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BLACKS: 3/5 OF A PERSON?
> Sir, I was told by someone I am presently dialoging with, that Blacks > were designated as 3/5th of a person in our Constitution (I have a copy > of the Constitution and I never read this, is what we have original?) > and that it was removed later. Blacks were not "designated" as 3/5th of a person. What happened was, for purposes of apportioning Representatives in Congress, and for apportioning direct taxes among the various states, the number to be used for these purposes was to be the whole number of free persons plus 3/5ths of all other persons (which would include slaves). This is stated in the Constitution, Article I, Section 3. The 14th Amendment repealed this. Notice that whether "free" or "all other," BOTH categories were described as "persons." > I was also told that many Republicans > defected to the Democratic Party when Abraham Lincoln signed the > Emancipation, freeing the slaves, and that many Democrats defected to > the Republican Party when Lyndon Johnson signed into the Civil Rights > Movement. I would expect that this is true to some extent. I cannot direct you to a source for verifying this, but I suspect that any good history of the time, or even a good general encyclopedia, would include a statment on this. > Can you advise me on the validity of these arguments and where > I can find a resource that may deal with this? This person is vehemently > opposed to Republican ideologies, and almost all forms of conservativism > or capitalism, and is very critical of its leadership in all parts of > the government. Your questions go beyond my specialized area, which is the writings of Thomas Jefferson, but I suspect that both statements have a kernel of truth contained in them.