lous, the common saying, that this provision
was one of the original compromises of the Constitution, and an
essential condition of Union. Though sanctioned by eminent judicial
opinions, it will be found that this statement is hastily made, without
any support in the records of the Convention, the only authentic
evidence of the compromises; nor will it be easy to find any authority
for it in any contemporary document, speech, published letter, or
pamphlet of any kind. It is true that there were compromises at the
formation of the Constitution, which were the subject of anxious debate;
but this was not one of them.

There was a compromise between the small and large States, by which
equality was secured to all the States in the Senate.

There was another compromise finally carried, under threats from the
South, on the motion of a New England member, by which the Slave States
are allowed Representatives according to the whole number of free
persons and "three fifths of all other persons," thus securing political
power on account of their slaves, in consideration that direct taxes
should be apportioned in the same way. Direct taxes have been imposed at
only four brief intervals. The political power has been constant, and at
this moment sends twenty-one members to the other House.

There was a third compromise, not to be mentioned without shame. It was
that hateful bargain by which Congress was restrained until 1808 from
the prohibition of the foreign Slave-trade, thus securing, down to that
period, toleration for crime. This was pertinaciously pressed by the
South, even to the extent of absolute restriction on Congress. John
Rutledge said:

"If the Convention thinks that North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia will ever agree to the Plan (the National Constitution), unless
their right to import slaves be untouched, the expectation is vain.
The people of those States will never be such fools as to give up so
important an interest." Charles Pinckney said: "South Carolina can never
receive the Plan, if it prohibits the slave-trade." Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney "thought himself bound to declare candidly, that he did not
think South Carolina would stop her importations of slaves in any short
time." The effrontery of the slave-masters was matched by the sordidness
of the Eastern members, who yielded again. Luther Martin, the eminent
member of the Convention, in his contemporary address to the Legislature
of Maryland, des