Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-08-18
COMPROMISE AND AMENDMENT

No important compact affecting the relations Of
large bodies Of men WAS ever effected without compro-
mise, and no such compact has remained in operation
for any considerable length Of time without amendment.
In these respects as in others, the discussions which have
attended tho effort to create a League Of Nations re-
call constantly and inevitably the history of the formu-
lation of the American constitution.
In a long list of its most important features our con-
stitution is the result Of compromise between the views
of those who insisted on the extreme form OF state rights
and for those who stood for an equally extreme form
Of Capitalization. The constitutional convention was in
a state of practical deadlock many times on questions
involving this radical difference. The plan under which
we now operate, which gives to each state two senators
and a number of representatives based on its population,
plan was proposed in the convention by the Connecticut
delegation, and has been known as the Connecticut COM
promise.
Some of the compromises made at Versailles have
been described as Shameful" But where in the pend
parallels the categorical recognition Of the slave trade
which was written into our constitution by its for
mers, or the methods Of enumeration Of the population.
under which a slave counted for three-hfths as much as
a free man. The prohibition of export duties was part
of a compromise. Item after item may be selected which
was merely the result OF a bargain between contending
factions. =
The constitution, after its adoption, Immediately
proved defective. At one operation a dozen amendments
were made, and we have been amending it ever since.
The original plan for electing the president worked badly
and was abandoned almost Immediately, and the plan
which was substituted, and which is still retained in its
technical form, has never operated as its formers sup
posed and intended it should. -
And yet, the men who framed the American con-
stitution were not a set of incompetent blunderers. There
were some misfts among them, but, taking the conven-
ton as a whole, it reached a plane of intelligent, patriotic
craftsmanship which has probably never been exceeded
in any large >deliberative body on earth.
The convention delegates were, in most cases, ac-
tuated by the highest motives. They were men of I'M
usual ability. They were men with ideals. But they
were men. who, also, knew they must not only strive
after ideals, but recognize conditions which existed. They
were not drawing a diagram on a clean slate. They were
dealing with the affairs of human beings, all of whom
has certain habits, customs and traditions, together with
the usual measure Of self interest. Each of those dele
gates knew that the constitution on which he was at work
must be accepted by his colleagues as well as by himself.
And he knew that after it had been reported by the con-
vention it remained for it to be approved by the people,
north as we'll as south, alike by the traders and manu-
facturers along the coast and the woodsmen and farmers
of the interior. They did the best they could with the
material at hand and the conditions that existed. II they
had waited for perfection there would have been no con-
stitution and no nation.