Keep swatting that pesky canard about the “3/5th Clause”

"Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."     
     (from Article 1, Section 2, of U.S. Constitution)


The clause is not a statement about personhood: it was the slaveholders who were pushing for 4/5 or 5/5th!  Here’s why:

"The Northern states did not want to count slaves. The Southern states hoped to include slaves in the population statistics in order to acquire additional representation in Congress to advance their political position."

Yet, many folks in our day – such as Lanny Davis, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, and even Professor Garry Wills – wildly misrepresent what the Constitutional debate was all about.  Sometimes it’s silly ignorance, sometimes willful distortion…