I am responding to the letter published May 11 in IndyStar maintaining Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is lying about the Three-Fifths Compromise.
The reason it’s called a compromise is the northern anti-slave states wanted no slave counted for representation, while the southern states wanted slaves to count fully, even though they’d have no right to vote.
Without a compromise, there may not have been a United States, and slavery would still be around in the South today. Because of the compromise, the anti-slave states eventually outnumbered the slave states and politically gained the upper hand.
Of course, the nation still had to fight a bloody Civil War to end slavery completely. It’s nonsense to claim the compromise was about protecting slavery.
Dave Overman
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: In defense of Micah Beckwith’s Three-Fifths Compromise remarks | Letters
Reporting by Dave Overman / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
