Compromise and the American Founding

1. Introduction: 'one political being called a people …'; 1.1. One people, two bodies; 1.2. Compromise and the challenge of realism; 1.3. E Pluribus Unum; the people's two bodies – then and now; 2. The uncompromising Puritans: 'If the whole conclave of hell can so compromise …'; 2.1. '… Puritanism was in the eye of the beholder'; 2.2. '… As the entrails of a creature cut down the back'; 2.3. '… They look backward as well as forward'; 2.4. '… They don't weigh the intellectual furniture …'; 2.5. '… Until a better light will be available to guide them'; 3. The uncompromising patriots: 'friends, brethren, enemies will prove …'; 3.1. '… We are breaking to pieces in our churches'; 3.2. In the wake of the awakening; 3.3. 'How then do we new Englandermen derive our laws?'; 3.4. The king 'unkings himself'; 4. The compromising confederates: '… mounting a body of mermaids on alligators'; 4.1. '… A rope of sand'; 4.2. 'We are the state'; 4.3. '… Mutual sacrifices should be made to effect a compromise …'; 5. The constitution: '… that greatest of all compromises'; 5.1. 'The states must see the rod …'; 5.2. '… To smoke the calumet of union and love'; 5.3. 'The house on fire must be extinguished …'; 5.4. 'It will wait upon the ladies at their toilett …'; 6. 'This is essentially a people's contest': 'Shall we compromise?'; 6.1. '… Fresh from the loins of the people …'; 6.2. 'Party spirit … only ask to lick the sores of the body politic'; 6.3. 'The day of compromise has passed'; 7. Conclusions: resuscitating the people's two bodies; 7.1. Parties without partisanship?; 7.2. Purged Individualism and Facebook; 7.3. “We, the people …'.