ion "these compromises," as they were called, seemed to be to those
who made them. They were meant to be, as Mr. Madison called them,
"adjustments of the different interests of different parts of the
country," and being once agreed upon they were considered as having the
binding force and stability of a contract. The evils of slavery were set
forth as an element in the negotiation, but no question of essential
morality was raised that brought the system within the category of
forbidden wrong. Whatever results might follow would be limited, it was
thought, by the terms of the contract; whereas, in fact, the actual
results were not foreseen, and could not be guarded against, except by
the refusal to enter into any contract whatever.

On all other questions involving political principles,--the just
relations of the federal government and the governments of the States;
the relations between the larger and the smaller States; the regulation
of the functions of the executive, the legislative, and the judicial
departments of government,--on all these the framers of the
Constitution brought to bear the profoundest wisdom. When one reflects
upon the magnitude and character of the work, Madison's conclusion seems
hardly extravagant, that "adding to these considerations the natural
diversity of human opinions on all new and complicated subjects, it is
impossible to consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed
as less than a miracle." There were, nevertheless, the gravest and most
anxious doubts how far the Constitution would stand the test of time;
yet as a system of government for a nation of freemen it remains to this
day practically unchanged. But where its architects thought themselves
wisest they were weakest. That which they thought they had settled
forever was the one thing which they did not settle. Of all the
"adjustments" of the Constitution, slavery was precisely that one which
was not adjusted.

Madison's responsibility for this result was that of every other
delegate,--no more and no less. Neither he nor they, whether more or
less opposed to slavery, saw in it a system so subversive of the rights
of man that no just government should tolerate it. That was reserved for
a later generation, and even that was slow to learn. To the fathers it
was, at worst, only an unfortunate and unhappy social condition, which
it would be well to be rid of if this could be done without too much
sacrifice; but otherwise, to