What Was The Basis Of The 3/5th Compromise

The United States of America had a weak central government after it gained its independence, and was on the verge of a depression. Debts which it had incurred from the American Revolutionary War sought to bring down the Union they fought so hard to establish. The Articles of Confederation had kept the federal government from enforcing policies and laws which could bring them out of this debt crisis. The weakness of the central government had prompted the Federalists to write what are known as ‘The Federalist Papers’, which detailed how the constitution must be reformed in order to save the Union. These papers eventually formed the basis of the new constitution, but they could not account for the various compromises and the rapidly changing

The compromise outlined that “…three-fifths of all other persons” would get the same representation in House of Representatives as white people. These “other persons” were slaves, and the representation given to the slaves was in essence transferred to the white men living in the South. This gave them a higher degree of representation than their equivalent living in the North, because slaves were still considered property instead of people, and thus they had no rights. What happened afterwards was that the south became over represented in the Union, and could even have enough support to elect slave holding presidents, and public officials. This fostered a divide between the North and the South, which was turned into an ‘us vs them’ mentality, which can sometimes even be felt

There was a delicate balance of eleven free and eleven slave states in the Union, and the admission of a new state would serve to destroy the balance. However, a Kentuckian by the name of Henry Clay brought about the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which stated that Missouri would become a slave state, and that Maine would be admitted as a free state. It also outlined that any land south of the 36°30′ parallel, also known as the ‘Mason Dixon Line’, would be admitted to the union as a slave state. This compromise was criticized by southerners because they didn’t believe that Congress had the power to make laws about slavery, and it was also criticized by northerners who wanted to see the expansion of slavery ended. Though it faced popular disapproval, the compromise managed to hold the union together for several decades after it was