“Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote”

—  Gouverneur Morris

Debate at the Constitutional Convention http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1909&layout=html#chapter_112488 (August 8 1787)
1780s
Context: Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other property included? The houses in this city are worth more than all the wretched slaves who cover the rice swamps of South Carolina. The admission of slaves into the Representation when fairly explained comes to this: that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina who goes to the Coast of Africa, and in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity tears away his fellow creatures from their dearest connections and damns them to the most cruel bondages, shall have more votes in a Government instituted for protection of the rights of mankind, than the Citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey who views with a laudable horror, so nefarious a practice.

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Gouverneur Morris 8
American politician 1752–1816

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