ABSTRACT
Before the British capitulation at Yorktown (19 October 1781), the United States had attained a basic level of parliamentary competence roughly equivalent to that exhibited in Great Britain. Through the decade of the 1780s the national appetite for reform in parliamentary and governance arrangements demanded substantial realignment of responsibilities among actors and bodies in Great Britain and the United States. The inspirational messaging for reform appeared in Burke’s Speech On The Plan For Economical Reform (11 February 1780). Through the years 1780–87 a total of 17 Acts of Parliament addressed corruption of candidates and members of Parliament by government ministers. In the United States Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, in like manner, inspired the reformers’ agenda; this program ultimately found its expression in Constitution II, ratified in 1788.
