Historical background for context
While readers may already know portions or a good deal of this, for purposes of this story it's important to 'set the stage' for it to make better sense. In our reality at the start of the constitutional convention the southern representatives had already made their position clear that they would not accept abolition as a possibility one reason being that their states' economies absolutely depended on it. Northern delegates tended to just accept this with some thinking that slavery would eventually end on its own. So the only serious effort went into coming up with compromises that all or enough sides would accept. Southern states didn't want the slaves freed but they did want them counted for purposes of representation in government, therefore how we ended up with the three fifths person compromise. Interestingly it seems all the founders knew that slavery would eventually end in the U.S., but it seems some were just trying to delay the changes for as long as possible or perhaps past their own lifetimes.. As it turned out from this it resulted in these compromises never really working, especially as the country expanded further and further westward. Only more and more strained 'compromises' kept the union cobbled together until it eventually fell into civil war.
Losing Compromise
Franklin made his way up to the podium steadily. He didn't want to give away that he may have something alarming to say. He was the oldest by now. But he was glad he made it to this culmunation of their efforts to form a newer, hopefully better country. Ironically that was what may make what he was about to say alarming. It wouldn't be alarming coming from his fellow Pennsylvanian Morris, but Benjamin Franklin was known for and expected to always keep what the political reality of the time was in sight. So that's what he intended to start off with..
"Gentlemen", Franklin began, "It's an honor and distinct pleasure to be here with you now as it was before. But now we do not have the uncertainty of a struggle not won yet, but still we have in many ways the even more difficult task of setting off an entirely new republic on the right foot!" Respectful applause - so far so good. He continued, " I had every intention of not suggesting what I'm about to suggest in deference and respect to our Southern colleagues' insistence against it. I do heartily respect their position, and any personal position I had has already been quite forcefully put forth by my fellow stateman Morris, so I saw no reason to do so to hear myself speak or for the record." An unsure silence had replaced the applause.
"So I had intended to keep this address within the realm of political reality as you may have expected." Looking around the chamber, he could see the silence was turning into an anxious one. "But then I began to consider other more serious realities for the future of this republic depending on how we arrive at concensus here." Never fails he thought, every time in his life when he was about to embark on a risky line of consideration with others, that little voice of cautionary concern inside him would start grumbling. But for this it may be now or never.
"I began to think about how while we are certainly fortunate from our recent victory to come to this place where we can decide for ourselves how we wish to be governed, we are also fortunate to be able to decide for ourselves the extent of that victory's result and how we can avoid missing the opportunity to take that to its fullest extent possible." By now his audience was showing visible concern, probably at least a few being able to see where this was going. "I shall explain my thoughts on these realities in more detail momentarily, but it all results in my firm belief that we should take the opportunity while it is ripe before us to deal with the slavery issue once and for all - with a process of complete abolition that guarantees all of our states can move forward in prosperity and unity!"
He had spoken the last part very deliberately to make sure he was understood in order to prompt the initial wave of reaction so it could be addressed as deliberately. As Franklin expected, South Carolina's Pinckney rose irritably saying impatiently, "We have already made well known our position on this. The south can simply not abide with abolition - our slaves are necessary for our wellbeing and way of life." His fellow delegate Rutledge followed that with, "If this is pursued with insistence, the South may have to found it's own 'union'."
Franklin was ready for this and responded, "Of course I recall your positions on this, and as stated I do respect those and understand what such a change would mean for you. Let me now elaborate on the realities I alluded to before as well as some ideas I've had with respect to accomodating the needs our Southern states may face in making such a transition." He hoped this would keep them interested enough or even feeling obligated enough to keep listening to him long enough to go through the inevitable counterpoints and interruptions this type of assembly always seemed to guarantee. Through all of this - the Declaration, the French, Washington - he'd been able to talk a lot of people into a lot of things. Just one more time and he might accomplish the most yet..
Of course an interruption came immediately as Connecticut's Sherman abruptly rose from his seat bringing the attention to himself. He opined, "With all due respect to our elder and accomplished statesman, it has been considered by a number of us here - some even against slavery as much as Mr. Franklin is - that it is an inevitably dying institution that will of it's own devices self-destruct in time so that we here have no need to insist on an immediate answer when we have more important matters to settle presently for this constitution. I suggest we stay with matters all of us can possibly agree on for this purpose."
Franklin also expected that point to eventually be brought up but not just as he was about to go into details of what he had in mind. So he stopped to think for a brief instant then replied, "I think the best way I can express the reason for my insistence on dealing with this particular issue with strong resolution is an example from a pasttime of mine - chess. If one plays this game for any length of time a particular axiom comes to realization. That is that the hardest game to win is a won game. You may have taken most of your opponent's pieces and have his king cornered or on the edge of the board. But if you're not careful to remember the object is a full checkmate, he may yet - even if he only has that king left - maneuver the game into a stalemate thereby robbing you of your full victory."
Now he had them all interested in the game reference or at least pretending to follow his chess acumen - finally a segue for him to take the discourse in the direction he intended to be able to explain himself fully. He proceeded, "Likewise with the slavery issue if we do not take this opportunity before us now to checkmate it fully we are most likely to find ourselves in an inevitable stalemate. Please allow me to explain more fully now. The overarching reality I see is that we have two issues that need immediate resolution and that it doesn't seem possible to resolve these two at the same time - forming a lasting union and ridding ourselves of slavery once and for all. I think we all agree this seems an irreconcilable difference." Looking around the room all were nodding in agreement.
He continued quickly to preclude an immediate question, "Let me explain why I say we must resolve the slavery issue now rather than accept some seemingly more approachable compromises as has been suggested. The problem with such compromises is both in spirit and practicality. In spirit it is merely delaying what we should and can face together now. In practical terms they may work for some limited time, but they would inevitably fail and have to be replaced with greater compromise or even worse conflict. It has been hoped that the nation may be able to expand further in size as well as in population. Can you imagine how it will be to have to keep coming up with compromises able to accomodate continually more and more of both land and peoples?"
This consideration did seem to weigh heavily on those present from their expressions, although of course there were always those content to leave things if they didn't have to deal with them in their lifetime. So he pressed on, "If our Southern brethren do indeed leave to form their own republic, has it been considered how easy it will be then for our rivals and enemies to play us against each other in any sort of conflict or disagreement, much as we've already seen the natives stirred up against us sometimes even being supplied arms to use against us by our enemies. In addition either or both of our smaller weaker republics would then be much easier to occupy temporarily or even conquered. Both of our nations might even be manuevered into a war against each other."
Such ideas were seeming to have the heads in the chamber shaken having just finished so great a conflict on their home soil. Franklin further pushed the point, "Such a civil conflict from either within or without should be reason enough to reconsider either compromise or dissolution. But let us turn to the issue of economics as that is a quite legitimate concern for our southern states. While the South has had impressive success with their plantation systems, progress in the trades in the north have shown maybe greater promise for the future. While we will always need the great produce in agriculture, the north has shown adaptability favoring trends towards things more mechanical and industrial. This as well as advancements in things electrical to power them (I've experimented with some possibilities myself in such) may make us competitive with the great powers such as England and France. Meanwhile any process that continues to depend on slaves just puts us on par with the African and Arabic slavers who gather them for our ships."
The attendees - at least the southern ones - seemed to grimace quite a bit at the last words. But Franklin noticed they seemed to not disagree so much as not have any idea how they could make the change and maintain their agricultural output and wealth and influence. So he quickened his pace a bit to circle back around to what some practical answers might be, "Understandably though a plantation owner would want to know what advantage it would be for him to give up such an advantage as free labor in the current time. An exact answer may not be known to us now as we can't exactly predict the future, only see the trends that are fairly certain before our eyes. But there are many possible answers, and one or combination of which would be worthwhile to find for future prospects. For example, upon freeing the slaves of a plantation they will then need some means to support themselves. They could be given options to stay on and continue to work the plantations in exchange for small plots to build their own houses on and then negotiate their pay in conjunction with that situation. Granted they would no longer be free labor, but they would have their own stake in the outcome so have motivation to continue to keep the plantation producing profitably. Where there would be the cost of their pay, their former owners would not have the cost of their lodging and feeding - an arrangement that would indeed be more costly to the plantation owner but perhaps not as much an increase as thought."
Franklin continued on a roll, "There's another more positive aspect to all of this I'll come back to in a bit, but first there is the issue of representation and taxation that is of concern to all parties. I would put forth that if the South were to agree to free its slaves outright, they should receive the full representation for them since they will then be a legitimate part of the population and as well be taxed the same as whites thereby also increasing revenues. I would further recommend that plantation owners should receive tax relief and possibly subsidies for any initial losses they incur for a set period of adjustment. There may have to be some supervision to make sure the new voters are getting both their reasonable access to voting and being reasonably taxed as well. If there is some concern in the north of the representation gained by the high populations of blacks in the south, this could be offset by the likely more jobs and educational opportunities ocurring initially in the north that could bring some of this population to resettle there."
Observing the Virginia delegation light up just slightly at this told Franklin his side gambit was working. While a plantation state, still they were a big state in every respect and stood much to gain from having full representation for their populations. Also they tended not to be so unchangeable about hanging on to their slaves - Washington already had put instructions in his will to free his. But the big consideration was actually that in any realistic political consideration, where the sympathies of the military is will matter at some point. Virginia had Washington, and although his Immortals - an elite force of 400 that saved the Continental Army at one point and included free blacks - were from Maryland, they would likely follow his lead. It was also the home of Daniel Morgan, considered the best tactician of the Revolution who also led his own elite force called Morgan's Rifles. And if Virginia sided with Franklin, the rest of the South would not have nearly as good prospect of forming a viable separate nation without Virginia.
Franklin went on, "Coming back to what I think is the most interesting positive prospect of all this - as things are the slaves are pretty much useless outside of being free manual labor. While as I've acknowledged that's a good advantage in the short term, long term not so much. If they are free on the other hand they would be free to pursue things not as limited such as invention and innovation which portends to be more important in the coming future. It may be that some time in the future a black man may invent one or more farming devices that allow plantations to operate with less human labor and possibly even produce more. Their contributions to the nation could turn into much more than just begrudgingly picking cotton.
"Furthermore," Franklin pressed on, "History tells us what happened to the Romans who also started with a slave population as an important part of their economy and base of power - while not directly responsible for their fall, their society became more fragmented as time went by - civil wars and even slave rebellion. They created an early form of welfare state due to the unequal extremes their various peoples fell into, which in turn undermined their once strong work ethic furthering their economic weakness to the point where they could no longer even pay for the programs. We risk the same future for our posterity if as I believe with all due respects to Mr. Sherman, it should result not in slavery disappearing on its own but in armed civil conflict between our two sides. While we can get by with compromising now, trying to end slavery in the future by that means will likley result in very uneven populations in terms of education, abilities, etc, that still have to be taken care of. We or rather that posterity we're supposed to be concerning ourselves with, may end up with an even worse state of welfare. Whereas if we act now while we can, we can start all our of citizens off able to build on education and opportunities. I firmly believe if we can start our black citizens off with an equal footing with us, they are far more likely to join along side us industriously and innovatively in helping build this new republic. Thank you!"
Franklin paused for effect as he could see he had illicited much thought in the delegates. Washington having taken his usual strategic approach in such settings to listen to and observe the others until he had discerned the right time to weigh in as well as having developed an intelligent position to share, finally spoke, "I have for some time now considered that all should be freed - many of my servants have served me so well I believe they would be worth paying for their services as freed men and women. While mine are set to be freed upon my death, I would be happy to free them immediately if it led to a more perfect union for all its inhabitants." The delegates were moved by Washington's stance and considering that they would likely want him to serve as the nation's first head of state, whatever that would look like, thought they should at least give serious effort to the possibilities.
The delegates' high regard for both Franklin and Washington did not move them to agree to everything at once, but it did cause them to seriously consider how they might make the ideas work. For the remainder of the Convention they worked towards finding a way to make abolition a reality as well as on the other decisions of forming the government. They came out with a constitution that both solidified the union and ended slavery. Franklin was ecstatic at the outcome as abolition had been one of his political dreams to accomplish and was a good finish for his political and he considered his life career. He wondered sometimes what would have happened if he had stayed silent and politically realistic.