Abstract
The US Constitution bends toward justice on slavery. The three-fifths rule is a pro- Northern rule measuring the contribution of slave labor to wealth. A more accurate measure of slave labor’s contribution to wealth would have given the South the majority in the House. The power of Congress to suppress insurrections, to return fugitive slaves, and to ban exports arise from unrelated principles that could not have been reasonably distinguished as to slavery. The deferral of the ban on slave imports for twenty years is either a half loaf or a failure to reach a goal they should have reached. The Constitution gave a toolbox of ways to reach abolition through ordinary legislation, including enacting a prohibitive tax on slaves, drafting slaves, banning interstate commerce, and declaring slavery to be against the general welfare. Despite Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Constitution allowed Congress to ban slavery in the territories. Furthermore, slaves are not property under the logic of the Constitution.