Op-Ed: The Census 2010 and the Three-Fifths Compromise: At the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 a deal was struck, a compromise sponsored by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman now known as the Three-Fifths Compromise. I call to attention here the decision to count slaves as three-fifths of a person to serve as a profound reminder that from the get-go, counting for our nation has always been problematic, hypocritical and “constitutionally compromised.”
Anyone today reading the papers, listening to talk radio, watching television or surfing the Web knows counting remains a complicated issue. And, while there may no longer be any juridical question regarding the “whole versus fractionalized” status of any given individual in our country, this country struggles with the notion of truly counting everyone who should count — everyone, that is, who ought to be counted. “Who counts?” remains at issue.
