The Rhetoric of Conciliation: American Civic Culture and the Federalist Defense of Compromise

Reconsidering the Great Compromise at the Federal Convention of 1787: Deliberation and Agenda Effects on the Senate and Slavery

“…Conciliation and compromise led to agreement. (Garver 1944, 424) Garver's view of the importance of open-mindedness or conciliation has been endorsed, on some level, in a host of subsequent publications regardless of whether they praise or criticize the convention (Bestor 1989;Ellenbogen 1996;Hutson 1987;Jillson and Anderson 1978;Keller 1993;Knupfer 1991;Ohline 1971;Rakove 1996). Gordon Wood, in his masterpiece, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, portrayed the convention as consciously choosing a bicameralism to restrain the large state from taking control of the government, "[b]y this mixture of states and people .…”

Mapping Dimensions of Conflict at the Federal Convention of 1787

“…We begin with the simplest possible arrangement-one not even considered in the literature-a single dimension. Note that all of the authors cited in Table 1 have referenced a representation dimension as a key division, and this pattern extends far beyond that group (Bestor 1989;Ellenbogen 1996;Hutson 1987;Jillson and Anderson 1978;Keller 1993;Knupfer 1991;Ohline 1971;Rakove 1996). Rakove describes the discussion of representation as "everything from heavyhanded threats and poker-faced bluffs to heartfelt pleas for accommodation, from candid avowals of interest to abstract appeals for justice" (1987,424), noting that it dominated the first six weeks of the convention debates.…”