Now it must occur to Mr. Adams that these facts are at war with his theory.
Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, the two Carolinas and Georgia would never have been found opposing the equality of representation of the states in the Senate if the purpose of that senatorial equality was the perpetuation of the institution of slavery.
There was a compromise which the slave-owners wrung as a concession from the free states, but this compromise benefited them in the lower House, not in the Senate.
When the Constitution gave the slave states representation based upon three-fifths of the slaves, the institution of slavery derived strength from the national idea of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia—not from the State Rights idea of New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut.
“Take the Children”
In France the Privileged Classes had created a situation which pleased them perfectly.
A fifth of the soil belonged to 30,000 noble families; another fifth belonged to the clergy; another fifth belonged to the king and city governments; the remaining two-fifths belonged to all the other people, middle class and peasants.
To the support of the Government the clergy contributed nothing except as a free gift; the nobility contributed pretty much what they pleased, and they did not please to contribute a great deal.