The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-04-30
" The Compromises Of the Constitution.


rights and duties of the North and South res
pecting slavery, frequent alusion is made to, and
much reliance is placed upon, the arguments de-
rived from what are called " the Compromises Of
the Constitution" Nothing is more common
than for eloquent and learned " conservative .
gentlemen,-and frequently those not so learned
to discourse, with great gIibneas Of speech, of
the reconciiement and equipois9 of conflicting
interests in the wonderfully perfect articles of the
organic law, Of the most complete and beautiful
harmony produced by the checks and balances Of
our constitution, of the almost marvellous adap-
tation OF our fundamental law to the widely d.
versifed character and pursuits of the people Of a
broad and extending empire. And we are aG-
monshed, sometimes with solemnity, and often
with an assumption Of superior wisdom and a
clearer insight into the future than falls to the lot
OF common men, that there will be no end to the
present conflict and no restoration of our former
Union, until our radical opinions and bellgerent
dispositions are put in subsection, and the spirit
of compromise, Cancellation and concession takes
possession of our minds and controls our con-
duet. And while this is the staple and chief ar
gument Of those who call themselves conser.
vatives, 1t may not be space wasted to inquire
what are compromises, so called, Of the consttu-
tion
These compromises, concessions would be
more accurate and appropriate tern, consisted,
u Al -.
ing interest the clause n the constitution respect
ing the reclamation OF fugitive servants, and the
two-hfths representation. This, the slave inter-
est, then as now clearly seeing that it was only
through political power that system of slavery
could be made permanently secure in any Govern
ment extorted from the trainers of the constitu-
ton as the condition of Union. They gave
no equivalent for these concessions, though they
were content to take them subject to some limi-
tatlons. Now, we grant at once that these con.
cessions were made to slavery for the sake Of
Union, and because Shareholders were known to
be then, as now, turbulent and dangerous charac.
tiers in the Government, to whose demand it was
necessary to yield in order to obtain their assent
to the constitution, and the Union to be formed
through it. v e also grant that these concessions
were departure from the principles of the De-
claratlou OF independence, and from the ideas
upon which the Government was founded. We
further admit that they are of the same validity
end have the same legal sanction as any other ar.
tcle OF the organic law, and are to be obeyed by
Us strictly and according to the letter of the law,
legally imposing the same obligations upon US Of
obedience as are imposed by other portions ofthe
constitution. And when we have granted all this,
we deny that the c0mpromisers, the concators,
the concsssonjss of this day, have any precedeat
for their ab. basement before, and surrender to the
slave power, 10 the course which our fathers deem.
ed it wise to pursue in founding the Government.
What was it our fathers yielded to the demands
OF slavery? Slave Representation and Slave
Reclamation. We need not arZue whether they
did RICH: or wrong in this. 1t is enough for our
purpose to know that they yielded to both of
these demands reluctantly. They had to meet
the question for their times, inthe infancy and
weakness OF a Nation with but three millions of
people, and when it was deemed important
that all the colonies should form part Of the
United States. They yielded to the demands of
those who had shared the peris and suferings of
the revolution to achieve the independence of all.
Their object was not to strengthen slavery, to
give it a larger lease of ife~-for Madison would
not consent that even the word Slave" should
deace the Constitution to make it accept
able to the Slave States The fathers understood