Only New Jersey and Delaware voted against Wilson’s compromise

ng hot June 11, 1787, South Carolina delegate John Rutledge

The only delegate who pounced on the three-fifths “compromise” was Massachusetts abo-litionist and future vice president Elbridge Gerry. “ Blacks are prop-erty, and are used [in the South] . . . as horses and cattle are [in the North],” Gerry stammered out. So “why should their representation be increased to the southward on account of t he number of slaves, [rather] t han [on the basis of] horses or oxen to the north?”