Ironically, it was the oft-decried 3/5s clause of the United States Constitution, Article I, Sec. 2, which was the indispensable clasp that held the nation together, half-slave, half-free. Far from being a snide comment on the natural inferiority of slaves, that 3/5s fraction gave the South a superiority, as the cost of Southern coalescence, as the price of its American allegiance.
That fated fraction mathematically gave the South a disproportionate numerical majority in Congress , while, at the same time, reducing by that same 3/5s ratio the South's tax obligations to the new nation.
These facts are set forth in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION: SHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA'S PROMISE by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss (2010). Coleman writes:
"The 3:5 ratio gave slave States fourteen extra seats in the House in 1793, twenty-seven additional seats in 1812, and twenty -five additional seats in 1833...Thus, 'when Southern guns fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, a grandson of former President John Adams wrote in his diary, "We the children of the third and fourth generation are doomed to pay the penalties of the compromises, made by the first."'...David Stewart's wonderful book fully explains how the three-fifths compromise was reached. The larger Southern states wanted to encourage ratification by the smaller states, and the North wanted to limit the number of southern representatives in the House. The three-fifths clause also limited tax contributions by the southern states. According to Stewart, John Rutledge of South Carolina and his Committee of Detail 'reconceived the powers of the national government, redefined the powers of the states, and adopted fresh concessions on that most explosive issue, slavery. It not too much to say that Rutledge and his Committee hijacked the Constitution. Then remade it.' Stewart, 'The Men Who Invented the Constitution,' p.165. As a result of the 3:5 ratio provided in Article I of the U. S. Constitution , the Commonwealth of Virginia in the 1790s had six more representatives than did Pennsylvania, even though both states had roughly the same number of free inhabitants ."
P. 406-407. Note 12.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION, 3/5S CAUSE
Ironically, it was the oft-decried 3/5s clause of the United States Constitution, Article I, Sec. 2, which was the indispensable clasp that held the nation together, half-slave, half-free. Far from being a snide comment on the natural inferiority of slaves, that 3/5s fraction gave the South a superiority, as the cost of Southern coalescence, as the price of its American allegiance.
That fated fraction mathematically gave the South a disproportionate numerical majority in Congress , while, at the same time, reducing by that same 3/5s ratio the South's tax obligations to the new nation.
These facts are set forth in COUNSEL FOR THE SITUATION: SHAPING THE LAW TO REALIZE AMERICA'S PROMISE by William T. Coleman with Donald T. Bliss (2010). Coleman writes:
"The 3:5 ratio gave slave States fourteen extra seats in the House in 1793, twenty-seven additional seats in 1812, and twenty -five additional seats in 1833...Thus, 'when Southern guns fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, a grandson of former President John Adams wrote in his diary, "We the children of the third and fourth generation are doomed to pay the penalties of the compromises, made by the first."'...David Stewart's wonderful book fully explains how the three-fifths compromise was reached. The larger Southern states wanted to encourage ratification by the smaller states, and the North wanted to limit the number of southern representatives in the House. The three-fifths clause also limited tax contributions by the southern states. According to Stewart, John Rutledge of South Carolina and his Committee of Detail 'reconceived the powers of the national government, redefined the powers of the states, and adopted fresh concessions on that most explosive issue, slavery. It not too much to say that Rutledge and his Committee hijacked the Constitution. Then remade it.' Stewart, 'The Men Who Invented the Constitution,' p.165. As a result of the 3:5 ratio provided in Article I of the U. S. Constitution , the Commonwealth of Virginia in the 1790s had six more representatives than did Pennsylvania, even though both states had roughly the same number of free inhabitants ."
P. 406-407. Note 12.
