The systems of governance pre-ACW and post-ACW were two distinct systems. The pre-ACW was essentially two competing systems of power duct-taped together with th

The systems of governance pre-ACW and post-ACW were two distinct systems. The pre-ACW was essentially two competing systems of power duct-taped together with the 3/5ths amendment. The post-ACW was one dominant system of power that had beaten another into submission and annexation. The 3/5ths compromise, and its implicit enshrinement of slavery as an American institution, is as an example of short-term thinking (compromising on the legal definition of a human being, in order to get the constitution ratified) that eventually caused the greater system to unravel. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the civil war, millions of people experienced slavery. It could have been avoided if longer-term thinking prevailed. I hear you that the Constitution (inclusive of its self-mutating property) survived as a useful document of federal governance. This purported maintenance of a federal union was a huge legitimizer of northern domination of the post-ACW United States. But, I think you'd agree that the "system of governance" that begat the constitution did not survive, that's more what I was getting at. That each successive system of governance can still legitimately claim to be implementing the U.S. Constitution is indeed impressive.