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Report of the Committee on Federal Relations. 1844 211 (1844)

handle is hein.slavery/ssactsal0325 and id is 1 raw text is: 211 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL RELATIONS, On the Resolutions of the States of Massachusetts and South Carolina. The Committee on Federal Relations to whom was referred resolu- tions from the State of Massachusetts, proposing to amend the Federal Constitution by striking out that portion of the third Clause,second Sec- tion, first Article, which apportiolis representatives and direct taxes, by adding to the free white inhabitants- three fifths of all otherper. sons; together with the replies of the States of Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia; also resolutions of the State of South Carolina, in relation to the agent.sent by Massachusetts to reside within her borders, to liti- gate the right of that State to prevent the ingress of free persons of color-deeply impressed with their serious import, have bestowed on them a calm and solemn consideration, and without division, either in feeling or opinion, have instructed me to recommend the adoption of the following Report and Resolutions : It is well known to all, conversant with the history of the Convention, which adopted our present form of Government, that the three fifths rule of representation, gave rise to great debate and agitauion in that body, and for a long while threatened its dissolution. The States repre- sented in that convention, were sovereign and independent ; it was the right of each to determine the conditions on which it would enter into the Federal compact. The slaveholding States believing their interests and their rights required the existing rule of representation, insisted upon its adoption: on the other hand, it was strenuously resisted by a few of the States as unequal and unjust to those who held no slaves ; and the clause as it now stands in the Constitution, w'as finally adopted against the vote of but two States-Massache tts voting in the majority. The Constitution thus framed, was suhmiied to the States, and adopted by the people of each, and thus became the law of all. The history of this provision of the Constitution therefore, shows that it was incorporated by the Convention as a solemn stipulation, and agreed to by the people of each of the thirteen States, in order to con- .olidate their union. The Southern States surely can see nothing in the circumstane which now surtound them, to cause their abandonment of a security so strenuously insisted on, when interference with their domestic institu- tions was merely a subject of philosophical speculation. Now, there ex- ists in some of the States, a faction, yearly and rapidly increasing in power (stimulated by influences from abroad, and strengthened by polit- ical dissensions at home,) that seeks the total overthrow of the institu- tions of the South, careless of the means, and' regardless of the conse- quences. Already it controls sixty thousand voters, not the less formi- dable, because governed by the spirit of a wild fanaticism; already it has shown itself strong enough to fill the Temple of Religion with discord,

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