3/5 Clause Of The Constitution

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Fiona Mohamed Professor Callanan 4 December 2014 While William Lloyd Garrison believes the Constitution is a pro-slavery document, Frederick Douglass and James Madison defend the Constitution to have no pro-slavery provisions. In Federalist 54, Madison provides background and justification for various parts of the Constitution, the meanings of which are debated on later by Garrison and Douglass. Madison first addresses the 3/5 clause of the Constitution, and he states that the law regards slaves as not human beings, but “in some respects, as persons, and in other respects, as property” (Madison 334). More specifically, a slave is 3/5 of a person. He asserts that if slaves were to be counted as a full person, it would be partial to the southern The tradeoff, however, is that the southern states would have a large number of representatives in the House of Representatives because the House apportionment was based on population. However, this would be unfair to the northern states because they did not have a large amount of slaves who could increase their representation in Congress. Additionally, counting slaves as a full person would illustrate an inequality in representation because representation would basically be a demonstration of how many slaves a state had, meaning representation would largely be based on how much money and wealth one state had compared to another, which would be undemocratic and against the principles of equality. Lastly, counting a slave as 3/5 of a person would ensure that states would “feel as little bias as possible to swell or reduce” their population for purposes of getting more representation in congress or less taxes (Madison 338). Madison’s discomfort with this compromise is palatable. He acknowledges that the constitution regards slaves as part property and part human being, and in explaining the reasoning behind the compromise, never refers to himself as having those sentiments. Instead, he He contends that even though this document subject millions to oppression and slavery on a daily basis, those who are elite and own these slaves would not tolerate the slightest amount this injustice if it were applied to themselves. Americans constantly speak of liberty and of America as a fundamentally free, democratic nation, yet a large portion of the population is in fact oppressed and in slavery. He adds that there was no justification for the adoption of the Constitution, that “for the sake of achieving a political object” and the formation of a functioning, effective government, this was not reason enough to persecute millions of black people across the nation (Garrison 1). Even though it took a lot of persuasion to convince the states to ratify this document, making concessions such as including a clause that the slave is only 3/5 of a person for apportionment purposes is not just. The urgency of ratification or the dire circumstances the nation did not justify the 3/5 provision. Furthermore, the demise of the union is not validation for not ending slavery. Slavery should not be a topic that is carefully tiptoed around: if the unity of the union fails because of slavery then it would have been deserved and warranted. In fact, if the tolerance of slavery remains

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