CHAPTER TWo • FoRGiNG A NEW GovERNmENT: THE CoNsTiTuTioN 33
The three-fifths compromise did not completely settle the
slavery issue. There was also the question of the slave trade.
Eventually, the delegates agreed that Congress could not ban the
importation of slaves until after 1808. The compromise meant that
the matter of slavery itself was never addressed directly. The South
won twenty years of unrestricted slave trade and a requirement
that escaped slaves in free states be returned to their owners in
slave states.
Clearly, many delegates, including slave owners such as
George Washington and James Madison, had serious objections to
slavery. Why, then, did they allow slavery to continue? Historians
have long maintained that the framers had no choice—that with-
out a slavery compromise, the delegates from the South would
have abandoned the convention. Indeed, this was the fear of a
number of antislavery delegates to the convention. Madison, for
example, said, “Great as the evil is, a dismemberment of the Union
would be even worse.”^10
A number of historians have made an additional point. Many
American leaders believed that slavery would die out naturally.
These leaders assumed that in the long run, slave labor could not
compete with the labor of free citizens. This assumption turned
out to be incorrect.other issues. The South also worried that the northern major-
ity in Congress would pass legislation unfavorable to its economic
interests. Because the South depended on agricultural exports, it
feared the imposition of export taxes. In return for acceding to the
northern demand that Congress be able to regulate commerce
among the states and with other nations, the South obtained a
promise that export taxes would not be imposed. As a result, the
United States is among the few countries that do not tax their
exports.
There were other disagreements. The delegates could not
decide whether to establish only a Supreme Court or to create
lower courts as well. They deferred the issue by mandating a
Supreme Court and allowing Congress to establish lower courts. They also disagreed over
whether the president or the Senate would choose the Supreme Court justices. A compro-
mise was reached with the agreement that the president would nominate the justices and
the Senate would confirm the nominations.
These compromises, as well as others, resulted from the recognition that if one group
of states refused to ratify the Constitution, it was doomed.Working toward Final Agreement
The Connecticut Compromise was reached by mid-July. The makeup of the executive
branch and the judiciary, however, was left unsettled. The remaining work of the conven-
tion was turned over to a five-man Committee of Detail, which presented a rough draftJames madison took detailed
notes of the proceedings of the Constitutional
Convention. What was Madison’s opinion of
slavery? (Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Photodisc/
Getty Images)- Speech before the Virginia ratifying convention on June 17, 1788, as cited in Bruno Leone, ed.,
The Creation of the Constitution (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1995), p. 159.
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