Guest Blogger: Lekha Somashekar

During the past week, for couple days we have been preparing for a debate assuming, we were at Continental Convention in Philadelphia. The class was split into three groups, for three states: Virginia, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The groups had to each rebuttal, and give a presentation to the other groups, to support their own group/state. One of the points that was discussed was about slavery. There were many compromises discussed during the debate. However, the most controversial was the Three-Fifths Compromise, which was an agreement to count Three-Fifths of state’s slaves in apportion to Representatives, Presidential Electors, and direct taxes. This controversy arose, when the question about slavery arose at the Convention: How should the slaves be counted in determining representation in Congress. The Southerners were feeling happy to have their slaves counted toward their representation in House of Representatives. Northerners favored a 4:3 ratio of slaves to free persons, and Southerners favored 2:1 or 4:1 ratio. Eventually, James Madison suggested of a compromise consisting of 5:3 ratio of slaves to free persons. The Articles of Confederation required unanimous agreement, for the Three-Fifths Compromise, so proposal did not succeed. It is interesting, that a liberal Northern delegate named James Wilson was the one who proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, as a way to gain Southern support for the new framework of government. As Northern states grew rapidly than Southern states, Southern representation had fallen to 42 percent. So, Three-Fifths Compromise did not work, as South anticipated.
During our debate, each group had to incorporate usage of rhetorical devices that we have learned. Some of the rhetorical devices we learned this week were: argumentum ad verecundiam – which means transfer of authority, argumentum ad hominem- means name-calling, argumentum ad populum – means catch-phrases, argumentum ad infinitum – means argument that goes on forever, and argumentum ad nausea – which is argument you are sick of. I think these rhetorical devices are very useful when communicating with others. Learning new words helps us increase our knowledge on language skills. The intention of rhetorical devices is to persuade, give emphasis to what we are arguing to. Rhetorical devices make presentations easier to remember, and can make listeners more pleasurable when listening to it.