Chapter One: All or Nothing
Chapter One: All or Nothing
The issue of slavery representation dated back to an amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783, which suggested that taxes would be supplied proportionately to the number of people living there of all ages and sexes, excluding the Indians. The Southern states (Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia) immediately objected to because the formula would include slaves as property for tax calculations. Benjamin Harrison proposed slaves to count as half a person for a compromise, and several New Englanders proposed three-fourths, but neither was approved. James Madison proposed the three-fifths ratio and was approved by Congress. However, because New York and New Hampshire rejected it, it fell short of the unanimous approval required for amending the Articles of Confederation.
Early during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it was unanimously accepted that representation in the House of Representatives would be proportionate to state populations. This caused many problems as slaves were not eligible to vote. Delegates from the north opposed to slavery wanted only free inhabitants of each state to count (even if it meant abolishing slavery and giving newly freed slaves the right to vote), while southern slaveholding delegates wanted them included for increased representation in Congress and the Electoral College. The three-fifths ratio was proposed on June 11, 1787, and initially agreed to by nine states and two opposed. This was debated at length between July 9 and 13, and was then shot down by the Convention as a whole. A few southern delegates then proposed full representation for their slave population before the three-fifths ratio was brought back to the table, with the vote split evenly five states to five.
After several weeks of arguing, there remained a firm, contentious split down the middle until one hot day when the delegates from the southern states walked out of the Convention. Those from Georgia and the Carolinas, encouraged by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, were successful while the Virginia and Maryland delegates, including Thomas Jefferson, were blocked by George Washington and James Madison as they tried to walk out of the Convention Hall. It was then agreed that slaves would not be counted for representation in government. In exchange, taxes on slaves would be two-fifths of that of other property, in order to keep the delegates from Virginia and Maryland from trying to walk from the Convention again. This would not be the end of those two states' general discontent, though, especially Virginia.
Once that was taken care of, Article IX of the Constitution was written. Its first clause prevented Congress from restricting the importation slaves into the United States before 1808 and the abolition of slavery before 1828. With Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina gone, the ratification of the Constitution required seven of the ten remaining states to do so. On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. Pennsylvania and New Jersey followed by the end of the calendar year. In early 1788, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland followed suit. When ratification passed in New Hampshire on June 21, the Constitution became the United States' official document for governance. Virginia and New York, two of the nation's most populous states, ended up ratifying it later that summer, albeit in the face of considerable opposition. On May 29, 1789, the only remaining holdout state, Rhode Island, was the last state to ratify the Constitution. The United States of America was now prepared for business, with Philadelphia chosen to be its permanent capital.
Note: I will be updating my CSA Victory timeline soon, it's just that I have found it harder to write than other chapters since I'm not particularly a war historian. Sorry for the wait.
The issue of slavery representation dated back to an amendment proposed to the Articles of Confederation on April 18, 1783, which suggested that taxes would be supplied proportionately to the number of people living there of all ages and sexes, excluding the Indians. The Southern states (Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia) immediately objected to because the formula would include slaves as property for tax calculations. Benjamin Harrison proposed slaves to count as half a person for a compromise, and several New Englanders proposed three-fourths, but neither was approved. James Madison proposed the three-fifths ratio and was approved by Congress. However, because New York and New Hampshire rejected it, it fell short of the unanimous approval required for amending the Articles of Confederation.
Early during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it was unanimously accepted that representation in the House of Representatives would be proportionate to state populations. This caused many problems as slaves were not eligible to vote. Delegates from the north opposed to slavery wanted only free inhabitants of each state to count (even if it meant abolishing slavery and giving newly freed slaves the right to vote), while southern slaveholding delegates wanted them included for increased representation in Congress and the Electoral College. The three-fifths ratio was proposed on June 11, 1787, and initially agreed to by nine states and two opposed. This was debated at length between July 9 and 13, and was then shot down by the Convention as a whole. A few southern delegates then proposed full representation for their slave population before the three-fifths ratio was brought back to the table, with the vote split evenly five states to five.
After several weeks of arguing, there remained a firm, contentious split down the middle until one hot day when the delegates from the southern states walked out of the Convention. Those from Georgia and the Carolinas, encouraged by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, were successful while the Virginia and Maryland delegates, including Thomas Jefferson, were blocked by George Washington and James Madison as they tried to walk out of the Convention Hall. It was then agreed that slaves would not be counted for representation in government. In exchange, taxes on slaves would be two-fifths of that of other property, in order to keep the delegates from Virginia and Maryland from trying to walk from the Convention again. This would not be the end of those two states' general discontent, though, especially Virginia.
Once that was taken care of, Article IX of the Constitution was written. Its first clause prevented Congress from restricting the importation slaves into the United States before 1808 and the abolition of slavery before 1828. With Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina gone, the ratification of the Constitution required seven of the ten remaining states to do so. On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. Pennsylvania and New Jersey followed by the end of the calendar year. In early 1788, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland followed suit. When ratification passed in New Hampshire on June 21, the Constitution became the United States' official document for governance. Virginia and New York, two of the nation's most populous states, ended up ratifying it later that summer, albeit in the face of considerable opposition. On May 29, 1789, the only remaining holdout state, Rhode Island, was the last state to ratify the Constitution. The United States of America was now prepared for business, with Philadelphia chosen to be its permanent capital.
Note: I will be updating my CSA Victory timeline soon, it's just that I have found it harder to write than other chapters since I'm not particularly a war historian. Sorry for the wait.
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