DiogenesLamp: "Everyone but Jefferson. He was the *ONLY* Southerner on the committee...
Pretty hard sell when the Northerners are the majority and *THEY* are against what the Southerner wrote.
Clearly the vote was either 3/2 or 4/1, with the Northern majority voting to get rid of it."
Declaration Committee of Five: Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Sherman & Livingston:
So, the issue here is whether Jefferson's anti-slavery text was deleted by the Declaration committee of five, or by the entire Congress of 56 delegates.
If it was deleted by the five committee members, then DiogenesLamp has to be correct that the others were all Northerners and so they must have voted against Jefferson's anti-slavery words.
However, that's not what history tells us.
Rather history says Jefferson's text was deleted by the entire Congress of 56 delegates:
'The clause...reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it.
Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under these censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.' "
Since important votes had to be unanimous, it only needed South Carolina and Georgia in opposition to delete Jefferson's anti-slavery text, with no need to force Northern delegates to put their mouths where their money was. 😉
56 delegates discussed and deleted Jefferson's anti-slavery text:
Don't put words in my mouth. If I recall correctly, (no, i'm not going back to look), *YOU* asserted that it was the Southerners. I pointed out that the only Southerner on the committee was Jefferson, and he was the one who wanted to put those words in there.
Obviously it was the larger Northern majority that objected.
Of course, since we first discussed this, someone pointed out that they likely sent the initial draft to the committee of the whole, and rather than the committee of the five removing those words (which is what I had understood to be the case for years), it was the committee of the whole which may have done it.
Whatever. It had to get through the committee of the whole at some point, and the majority obviously decided to get rid of those words, and likely for the reasons that "X" cited above.
In any case, you have provided some useful information on the topic, and I see this as a refreshing change from your usual method of posting massive amounts of irrelevant information. :)