Their children learned the lesson of compromise only too well, and it was the application of it to a question of fundamental morals that cost us our … - James Russell Lowell

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Their children learned the lesson of compromise only too well, and it was the application of it to a question of fundamental morals that cost us our civil war. We learned once for all that compromise makes a good umbrella but a poor roof; that it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.