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The constitutional convention of 1787 conflict and compromise
Short essay of constitutional convention
A summary about Constitutional Convention
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The larger states, in favor of the Virginia Plan, were unsure of whether or not slaves were to be counted as part of the population or not. The Southern states wanted slaves to be counted as part of the population, but to also be considered as property, in case the new government was to levy taxes on each state on the basis of population. They also believed that even if slaves were to be counted as people, they still would not be granted citizenship or have the right to vote. Because the majority of the North did not have slaves, the South was in favor of having
Furthermore, each state had very different needs that made it very difficult to agree on a resolution that would represent all of the states. For example, in Pennsylvania slavery was not an important factor in supporting their commercial and manufacturing economy. Secondly, prominent representatives such as Benjamin Franklin did not believe in the practice; however, in other states such as Georgia, slavery was an important resource for their economy because it allowed them to produce cash crops such as tobacco without paying for labor while supporting their economy. Even though this was just one of the many resolutions that we discussed during the simulated convention, the discussion on slavery further represented the shift from powers that each individual states had to the development of the new federal government. Some states took pride in the fact that they were able to control their economy also making it hard to reach a compromise that would resolve the
Therefore, slaves are to be counted as three fifths vote for representation, because slaves made up a large portion of the population in the southern states. Therefore, the south wanted the slaves to count as part of the population so that they would have more power in the house of representatives. The north did not want the slaves to count as part of the population because they did not want the north to have
During the real Constitutional Convention held in 1787, slaves were not represented, making votes for abolishing slavery likely to fail. However, in this Constitutional Convention slaves were represented, which changed the passing and failing of certain motions. During all the motions involving slavery and slave trade, the faction consisting of slaves voted against anything and everything that would keep them from having their freedom. If that faction was removed and the discussion was only between the bankers/merchants, workers, southern plantation owners, and farmers, the evidence against and for why it is a good or bad reason would have changed. Most of the representatives during the real convention consisted of wealthy gentry men and politicians who owned some slaves, land, and bonds that gave them enormous amounts of profit.
The delegates from the Northern states wanted Congress to have the power to forbid the foreign slave trade and eventually to abolish slavery. Most Southern delegates did not wish Congress to have this power. A compromise decided that Congress would not be allowed to regulate the foreign slave trade until 1808. Another compromise involved the question of how to count slaves in determining the number of congressmen a state could have. Slaves were not considered citizens, and so the Convention agreed that only three-fifths of them could be
When talking about representation both the north and the south had views on what they wanted from slaves. The smaller states and slave states wanted slaves to be represented and counted in population. While the larger states and free states didn’t think that slaves should be counted as population because they were a form of property, but they wanted slaves to be counted so they could be taxed. The smaller states wanted equal representation and north wanted to be represented by population. With the argument they came to with the great compromise, which would please small states by
"Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, providence punishes national sins by national calamities" (G. Mason, Constitutional Convention, 1787).
First off, slavery was handled in a very complex type of way. Due to the fact that people in southern states feared the future abolishment of slavery, the Constitution did not clearly state anything about slavery. The Constitution added that in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College, slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person. This was done so that southern states would have power over slaves. Additionally, the new Federal Constitution prohibited Congress to ban slave trade for twenty years.
The Three-Fifths Clause of the United States Constitution (1787) article goes into detail about The Northern States simply laughing at this idea because they would only count the slaves into their population upon it benefitting them as they all knew slaves were not held at an equal standard. They figured that if slaves didn’t have rights then how could they be counted into the population that would decide the percentile of representation upon the States. Although, this would have given them a Tax break, it would have been an unfair advantage in the House of Representatives. This was merely a selfish act upon the Southern states to gain a totaling advantage of about thirty percent or possibly even more. We should not have allowed the compromise basing it off the want for more power as they had denied the slaves the power of humanity already.
Another major debate during the Constitutional Convention was whether or not the slaves should count towards representation in Congress. While most Northern states wanted to abolish slavery completely, the South wanted them to count towards representation, to allow them for more representatives. The North argued that if slaves could not vote, they should not count, while the South debated against this. In the end, the Three Fifths Compromise was suggested and accepted. This Compromise stated that each slave would count as three-fifths of a free white male.
The growing causes of opposition to slavery and growing support for abolition from 1776-1852 were far and many. Many factors, such as the influence of the rich on the legislation, a religious reawakening among the Black and White peoples of America, the formation of African-American rights association, the adoption of the issue by the media, and the arrival of women to the issue, among others, contributed to the common people’s rejection of slavery. The North were the first to pick up the idea of abolition: in 1777, the Northern state of Vermont was the first to adopt emancipation into their state constitution, followed by Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in 1783; state law allowed for gradual emancipation in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
They didn’t, however, want their taxes to increase because of their slaves. These two desires were controversial because, as the Northern states believed, slaves should only be given full representation if they are also taxed fully. It is our understanding that some, such as James Wilson, proposed that blacks should be equal with whites however others, like Governor Morris of Pennsylvania, along with others, believed this would give encouragement to the slave trade, and did not want give the south representation for their slaves. James Wilson eventually proposed a compromise to count three-fifths of the slave population in a state and add it to the total number of free white people, which was approved in 1787.
The arguments presented in Henry Steele Commager, and Staughton Lynd’s interpretations of the constitution provide more compelling and accurate arguments than Charles Beard’s. “A Constitution for All the People”, and The “Conflict Over Slavery”, when read together, provide the motivation for the constitution as well as an explanation for its articles. While Lynd’s piece provides reasoning for how, many of the articles in the constitution came to be, through the sectional divide of the North and South created by the conflict over slavery; Commager describes the constitution as a political document with two main goals, solving federalism and limiting governmental powers, clearly outlined in the constitution and its articles. In comparison
Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.
The Constitution was known as the supreme law of the land, a legal document that establishes the laws of the government. In the constitution it states that all men are created equal; however, slavery was an opposing ideal to it. Slavery in the United States was a forbidding reality. Slavery was not mentioned in the constitution because of these three factors: the Three-fifths Clause, the Slave Trade Clause, and the Fugitive Slave Clause.
