dvrmte
Major
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Location
- South Carolina
As my American history research entered into more complex subjects, I often stumbled across sources that mentioned this "equilibrium" and wasn't sure of the meaning. A forum member brought it to my attention in the recent John C. Calhoun thread, where it was mentioned in Calhoun's speech on the 1850 Compromise.
James Madison took detailed notes of the Constitutional Convention that took place in Philadelphia, PA. He closely guarded them and didn't allow them to be published until after his death in 1836. Madison retired in 1817 after the end of his presidency. He was often consulted in his retirement for his thoughts on constitutional questions.
The publishing of Madison's notes caused abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison to burn copies of the Constitution and he urged his followers to not take part in the electoral process because to do so would be to take part in the pro-slavery Constitution. He urged dissolution of the Union with the slogan, No Union with Slaveholders.
The following provisions dealt directly with slavery:
Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 3 The 3/5 Clause.
Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 1 The slave trade clause.
Article I, Section 9. Paragraph 4 Declared that any capitation or other direct tax take into account the 3/5 rule.
Article V. Section 2, Paragraph 3 The fugitive slave clause.
Article V This prohibited any amendment of the slave importation or capitation clauses before 1808.
The following clauses dealt with slavery indirectly:
Article I. Section 8, Paragraph 15. The domestic insurrections clause empowered Congress to call "forth the Militia" to "suppress Insurrections," including slave rebellions.
Article I. Section 9, Paragraph 5. This clause prohibited federal taxes on exports and thus prevented an indirect tax on slavery by taxing the staple products of slave labor, such as tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton.
Article I, Section 10, Paragraph 2. This clause prohibited the states from taxing exports or imports, thus preventing an indirect tax on the products of slave labor by a non-slaveholding state.
Article II. Section 1, Paragraph 2. This clause provided for the indirect election of the president through an electoral college based on congressional representation. This provision incorporated the three-fifths clause into the electoral college and gave whites in slave states a disproportionate influence in the election of the president.
Article IV, Section 3, Paragraph 1. This clause allowed for the admission of new states. The delegates to the Convention anticipated the admission of new slave states to the Union.
Article IV, Section 4. The domestic violence provision guaranteed that the United States government would protect states from "domestic Violence," including slave rebellions.
Article V. By requiring a three-fourths majority of the states to ratify any amendment to the Constitution, this Article ensured that the slaveholding states would have a perpetual veto over any constitutional changes.
James Madison made this note at the Convention:
"...that the States were divided into different interests not by their difference of size, but by other circumstances; the most material of which resulted partly from climate, but principally from their having or not having slaves. These two causes concurred in forming the great division of interests in the U. States. It did not lie between the large and small States: it lay between the Northern and Southern, and if any defensive power were necessary, it ought to be mutually given to these two interests."
Sources:
Slavery and the Founders:Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson By Paul Finkelman
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_607.asp
James Madison took detailed notes of the Constitutional Convention that took place in Philadelphia, PA. He closely guarded them and didn't allow them to be published until after his death in 1836. Madison retired in 1817 after the end of his presidency. He was often consulted in his retirement for his thoughts on constitutional questions.
The publishing of Madison's notes caused abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison to burn copies of the Constitution and he urged his followers to not take part in the electoral process because to do so would be to take part in the pro-slavery Constitution. He urged dissolution of the Union with the slogan, No Union with Slaveholders.
The following provisions dealt directly with slavery:
Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 3 The 3/5 Clause.
Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 1 The slave trade clause.
Article I, Section 9. Paragraph 4 Declared that any capitation or other direct tax take into account the 3/5 rule.
Article V. Section 2, Paragraph 3 The fugitive slave clause.
Article V This prohibited any amendment of the slave importation or capitation clauses before 1808.
The following clauses dealt with slavery indirectly:
Article I. Section 8, Paragraph 15. The domestic insurrections clause empowered Congress to call "forth the Militia" to "suppress Insurrections," including slave rebellions.
Article I. Section 9, Paragraph 5. This clause prohibited federal taxes on exports and thus prevented an indirect tax on slavery by taxing the staple products of slave labor, such as tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton.
Article I, Section 10, Paragraph 2. This clause prohibited the states from taxing exports or imports, thus preventing an indirect tax on the products of slave labor by a non-slaveholding state.
Article II. Section 1, Paragraph 2. This clause provided for the indirect election of the president through an electoral college based on congressional representation. This provision incorporated the three-fifths clause into the electoral college and gave whites in slave states a disproportionate influence in the election of the president.
Article IV, Section 3, Paragraph 1. This clause allowed for the admission of new states. The delegates to the Convention anticipated the admission of new slave states to the Union.
Article IV, Section 4. The domestic violence provision guaranteed that the United States government would protect states from "domestic Violence," including slave rebellions.
Article V. By requiring a three-fourths majority of the states to ratify any amendment to the Constitution, this Article ensured that the slaveholding states would have a perpetual veto over any constitutional changes.
James Madison made this note at the Convention:
"...that the States were divided into different interests not by their difference of size, but by other circumstances; the most material of which resulted partly from climate, but principally from their having or not having slaves. These two causes concurred in forming the great division of interests in the U. States. It did not lie between the large and small States: it lay between the Northern and Southern, and if any defensive power were necessary, it ought to be mutually given to these two interests."
Sources:
Slavery and the Founders:Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson By Paul Finkelman
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_607.asp
Bringing the