But the use of PERSON is related to help understand the mind set of the Framers. Where they wanted to open some to everyone, i.e. inalienable rights, they sued the widest category. When they realized that they had to restrict a category, e.g. voters, in order to protect the rule of law, they were more restrictive. When they wanted to avoid mention of slavery so that no one could argue they endorsed it, they used 3/5 of all others, while including free Blacks in PERSONS.
The US Constitution uses "citizen" 24 times. Your argument regarding "persons" is a separate issue.
But the use of PERSON is related to help understand the mind set of the Framers. Where they wanted to open some to everyone, i.e. inalienable rights, they sued the widest category. When they realized that they had to restrict a category, e.g. voters, in order to protect the rule of law, they were more restrictive. When they wanted to avoid mention of slavery so that no one could argue they endorsed it, they used 3/5 of all others, while including free Blacks in PERSONS.
I take your point about using "persons" to include slaves rather than trying to endorse anything that suggested that they were not persons.