Defending Our Constitution

There is something that has been going around for many years now, and has come to be pretty much accepted by those who are simply ignorant of the facts. This is possibly best exemplified by John McCain's recent appearance on "The View." Senator McCain had just stated that he would look for Strict Constructionist judges, who would be Constitutionalists, upholding the Constitution as intended, and not legislating from the bench. Whoopie Goldberg asked if this mean that she needed to worry about becoming a slave. McCain said he understood what she was saying, when he really should have called her out on this idiotic statement.

What Whoopie was referring to was the original rules in the Constitution for how to count population for determining the number of Representatives in the US House for each state. The original language, which was later changed by Amendment, stated that they would count each free person, and "three fifths of all other persons" meaning slaves of course. This has been claimed by many people, for many, many years to mean that the framers of the Constitution were devaluing the slaves, or saying that they were less human than the free persons.

The fact of the matter is that this reasoning is totally backwards. The language that so many find so objectionable was actually fought for, and included by, the anti-slavery crowd! You see, they knew that it would be wrong for people who were clearly not going to be represented by those sent to Congress to be used to increase the representation of those States in the Congress. Their intention was to lay the groundwork for the eventual defeat of slavery in the United States. They wanted to be sure that Slavery would not exist forever, so, they first tried to make it so that Slaves would not count for Congressional Representation at all, since, as I said, they would not be represented, only their ongoing slavery would be ensured by them being counted. The slave states fought against this, wanting slaves to be counted as full persons, so that they could ensure the perpetualization of this dastardly institution. In fact, the pro slavery folks would have been thrilled if they could have had each of their slaves counted five times, as this would have really secured their rule. Obviously, with two such diametrically opposed positions, there was quite a fight about what language should be included in the Constitution, and the three fifths compromise was a great victory for the anti-slavery segment of the delegates.

The Constitution laid the groundwork, and the fight against slavery was on, and it would take many years for it to be won. The cost of freedom for slaves in this nation was paid in blood. Blood of a great many of white persons from the northern, anti-slavery states, and blood of a great many Southerners who thankfully lost this conflict. The entire slavery saga was a dark piece of American History, and the blood bathed redemption of the Soul of our Nation is something that should never be forgotten. The blood of the white soldiers from both sides is forever mixed in the soil with the blood of the black victims of slavery. A stark look at the history of slavery in this nation, and especially the end of slavery, should forge a strong and unified and color blind nation. And the Constitution ensured that this could happen, let us never forget that. Let us never forget any of it.