If you’re ever tempted to think of the Founding Fathers as plaster saints rather than practical politicians living in the moment, just contemplate the meaning of the 3/5 Compromise. Leaving aside the inhumanity of it for a moment, what possible sense can you make out of calling a slave 3/5 of a person? You can see an argument for 1/2, but 3/5?
It reminds me of the insurance commercial in which the narrator says, “Whaddya supposed to do–drive three quarters of a car?”