Reading our Story/History/ Nap time today we went through a couple of chapters of the Life of James Madison... America's 4th President, one of the main framers of the US Constitution and one of the minds behind the Constitutional Convention.
One of the arguments...of many... at the Constitutional Convention was over how to count slaves. The Southern States wanted to count slaves as part of the population, though they were treated as property, and given no rights. The Northern States felt that was a power grab and didn't want to count them at all. They compromised on the 3/5th rule, counting each slave as 3/5ths of a person.
Whereas to my modern mind this idea is asinine, I found myself agreeing to this compromise. It would've been an abuse to count them fully since they were given no freedom, no say in their lives let alone their country; and yet the nation needed to be united, which always takes give and take or compromise.
Now I've never been a fan of compromise. My strong convictions and personality have viewed it as it's verb form, to make a shameful or disreputable concession; and not it's noun form, more of the each side gives a little/ settlement of differences.
The last year has been a lesson in what I've been calling "Godly compromise" Where others don't agree with my convictions I've been learning to give them grace, allow God to have control, and let each of us be "fully convinced in their own mind." Living out Romans 14 (just read all of it..it's really good! (; lol) in my daily life and not trying to be the Holy Spirit in the lives of others. The way I've been looking at the Constitutional Convention compromises, probably is the fruit of the last year's training in real "noun" compromise :)
1 comment:
Interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing. I love reading about History. As a matter of fact, we are going to go do that now.
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