. Something Robert noticed while working with these and other organizations in San Francisco was that there were a lot of disputes and a lot of time spent in meetings arguing California had become a US territory after the Mexican American War ended in eighteen forty eight. It had become a state in eighteen fifty, so is still pretty new in terms of being part of the United States. A lot of people living there were relative newcomers from other parts of the US. People all had their own ideas about how to do things, and those ideas were informed by whether they had previously been living somewhere that had been colonized by Britain, France, or Spain, whether they had indigenous or African ancestry, what kinds of organizations they had experience with. People just all had different ideas of how to do things, and they wasted a lot of time arguing over the substance of their meetings, but also over procedural questions about how the meeting itself should be conducted. So Robert thought there really needed to be one uniform rule set which could be used all over the United States, so that as people moved around and tried to establish new organizations and tried to run meetings, they would at least all start out on the same page when it came to the way that the meeting should be structured and organized.

18:46   Speaker 1

He started reviewing the books that were already available about parliamentary laws, that is, the various rules protocols, standards, and points of etiquette that are used to govern meetings of legislatures or non legislative organistsations. Those non legislative organizations that conduct their meetings according to parliamentary law are often called deliberative assemblies. Robert intended for his work to be used by deliberative assemblies, not by legislatures. When Robert started this research, the major works on parliamentary law in the United States included Thomas Jefferson's eighteen oh one Manual of Parliamentary Practice and Luther S. Cushing's seventeen forty five Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies that was more often known as Cushing's Manual.

19:38   Speaker 2

Cushing's Manual was in pretty common use, but Robert really didn't think either of these works was well suited for non legislative bodies. Thomas Jefferson was Thomas Jefferson and Luther S. Cushing had been clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, so both of their works were informed by working in legislatures. He also thought that these rules a lot of the time were too specific and too complicated for something like a non legislative local organization. And some of the rules just were not relevant to those kinds of organizations. He also got a copy of the Congressional Manual and John M. Barclay's Digest of Rules and Practices of the House, but again these were rules for legislatures. That wasn't quite what he wanted in the end. In eighteen sixty nine, he wrote a brief pamphlet of basic rules, which he had printed at his own expense and handed out to friends, family, and colleagues. He started working on a short manual that would be suitable for wider distribution, but he wasn't able to finish it before being transferred to Portland, Oregon, where he wound up being a lot busier with his engineering work than In late eighteen seventy three, Robert was sent to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to oversee the construction of lighthouses around Lake Michigan. When he got there at the very end of descem much of the lake was frozen and temperatures were well below zero fahrenheit. That put a stop to pretty much all of the work that had to be done outside. His wife and children also stayed behind in Dayton, Ohio for a while, and so this finally gave him time to really focus on his work on parliamentary law, and then he continued that work after the weather warmed up and his family got to Milwaukee.

21:26   Speaker 1

Henry's wife, Helen, played a key part in this book. Henry had written out his rules of order, including rules for obtaining the floor and introducing business, types of motions and their order of precedence, committees, debates, voting, and officers, as well as some miscellaneous rules. But Helen pointed out that these rules were only really useful to someone who already knew how to run a meeting. People who were just getting started would want to know how to convene a meeting, how to call it to order, and what was supposed to happen from there.

21:58   Speaker 2

Henry didn't want people to open the book and think it was all just basics though. He was trying to update and reform parliamentary law into something that could be used and endorsed by respected organizations all around the country. But he also saw his wife's point, and he wound up writing a second part to the book, titled Organization and Conduct of Business, to supplement the rules that were in the first part. The finished book was one hundred and seventy six pages long, and it was meant to be easy to carry around and use. In eighteen seventy five, he had this book typeset and four thousand copies printed, but he had trouble finding someone to bind and distribute it. Robert had written this book because he thought what was already available was inadequate, but publishers thought there was no way some random military engineer's parliamentary law book would supplant Cushing's manual. He finally worked out a deal with publisher s C. Griggson Company, in which Robert paid for almost all of the binding costs himself. Copies of the book were earmarked to give away eight hundred by the publisher and two hundred by Robert, and the publisher would pay Robert forty percent of the retail price of any of the other three thousand copies that were sold. The Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, or just Robert's Rules of Order, sold for seventy five cents. They sent those thousand free copies to parliamentarians, schools, and organizational leaders all over the United States, and to book reviewers, and this book was very well received. In the words of A review in a San Francisco newspaper quote, it is less cumbersome than Jefferson, more American than Cushing, and better adapted than either to the common wants of the masses. A review in the Chicago Standard wrote, quote, a book more needed has not appeared in many a day. We are happy to find that this one meets the case so admirably.

23:59   Speaker 1

Side note. One of the places that Robert sent free copies of his book was the seminary for Friedman, where his father worked. Henry's mother, Adeline, died in eighteen sixty six, so she never returned to the South after the start of the Civil War, but his father had moved south in eighteen seventy because of his health. He got a job at Augusta Bible Institute, which was one of several schools for free black people established by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Joseph Thomas. Robert served as the institute's first president. It later moved to Atlanta, and in nineteen thirteen it was renamed Morehouse College. Robert sent the free books in eighteen seventy seven, when the institute was still in Augusta, Georgia.

24:43   Speaker 2

We will talk more about his life and Robert's rules after a sponsor break Henry Martin. Robert had thought that those three thousand copies of his Rules of Order would last for two years, but they sold out in only six months. Even though he had no formal training as a parliamentarian. This meant that he was immediately seen as a big authority on parliamentary law. So many people wrote to him with questions, and some of those questions were very specific. He tried to individually answer all of these letters and also to use the kinds of questions that people were asking him to inform later revisions and updates to his rules. At the same time, though, he also encouraged the people writing him to adapt these rules to their circumstances and just to approach problems and disputes with common sense, patience, and understanding, rather than trying to rigidly adhere to rules for their own sake. Also, Robert's whole goal here was for people to be able to run their meetings efficiently and effectively, and to that end, he also wanted to write articles and other material about parliamentary law and to create a shorter version of his rules, specifically for churches. This led to a dispute with his publisher, who was afraid that if he kept reprinting the same rules in other publications, he was going to lose control over the copyright of his work. As Robert revised and added to his rules of order, he also continued to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers. In eighteen eighty nine, he was appointed to a board of engineers to select a site for a port on the Gulf of Mexico. The board selected the island of Galveston, Texas as the side of this port, and Robert worked on a series of jetties to change the way the river water moved through the gulf and to make the water deep enough for ships to be able to navigate over a sandbar. Robert's return home from Galveston was disrupted by the Johnstone flood on May thirty first, eighteen eighty nine. Was stuck on his train for two days and spent a week in Altoona, Pennsylvania before he was able to continue on. Prior host Sarah and Deblina covered the Johnstown flood on the show in twenty twelve, and we ran that episode as a Saturday Classic back in twenty eighteen, but briefly an earth and dam owned by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club failed, causing massive flooding and damage downstream and killing more than twenty two hundred people. This flood became notorious both for the catastrophic damage and death and because of survivor's lengthy and unsuccessful efforts to collect damages from the club, whose members included people like Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellin. In February of eighteen ninety, Robert was named Engineer Commissioner for the District of Columbia. While he was in Washington, d C. He continued to focus both on his engineering work and on social reform. For example, he didn't think it was feasible to totally ban alcohol or sex work, but he saw both of them as the causes of various societal problems, so he wanted to limit and regulate them. Of course, this was something else in his life that was influenced by his own religious beliefs, and he also kept working on his rules and answering people's letters about them. This added up to a lot of work, and Robert left this role in October of eighteen ninety one after a doctor diagnosed him with neurasthenia brought on by overwork. By the following year, Robert's rules had been through twenty one printings, with more than one hundred and forty thousand copies in circulation, but salees started to drop in eighteen ninety three in the wake of the financial panic that year, and his publisher also went out of business. Then, on October tenth, eighteen ninety five, his wife Helen died suddenly of heart failure. Robert continued working, though, including on various defense projects, when the Spanish America War started in eighteen ninety eight. By that point he was getting close to the army's mandatory retirement age of sixty four. He turned sixty four on May second, nineteen oh one, and retired with the rank of brigadier general, and by that point had also been named Chief of Engineers. Robert had been awarded this promotion on April thirtieth, nineteen oh one, so just a couple of days before he retired, which had involved a considerable amount of jockeying. A few years before Chief of Engineers, William P. Craighill had retired, Robert and his friend and colleague John M. Wilson were the same age, with birthdays on May second and October eighth, respectively. In addition to being a few months older, Robert had seniority, and both men thought that when Craig Hill retired, Robert would be promoted, and then when Robert retired, Wilson would be promoted, so both men would retire with the distinction and benefits that came with the rank of brigadier general. Both of them were surprised when Wilson got the promotion instead. Wilson protested this decision and then spearheaded a whole campaign, complete with newspaper editorials and letters to President William McKinley, to try to get Robert promoted before his retirement. McKinley was reluctant to allow this because of the precedent that it would set, but ultimately Wilson did retire a few months early and Robert was promoted.

30:27   Speaker 1

A few days after his retirement. On May eighth, nineteen oh one, Robert married Isabelle Livingston Hoagland. They went on a honeymoon to Cuba, and after they got back, Henry started consulting as a civilian engineer. A massive hurricane had struck Galveston on September eighth, nineteen hundred. Past hosts covered this hurricane in an episode called Five Historical Storms that was also a Saturday Classic in twenty eighteen and again briefly. Galveston was on a low lying island and this hurricane caused a massive storm surge. More than six thousand people died, and the city faced immense damage. Henry Martin, Robert Alfred Noble, and Henry Clay Ripley were tasked with finding a way to protect the city, which they did by building a massive sea wall and raising the city. Robert also worked on a causeway bridge linking Galveston to the mainland. In nineteen eleven, the government of Mexico invited Robert to work on improvements to the port of Fronterra in the state of Tabasco, and Isabelle went with him. They did not get to see this project through to completion, though, due to the Mexican Revolution. Resident Porfirio Diaz was forced out of office on May eleventh, nineteen eleven. He went into exile and the Robertses went back to the United States. By this point, there had been a number of updates and reprintings of robert Truls of Order. The first one to be specifically framed as a revised edition came out in nineteen fifteen. In nineteen sixteen, Robert started work on a much longer work called Parliamentary Law, which he intended for the use of professional parliamentarians and people who taught parliamentary procedure. He also worked on a shorter training manual called Parliamentary Practice, which included lessons and drills. Parliamentary Practice was published in nineteen twenty one, and Parliamentary Law in nineteen twenty two. His wife Isabelle and daughter in law Sarah Corbin Robert were a very big part of getting these books written, as was their friend Mildred Anderson. And that was because at this point Robert was advancing in age, and he had developed cataracts and hearing laws, and he just needed people to help take notes and dictation as he wrote out this work. Henry Martin Robert died in Hornell, New York, on May eleventh, nineteen twenty three, at the age of eighty six. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Robert's Rules of Order became the almost ubiquitous manual of parliamentary procedure in the United States. Not every organization uses it, of course, but there are still a lot of nonprofits, student governments, homeowners' associations, and other organizations that rely on it. This includes some legislative bodies, like some of the New England town meetings that we mentioned earlier. There's some suggestion that Robert's Rules of Order did more than just give existing organizations a formal framework on how to conduct meetings more efficiently and in a more orderly way, that it also inspired the creation of new organizations by providing a practical reference for how to do it. And the words of historian Don H. Doyle, writing an American Quarterly in nineteen eighty quote, Robert's remarkable achievement came about because his book both stimulated and fed a soaring popular demand for parliamentary law. It's definitely true that there was an explosion of organizations, especially organizations devoted to some kind of social or political reform, in the progressive era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In other words, after Robert's Rules came out, a lot of those letters Robert personally answered came from people who were trying to start or manage organizations for women's suffrage or racial equality, prohibition, and other social and political issues. For example, Carrie Chapman Kat once wrote to Robert to say that she had been running suffrage meetings with his rules for thirty years.

34:29   Speaker 2

At the same time, there have been increasing criticisms of Robert's Rules in more recent years. Although he wrote it for non legislative bodies, it was informed by existing rules for parliamentary procedure. Those had roots that mostly went back to the British Parliament. So this comes from a very Eurocentric perspective and from the rules of governing bodies that were made up exclusively of men at the time.

34:57   Speaker 1

Aside from that, even a brief overview of re Robert Rules can seem overwhelming to someone who doesn't already have a background in it, which can make meetings less accessible to newcomers. The twelfth edition of Roberts Rules came out in twenty twenty, and it is definitely not a pocket sized book. It's eight hundred and sixteen pages long, perhaps if you have very big pockets. Roberts Rules in Brief, which came out the same year as two hundred twenty four pages. There are various quick references in cheat sheets, but still all of this can just feel like a lot. It's also possible for people to use Robert Trulls in bad faith to get their own way or to silence people, especially if those other people that are being silenced are not as familiar with the rules. Some organizations instead focus on methods that emphasize consensus building and collaboration rather than formal rule sets, for things like introducing motions, controlling the floor voting, and determining when it is acceptable to interrupt the person speaking.

35:57   Speaker 2

At the same time. Some of the criticisms of are unfounded. For example, the US Congress does not use Robert's rules of order. Most legislative bodies, apart from things like New England town meetings, have their own specific rules. So if you are mad about something going on with the Senate or House rules in the United States, you're going to need to find somebody else to blame besides Henry Martin.

36:23   Speaker 1

Robert.

36:24   Speaker 2

He is not the cause of philibus. No, he did not make that happen in Congress. I have some listener mail to take us out.

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