What is Compromise? My friend wanted a boat more than anything. His wife kept refusing, but he bought one anyway. "I'll tell you what," he told her, "In the spirit of compromise, why don't you name the boat?" Being a good sport, she accepted. When her husband went to the dock for his maiden voyage, this is the name he saw painted on the side: "For Sale." ****** There are things that are okay to compromise. There are things that are not okay to compromise. Life is about learning the difference. ~Katrina Mayer~
The Constitutional Compromises When our founding fathers met in Philadelphia in hot summer of 1787, they had a difficult task in front of them: they had to either fix the Articles of Confederation or replace it with something else. Within a short period of time, it was obvious that they would replace it, but replace it with what? As with most things that get debated, people would break off into alliances. In the case of the Constitution, several alliances formed: Large states vs. Small states Northern states vs. Southern states Federalists vs. Antifederalists Thankfully, James Madison and others (but mostly Madison) found ways to satisfy all of these groups, and the Constitution was written and ratified.
Debate #1 What did New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have in common in 1787? They were large states in terms of population, and they were the most powerful states. The small states wanted to make sure that under the new Constitution, the small states would have some say in the government. There would be three branches in the new government, but the debate was about one branch, the legislative branch. Would the large states get more representatives than the small states because they had more people. That seems fair, but the small states feared being ignored. The Great Compromise was worked out that would create a bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives based on population and the Senate based on equality.
Debate #2 After the Great Compromise was done, everyone understood that the House of Representatives would be based on population, but what is the population of a state? It seems like a simple question, but it became complicated because of slavery. The Northern states believed that the Southern states should not be allowed to count their slaves as part of the population. After all, slave owners were not allowing slaves to enjoy the basic unalienable rights, so why should they be allowed to count slaves as part of their population. On the other hand, Northern states did want slaves to count for taxation so that the South would have to pay more taxes.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was agreed on between the North and South. This said that three out of every five slaves would count as part of the population. In other words, each slave would count as 3/5 of a person. PERSON PERSON PERSON SLAVE SLAVE SLAVE SLAVE SLAVE
Debate #3 After the Constitutional Convention, the Constitution had to be ratified (approved). Not everyone was in favor. There were two major groups: federalists and antifederalists. The federalists were in favor (federalists favor) of the Constitution. They had seen what happened in Massachusetts with Shays Rebellion, and they believed that a stronger federal government was needed. The antifederalists were against the Constitution (antifederalists against). The antifederalists were concerned that a stronger federal government would have too much power and would be too much like living under British rule. Again, a compromise was needed.
This would come to be known as the Massachusetts Compromise. In this agreement, the antifederalists agreed to vote in favor of the Constitution only if a bill of rights was written to protect individual liberties. James Madison agreed to write the bill of rights after the Constitution was passed. Federalists Yes! to the Constitution Antifederalists No! to the Constitution and then Antifederalists Yes to the Constitution with a Bill of Rights The Constitution was ratified in 1788, George Washington was elected our first president in 1789, and the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. Our country began with a series of compromises and continued when the capital was moved from New York City to Washington D.C., but we ll get to that later.