this from Lex Parliamentaria Americana: Elements of  the Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies of the United States of America (1856)

http://bit.ly/xqP0g0



________________________________
 From: Jon Kukla <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 2:05 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] Title "Moderator"
 
After Governor Botetourt dissolved the General Assembly of Virginiaon May
17, 1769, the former burgesses reconvened at Anthony Hay's Raleigh Tavern
and chose their former Speaker, Peyton Randolph, as "Moderator."
   I'm curious about the term - which the former burgesses seem to have
fastened upon very quickly that afternoon.
   OED has references to Moderator as a presiding officer in the Scottish
Kirk, a town or municipal official, and in antiquity a provincial governor
-- and the Roman-era usage of provincial governor turns up in some JSTOR
articles.
   These strike me as possible but not necessarily obvious antecedents. Am
wondering whether the term Moderator as a presiding officer of a
legislative body or convention etc. had any associations with civic
republican or commonwealth tradition ....

Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>

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