The fear of Southern politicians at the birth of the nation that they might be discriminated against by their northern neighbors by reason of their slave-holding is apparent even in a first reading of the above excerpt. The three representatives of North Carolina at the Convention feared an undue tax burden would be placed upon outnumbered southern states by the passage of a national property tax. That fear was assuaged by the language of Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 and Article I, Section 2. Messieurs Blount, Spaight, and Williamson write to their governor that an equal number of citizens of a southern state could be taxed no more for their cumulative real estate holdings than an equal number of citizens from a northern state. Also appealing to them was the fact that African-Americans were to be treated as 3/5 of a person for purposes of any apportionment by census. What is plainly evident is that the coming conflict between North and South was manifesting itself as early as 1787.
ENDNOTES
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