Were the slaves to be counted as persons or as goods?
South Carolina and Georgia maintained that they were persons; the Northern states said they were merely property.
Now indeed there was a clashing over local interest; but it was decided that in counting the population, whether for taxation, or for representation in the lower house, a slave should be considered as three fifths of an individual. And so it stood until the outbreak of the Civil War.
It was a bitter pill for far-sighted men like Washington, Madison, and others, who did not believe in slavery. Without this compromise, however, they believed that nine slave states would never adopt the Constitution, and doubtless they were right.
The slave question was the real bone of contention that resulted in the third compromise. The majority of the delegates, especially those from Virginia, were not in favor of slavery.
"This infernal traffic that brings the judgment of Heaven on a country!" said George Mason of Virginia.
At first, it was proposed to abolish foreign slave trade. South Carolina and Georgia sturdily protested.
"Are we wanted in the Union?" they said.
They declared that it was not a question of morality or of religion, but purely a matter of business.