ves in some degree as men, when burdens were to be imposed, but
refused to consider them in the same light, when advantages were to be
conferred? Might not some surprise also be expressed, that those who
reproach the Southern States with the barbarous policy of considering as
property a part of their human brethren, should themselves contend,
that the government to which all the States are to be parties, ought to
consider this unfortunate race more completely in the unnatural light of
property, than the very laws of which they complain?

"It may be replied, perhaps, that slaves are not included in the
estimate of representatives in any of the States possessing them. They
neither vote themselves nor increase the votes of their masters. Upon
what principle, then, ought they to be taken into the federal estimate
of representation? In rejecting them altogether, the Constitution would,
in this respect, have followed the very laws which have been appealed to
as the proper guide.

"This objection is repelled by a single observation. It is a fundamental
principle of the proposed Constitution, that as the aggregate number of
representatives allotted to the several States is to be determined by
a federal rule, founded on the aggregate number of inhabitants, so the
right of choosing this allotted number in each State is to be exercised
by such part of the inhabitants as the State itself may designate. The
qualifications on which the right of suffrage depend are not, perhaps,
the same in any two States. In some of the States the difference is
very material. In every State, a certain proportion of inhabitants are
deprived of this right by the constitution of the State, who will be
included in the census by which the federal Constitution apportions the
representatives. In this point of view the Southern States might
retort the complaint, by insisting that the principle laid down by
the convention required that no regard should be had to the policy of
particular States towards their own inhabitants; and consequently, that
the slaves, as inhabitants, should have been admitted into the census
according to their full number, in like manner with other inhabitants,
who, by the policy of other States, are not admitted to all the rights
of citizens. A rigorous adherence, however, to this principle, is waived
by those who would be gainers by it. All that they ask is that equal
moderation be shown on the other side. Let the case of the slaves