Compromise at Heart of Our Nation

It would be nice if Americans of all political persuasions would remember how our federal Constitution was written.

The framers were adamant about not endowing any one person with too much power.

They distrusted someone with too much power, convinced that man would abuse it.

The Constitution was also the product of compromise.

That founding document was written by a group of rich 18th century white men, men who didn’t trust people who weren’t rich, especially those who didn’t own property. They were racist, many were anti-Semitic and misogynists. For evidence of the last, just read the letters between John and Abigail Adams. While John was off creating a new nation, Abigail was taking care of business at home. Yet her husband still thought women couldn’t be trusted with important decisions.

Go figure.

But the founders put in one vital piece in the Constitution: How to amend it. That is a reason it has lasted as long as it has. They must have known their creation was not perfect and would need to be altered as this country changes.

Compromises were essential to unify thirteen colonies, each suspicious of being dominated by others. That’s why we have a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Originally, only the members of the House were elected by direct vote. Senators were considered representatives of the states and chosen by state legislatures. The House membership was and still is apportioned by population, which was the original reason for the national census. Over the years, 29 states moved to direct election of senators, but it wasn’t until 1913 when the 17th Amendment mandated the direct election of all senators.

We still have an archaic method of electing the president through the College of Electors, which actually gives states with smaller populations an outsized voice in picking the president. Each state’s electoral vote is based on the number of House members plus the two senators.

And compromise was the reason slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose apportioning membership in the House.

Slavery was finally abolished nationally by the 13th Amendment in December 1865 in the wake of the Civil War.

The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law to everyone born in the United States or is a naturalized citizen.

The 19th Amendment gave women the vote in 1920.

The 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two terms, whether they are consecutive or not. That amendment was enacted after Franklin Roosevelt won a fourth term. Of course, he had gotten this country through the Depression and World War II was still raging.

This is a nation founded on compromise, with a strong aversion to one person having too much power by flawed men who realized that times change.

As Benjamin Franklin famously said in response to a question about the new form of government: “A republic, if you can keep it.”