Dear Liberals:
Since you probably didn't learn it in Civics class (because your teachers never read the Federalist Papers, obviously), I wish to explain it to those of you who think the "3/5ths Compromise" was a SHOCKING violation of black civil rights - you're exactly 180 degrees wrong. You should be THANKFUL for the 3/5ths Compromise.
Why?
The whole point of it was this: the Northern, non-slave states did not want slaves counted for purposes of Representation. They did, on the other hand want them counted for reasons of taxation (taking more Federal revenue from the South). The Southern states wanted the exact opposite - count slaves for Representation (even though they couldn't vote for their Representatives), but not for taxation.
The 3/5ths Compromise helped to LIMIT the ability of Southern states to steer the direction of the House of Representatives. The better result for the civil rights/abolitionist movement, frankly, would have been for the slaves not to be counted at all - in fact, for slaves to be considered in the same manner as the animals on the farms on which they worked, which would have limited Southern influence still further. Except that, then, the Southern states' taxes would have been considerably lowered, and that would have been a benefit to them.
Anyone who sees slavery as an abomination should LIKE the 3/5ths Compromise, not abhor it. As long as there was slavery, it was a GOOD thing.
(Oh - and, note to Lanny Davis - it wasn't "black people" who were 3/5ths. It was "slaves." Free blacks were counted as complete and whole people.)
What on earth have they been teaching in schools for the last 50 years?
Why?
The whole point of it was this: the Northern, non-slave states did not want slaves counted for purposes of Representation. They did, on the other hand want them counted for reasons of taxation (taking more Federal revenue from the South). The Southern states wanted the exact opposite - count slaves for Representation (even though they couldn't vote for their Representatives), but not for taxation.
The 3/5ths Compromise helped to LIMIT the ability of Southern states to steer the direction of the House of Representatives. The better result for the civil rights/abolitionist movement, frankly, would have been for the slaves not to be counted at all - in fact, for slaves to be considered in the same manner as the animals on the farms on which they worked, which would have limited Southern influence still further. Except that, then, the Southern states' taxes would have been considerably lowered, and that would have been a benefit to them.
Anyone who sees slavery as an abomination should LIKE the 3/5ths Compromise, not abhor it. As long as there was slavery, it was a GOOD thing.
(Oh - and, note to Lanny Davis - it wasn't "black people" who were 3/5ths. It was "slaves." Free blacks were counted as complete and whole people.)
What on earth have they been teaching in schools for the last 50 years?