Use the excerpt from Madison’s Federalist, no. 54 to answer the question.
“In being compelled to labor, not for himself, but for a master; in being vendible by one master to another master; and in being subject at all times to be restrained in his liberty and chastised in his body, by the capricious will of another, the slave may appear to be degraded from the human rank, and classed with those irrational animals which fall under the legal denomination of property. In being protected, on the other hand, in his life and in his limbs, against the violence of all others, even the master of his labor and his liberty; and in being punishable himself for all violence committed against others, the slave is no less evidently regarded by the law as a member of the society, not as a part of the irrational creation; as a moral person, not as a mere article of property.
The federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character of persons and of property. This is in fact their true character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws under which they live; and it will not be denied, that these are the proper criterion; because it is only under the pretext that the laws have transformed the negroes into subjects of property, that a place is disputed them in the computation of numbers; and it is admitted, that if the laws were to restore the rights which have been taken away, the negroes could no longer be refused an equal share of representation with the other inhabitants.”
Which of the plans for distributing power among and between levels of government would best address Madison’s argument?
Responses
1. the New Jersey Plan
2. the Virginia Plan
3. the Great Compromise
4. the Three-fifths Compromise
4. the Three-fifths Compromise
The Three-fifths Compromise would best address Madison's argument because it specifically addresses the issue of determining the representation of slaves in the population count. Madison argues that if the laws were to restore the rights of slaves, they should be given an equal share of representation. The Three-fifths Compromise determined that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation, thus acknowledging them as both persons and property.