History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Vol. 2: With Notices of Its Principle FramersCurtis, George Ticknor
History
History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, Vol. 2: With Notices of Its Principle Framers
Curtis, George Ticknor
Constitutional history -- United States
New Hampshire, 102,000
Massachusetts, 360,000
Rhode Island, 58,000
Connecticut, 202,000
New York, 238,000
New Jersey, 138,000
Pennsylvania, 360,000
Delaware, 37,000
---------1,495,000
Maryland, including three fifths of 80,000 negroes, 218,000
Virginia, " " 280,000 " 420,000
North Carolina, " " 60,000 " 200,000
South Carolina, " " 80,000 " 150,000
Georgia, " " 20,000 " 90,000
---------1,078,000
The authenticity of this table is established by referring to
a speech made by General Pinckney in the legislature of South
Carolina, in which he introduced and quoted it at length.
(Elliot's Debates, IV. 283.)
From this it appears that the estimated population of the
eight Northern and Middle States, adopted in the Convention,
was 1,495,000; that of the five Southern States (including
three fifths of an estimated number of negroes) was
1,078,000. Comparing this estimate with the results of the
first census, it will be seen that the _total_ population of
the eight Northern and Middle States exceeds the _federal_
population of the five Southern States, in the census of
1790, in about the same ratio as the former exceeds the
latter in the estimate employed by the Convention. Thus in
1790 the _total_ population of the eight Northern and Middle
States, including all slaves, was 1,845,595; the _federal_
population of the five Southern States, including three
fifths of the slaves, was 1,540,048;--excess 305,547. In the
estimate of 1787, the population allotted to the eight
Northern and Middle States was 1,495,000; that allotted to
the five Southern States, counting only three fifths of the
estimated number of slaves, was 1,078,000;--excess in favor
of the eight States, 417,000. This calculation shows,
therefore, that, in estimating the population of the
different States for the purpose of adjusting the first
representation in Congress, the Convention applied the rule
of three fifths of the slaves to the five Southern States
only, and that as to the other eight States no discrimination
was made between the different classes of their inhabitants.
Other methods of comparing the estimate of 1787 with the
census of 1790 will lead to the same conclusion.
FOOTNOTES:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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