National

Agreed. Right now I cannot remember if blacks were 3/5 or 5/6 of a person.

Since we let people who don't own land vote, the country has gone to hell.

Since we let women vote, extended Civil Rights and suffrage to all adults and then dropped the voting age to 18.. I'm certain the original writers of the Constitution would be appalled. And the former slave/children of children of former slaves (see Dred Scott decision... property doesn't have rights and can't be given rights no matter what State you take it to...) don't just count for 3/5ths... they count as people! And their votes count 100% also!

"Right now I cannot remember if blacks were 3/5 or 5/6 of a person."

It is neither.
First, the original Constitution wording applied to slaves (specifically "all other Persons" as compared to "free Persons").

Secondly, the Constitution was ammended following the abolition of slavery to eliminate the 3/5 proviso.

But these facts shouldn't get in the way of the very valid ridicule of Miss_April's quaint notion of the benefit of understanding the U.S. Constitution, or the assumption that she was referring to the unamended edition.

I am glad that our government leaders don't have to understand this document. Otherwise we'd never get anything done. It really shouldn't be considered law, anyway. More like guidelines. The amendment process is for losers. People in government know what's good for us and we should be honored that they take the time to find ways around the Constitution to act in the best interest of modern society. Like that Iraq war thing. That was awesome.

She did write ..."of the US Constitution as it was written."

Seems to me to indicate the unamended draft.

And the Dred Scot Decision held that Slaves and their descendants were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States.

What many who rail against violating the letter of the Constitution while nitpicking though the minutia miss is it's purpose.

It's not unlike the current "holy war" between those who literally interpret the Bible, word for word vs. those who choose to embrace it's spirit & meaning through it's many rich parables & metaphors.

If I can't reason abstractly (or my cultural background discourages it) I'll need things spelled out rigidly & concretely...To me this is yet another front on the vast war of cultures.

For what it's worth, here's the real purpose of that document as stated by it's authors:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Ooh...I don't know sabro. As long as we're looking at semantics, "was" being past tense, could rightly refer to those parts of the Constitution not written in the present, meaning all of it. So it is assumptive either way. Guess we'll have to check with Miss_April...

And the Dred Scot Decision held that Slaves and their descendants were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States.

True. Definitely a f***ed up decision. And curiously, the ruling was specific to "negro" slaves - the converse of my first point of contention with AWG who associated the 3/5 rule to "blacks" when it was in fact not specific to race. The specificity was slave. Free persons of all races got the full 5/5 count for both taxation and representation.

The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was overturned by the 13th adopted in 1865 and 14th amendment adopted in 1868.

Which is why going back to the "way it was written" may not be a good idea.

Didn't catch that part of her post.

Brendamae and Leapfrog would not doubt score A+ on such a test. I bet one exists somewhere on the www.

Here is one.

http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/US-History-Quizzes/u/US-Co...

80 percent for me. Can I vote now?

93%

Can I vote now?

Your going to have to work on that score young man.

87%

Total number of Questions in US Constitution Quiz : 15
Total number of Correct answers : 14
Your Score : 93%
Average Score for this quiz : 64.5%
Result : Pass
Number of People taking this quiz : 1048
Number of People Passing this quiz : 884
Number of People failing this quiz : 164
Maximum Score for this quiz : 100%

You copied.