The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 699would have been expected to clingto their views rather than compromise.Compromise they did, however,in many matters that initially dividedthem. Indeed, some historianshave gone so far as to describethe Constitution as a "bundle ofcompromises." The· phrase hassometimes been used derogatorilyto imply that on issue after issuemen had yielded up their principlesto the expediency of accommodatinga welter of interests.Yet, a compromise need not be ayielding of a principle; it maywell be the result of sacrificingnarrow interest to the general wellbeing. So it was, quite often, atthe convention at Philadelphia;men advanced narrow and limitedviews in the debates put arrivedat great principles through compromise.The stately, but simple,rhythms of the Constitution as itcame from the committee on stylecaptured principle after principlein its verbiage, meshed them togetherinto a symphonic whole,and provided the plan for the governmentof an empire for liberty.That it could be done appearedmost unlikely at the outset. Thatit had been done was not so clearat the time. That it was doneseems now a miracle. It is, therefore,appropriate to examine theseprinciples.• FOOTNOTES •1 Quoted in Charles Warren, The Makingof the Constitution (New York:Barnes and Noble, 1937), p. 737.2 Ibid., pp. 55-56.3. Ibid., pp. 99-100.4 Ibid., p. 730.5 James Madison, Notes of the Debatesin the Federal Convention of 1787,Adrienne Koch, intro. (Athens, Ohio:Ohio University Press, 1966), p. 227.6 Ibid., pp. 653-54.7 Warren, Ope cit., p. 125.8 Madison, Notes, pp. 411-12. The presentwriter has taken the liberty of modernizingthe spelling and using completewords rather than the abbreviations asthey appear in the original.9 Ibid., p. 447.10 Ibid., p. 412.11 Ibid., pp. 25-26.1~ Jack P. Greene, ed., Colonies to Nation(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), p.51l.13 Quoted in Warren, Ope cit., p. 38.14 Ibid., p. 44.15 Ibid., pp. 17-18.16 Ibid., p. 50.17 Madison, Notes, p. 159.18 Ibid., p. 159.19 Ibid., p. 163.20 Ibid., p. 185.21 Ibid., p. 455.22 Ibid., p. 175.23 Ibid., p. 177.24 Ibid., p. 178.25 Ibid., p. 233.26 Ibid., p. 31l.27 Ibid., p. 195.28 Ibid., pp. 193-94.29 Ibid., p. 196.Next: Principles of the Constitution.