They put [the three-fifths clause] there because delegates from the Southern states would never have agreed to the Constitution unless some weight was given to their slave populations in the apportionment of representation. They wanted slaves counted 100%, but when they saw that they could not get that, they settled for 3/5. The practical effect of that, far from making easier to abolish slavery, made it more difficult. It gave added weight to southern political power in Congress, it inflated Southern power in the apportioning of electoral votes, which led to a succession of Southern presidents. Ironically, the best thing that could have been done with respect to making it easier to abolish slavery would have been to have given slaves NO weight in the apportioning of representation.
Originally Posted by WTF
No, it is not. Can you not read? The key word is “compromise”.
The Three-Fifths Clause was the price paid for union: “compromise”. Beck is arguing that Three-Fifths Clause was “anti-Slavery”; whereas, it actually had no impact on the abolition of slavery – other than leading ultimately to the Civil War, but it did have an impact on forming a union of states known as the United States.
Per your own citation:
They put [the three-fifths clause] there because delegates from the Southern states would never have agreed to the Constitution unless some weight was given to their slave populations in the apportionment of representation.
They [the Southern States] wanted slaves counted 100%, but when they saw that they could not get that, they settled for 3/5.
Originally Posted by WTF
This next part of your citation is completely ludicrous. This author on the one hand says there would have been no union if the South hadn’t been appeased with the Three Fifths Clause, but then he says the Three Fifths Clause strengthened and prolonged the institution of slavery in the union. The absence of the first precludes the possibility of the second. Simple logic!
The practical effect of that, far from making easier to abolish slavery, made it more difficult. It gave added weight to southern political power in Congress, it inflated Southern power in the apportioning of electoral votes, which led to a succession of Southern presidents. Ironically, the best thing that could have been done with respect to making it easier to abolish slavery would have been to have given slaves NO weight in the apportioning of representation.
Originally Posted by WTF
Simple logic:
Did the Three Fifths Clause lead to a union of states? Yes.
Would the South have entered into the union without the Three Fifths Clause? No.
Without the Three Fifths Clause, would there have been a United States? No, not as it is presently understood.
Would a separate Confederacy of Southern States have abolished slavery? No.
Without the Three Fifths Clause, would there have been a Civil War? No.
Did the issue of slavery lead to Southern secession, a Civil War and the abolition of slavery? Yes, yes and most certainly yes.
Would the South have abolished slavery without suffering a defeat such as that in the Civil War? No, not in 1865.
Did the Three Fifths Clause foreshorten the life span of slavery in the U.S.? Unequivocally no. It ended when it ended.
Did the Three Fifths Clause foreshorten the life span of slavery in North America? Probably.
Simply put, arguing against the Three Fifths Clause is equivalent to arguing that you would have been/are for the continuation of slavery in North America.
Notice the absence of pejoratives?