Emory University President James Wagner has come under increasing fire for lauding the “three-fifths compromise” in the U.S. Constitution. This measure allowed slave states increased power in the federal government by counting slaves in federal censuses and assigning representation in Congress based on three-fifths of their numbers. In other words, for every 100,000 slaves within its borders, Georgia was credited with having 60,000 citizens. Meanwhile, the slaves themselves had no rights as citizens, being treated as chattel property. The South wanted all the slaves counted; Northern interests wanted none of them coutned. So Southerners pretty much got their way. Nowadays, the three-fifths compromise is not considered an example of good governance. Instead it is widely seen as dishonest pandering to a great evil. Now, here’s what Wagner originally wrote in Emory Magazine: One instance of constitutional compromise…
