England States, where the slave-trading vessels were generally built,
added to those from the three Southern States. Against these were New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia. For some reason, the
Maryland delegates voted with the majority to keep the trade open.
This compromise was strongly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, a Northern
man, who confessed that he would sooner submit himself to a tax for
buying all the negroes in the United States than saddle posterity with
such a slavery constitution, and by Madison, a Southerner, who declared
that these twenty years would bring as much mischief as an unlimited
trade could produce. In accord with the practice of the old Congress,
the delegates decided to eliminate the word "slave" from the
Constitution, lest it might cause offence and beget opposition toward
the new government they were about to propose. Milder terms, like "such
persons" or "persons legally held to service or labour," were
substituted.

Many other adjustments were necessary to settle the Continental
differences. By one of these, the nation was given full control of
commerce. By another, the matter of choosing a chief executive was
entrusted not to the people directly, because, as was said, they would
be likely to be misled by designing men; nor to the national Congress,
because of the inequality of the Senate and House representation; nor
yet to the State Legislatures, because of the unequal sizes of the
States; but to a set of electors to be chosen by the States, a kind
of substitute for these various plans. The term of the presidential
office was, after many debates, fixed at four years, although an urgent
minority wanted him to serve seven years and not be eligible for a
second term. In very truth it may be said that the entire document is
made up of a series of compromises.