August 8, 1787: Slavery and Representation

Gouverneur Morris by Ezra Ames, 1817. Avery Library, New York.

"The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly explained, comes to this, —that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina who goes to the coast of Africa, and, in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his fellow creatures from their dearest connexions and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a government instituted for protection of the rights of mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice."
— Gouverneur Morris

Wednesday, August 8, 1787

The day opened, Madison recorded, with Mercer (MD) saying he disliked the whole plan and thought it could never succeed.

Who can serve in the House

After unanimously reaffirming that the federal government would add no new property requirements for voters, the Convention took up the qualifications for representatives. The draft said a member must:

• be at least twenty-five;
• have been a citizen for at least three years before election;
• be a resident of the state that elects him.

Mason (VA) moved to raise the citizenship requirement to seven years, so that "foreigners and adventurers" would not make the laws. Gouverneur Morris (PA) seconded, and it passed with every state but Connecticut. Sherman (CT) and Madison (VA) then changed "resident" to "inhabitant," unanimously, and the amended clause passed unanimously.

Seats in the First Congress

Charles Pinckney and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (SC) moved to raise South Carolina's seats from five to six. (Its delegates had already tried repeatedly in July to add southern seats and cut northern ones.) It failed 4–7 — Delaware, Georgia and the two Carolinas in favor.

King's attack

King (MA) turned on the clause giving states extra representation for the people they enslaved. He was furious that, under the draft, Congress could neither ban the slave trade nor tax exports produced by enslaved labor.

• The Constitution was meant to make America more secure; importing enslaved people made it less so, by raising the risk of revolts.
• Free states would have to help put down those revolts — all while slave states got extra seats for enslaved people who weren't citizens.

Sherman agreed the slave trade was "iniquitous" but saw no point reopening old arguments.

How big a House?

Madison had another worry: one representative per forty thousand people would eventually make the House far too large. Gorham (MA) doubted it would last that long — could this vast country, western territory and all, still be one nation "one hundred and fifty years hence"? Madison and Sherman moved for more flexibility in the House's size, and it passed unanimously.

Morris's motion

G. Morris moved to count only "free inhabitants" for representation. Slavery, he said, was "the curse of Heaven" on the states where it existed; he set the prosperity of the free states against "the misery and poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other States having slaves." And he tied the wrong of representation to the wrong of slavery itself:

"Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other property included? The houses in this city (Philadelphia) are worth more than all the wretched slaves who cover the rice swamps of South Carolina."

Dayton (NJ) seconded so the record would show his support, win or lose. It failed 1–10, only New Jersey in favor.

After passing a few uncontroversial sections — and, after brief argument, the rule that money bills start in the House — the Convention adjourned.

In short

• Qualifications for representatives passed largely unchanged, but with seven years of citizenship and "inhabitant" for "resident."
• Congress got flexibility over the House's size, letting districts grow with the nation.
• G. Morris and King spoke angrily against slavery and against representation for enslaved people, but changed nothing.

Around the Convention

• Johnson (CT) dined at Dr. Benjamin Rush's and bought four shillings and six pence of snuff.
• Washington (VA) dined at City Tavern and stayed until nearly ten.
• Massachusetts congressman Samuel Holten told Gorham he would leave the Confederation Congress in a few days, leaving Massachusetts unrepresented there.

Philadelphia today

The Pennsylvania Gazette ran "An Essay on the Means of Promoting Federal Sentiments in the United States, by a Foreign Spectator," and a notice from Nassau in the Bahamas on how American loyalists unable to attend in person could file claims.

The series: The Constitutional Convention: A Day-by-Day Account for August 1 to 15, 1787 · previous: August 7, 1787: The Right to Vote · next: August 9, 1787: Should Immigrants Serve in the Senate?

Sources

Based on "August 8, 1787: Slavery and Representation," The Constitutional Convention: A Day-by-Day Account, Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Ezra Ames's 1817 portrait is in the public domain.