pulation in the other. This was the first compromise. Then came the
question, What should constitute the representative population? The
Southern States had more slaves than the Northern, and the former
insisted that slaves should be included in the representative
population. This would have given the Southern States an unfair
preponderance in Congress. Moreover, a portion of the Southern States
were engaged in the African slave-trade, and, of course, every slave
landed on their shores would increase their political power in Congress.
To reconcile the North to slave representation, it was offered that
_direct taxation_ should be proportioned to representation. But the
North was reluctant, and, as usual, was bullied into a compromise. Mr.
Davie, of North Carolina, made a "deliberate declaration":--"He was
sure that North Carolina would never confederate on any terms that did
not rate them (the slaves) at least as three fifths. If the Eastern
States meant, therefore, to exclude them (the slaves) altogether, the
business was at an end." (_Madison Papers_, p. 1081.) This threat, and
others like it, settled the matter. The compromise, of three fifths of
the slaves to be included in the representative population, was accepted
on the motion of _a New England member_; and the consequence is, that
the slave States have now twenty-one members in the lower house of
Congress more than they are entitled to by their free population. This
was the second compromise. There was still a third, far more wicked and
detestable, and effected by the "deliberate declarations" of Southern
members. The "committee of detail" has been already mentioned. It
consisted of Messrs. Rutledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Virginia,
Wilson of Pennsylvania, Ellsworth of Connecticut, and Gorham of
Massachusetts. This committee, it will be recollected, were to reduce to
the _form_ of a Constitution the resolutions agreed on by the
Convention. Neither in the resolutions themselves, nor in the
discussions which preceded their adoption, had any reference been made
to a guarantee for the continuance of the African slave-trade.
Nevertheless, this committee, of their own will and pleasure, inserted
in their draft the following clause:--"No tax or duty shall be laid by
the legislature on articles exported from any State, _nor on the
migration or importation of such persons as the several States shall
think proper to admit, nor shall such migration or importation be
p