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Constitutional Equality Arguments Before the Constitution Mentioned Equality

Constitutional Equality Arguments Before the Constitution Mentioned Equality. Declaration of Independence.

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Constitutional Equality Arguments Before the Constitution Mentioned Equality

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  1. Constitutional Equality Arguments Before the Constitution Mentioned Equality

  2. Declaration of Independence • “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” [A description of natural law; most agreed that slavery violates natural law – see, e.g., Blackstone]

  3. Natural Law v. Positive Law • If positive law trumps natural law, first we must determine what positive law provides: • International Law (La Eugenie; the Antelope; Amistad) • State constitutions (“All men are born free and equal and have certain unalienable natural rights . . . .”) • The U.S. Constitution?

  4. The Three-Fifths 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. . . .” (Article I, section 2)

  5. The Importation Clause: “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person. . . .” (Article I, section 9)

  6. The fugitive clause: “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. . . .” (Article IV, section 2)

  7. Arguing About Slavery, by William Lee Miller

  8. “[T]he object of this clause was to secure to the citizens of the slaveholding states the complete right and title of ownership in their slaves as property in every state in the into which they might escape. . . . “[The fugitive slave clause] was so vital . . . that it cannot be doubted that it constituted a fundamental article, without the adoption of which the Union could not have been formed. . . . “We have not the slightest hesitation in holding that under and in virtue of the Constitution, the owner of a slave is clothed with entire authority, in every state in the Union, to seize and recapture his slave . . . .”

  9. Article III “The [federal] judicial Power shall extend to all Cases . . . between Citizens of different States . . . .”

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