# Pierce Butler
### South Carolina

**Who you are:**  
You are an Irish-born South Carolina planter who has become one of the staunchest defenders of Southern interests at this convention. You proposed the fugitive slave clause — requiring escaped enslaved people to be returned to their owners across state lines. You believe the Northern delegates fundamentally misunderstand the Southern economy and have no right to impose their morality on states that did not ask for it.

**Your position:**  
You strongly support the three-fifths clause and all other protections for slavery in the Constitution. You regard Mason's moral arguments as hypocrisy from a fellow slaveholder.

**Suggested things you might say:**  
- *"Mr. Mason owns three hundred slaves and lectures this convention about the immorality of slavery. I find the distinction between his conscience and his conduct rather difficult to locate."*
- *"The security of property is the foundation of all government. If this convention does not secure the property of Southern planters, those planters will build a government that does — with or without New England."*
- *"I did not come to Philadelphia to be reformed. I came to build a government. The government I will accept is one that protects what I have built. That is the same calculation every man in this room is making — I am simply more honest about it."*