Saturday, September 17, 2016

September 17, 1787: A Brief Look Back at Compromise 229 Years Later

Compromise Was a Key Factor That Produced the Constitution: Our Political Leaders Should Pause and Reflect on Its Example

Howard Christy's Painting Hanging in the U.S. Capitol
After several months of robust debate, extensive negotiation, and genuine compromise, it was on this day in 1787 that the Constitution was signed. The Constitutional Convention was filled daily with passion, harsh disagreement, and lack of unanimity. The very process of forging this document among numerous competing interests, such as small versus large States, Federalists versus Anti-Federalists, and agrarian versus industrial, was a monumental task. But in the end the delegates compromised on numerous issues and produced a document that governs us to this day. One notable exception, of course, is the ill-fated compromise regarding slavery and citizenship, ultimately remedied by our brutal Civil War and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.