]uvred the country through a great
political struggle and a foreign war, both of which were chiefly
engineered to secure the consolidation of the slave aristocracy. In
1820 its power was extended in eleven States, containing four hundred
and twenty-four thousand square miles, with one hundred and seventy-nine
thousand square miles of territory sure to come in as Slave States; and
the remainder of the Louisiana purchase not secure to liberty. It had a
white population only seven hundred thousand less, while its white and
black population was a million more than all the Free States.

The North was barely half as large in area of States: two hundred and
seventy thousand square miles, with only one hundred thousand square
miles in reserve of the territory dedicated to liberty. With an equality
of representation in the Senate of the United States, and a firm hold of
all the branches of the Government, the prospect of the oligarchy for
success was brilliant. In every nation the aristocracy first gets
possession, organizes first, and proceeds deliberately to seize and
administer the government. The people are always unsuspicious, slow,
late in organizing, and seem to blunder into success or be led to it by
a Providence higher than themselves. In this Government the slave
aristocracy first consolidated, and in 1820 appeared boldly on the
arena, claiming the superiority, and threatening ruin to the republic in
the event of the failure of their plans. It had managed so well that
there was now no division in its ranks, and for the last forty years has
moved forward in solid column to repeated assaults on liberty.

The people, as usual, did not suspect the existence of this concentrated
power till 1820. They made a brave militia fight then against the
aristocracy, and compelled it to acknowledge a drawn battle by the
admission of Maine to balance Missouri, and the establishment of a line
of compromise, which would leave all territory north of 36 deg. 30'
consecrated to freedom. The Slave Power submitted with anger, intending
to break the bargain as soon as it was strong enough, and continued on
its relentless struggle for power. It determined to gain possession of
the Senate of the United States; make it a house of nobles; control
through it the foreign policy, the Executive, and the Supreme Court;
and, with this advantage, reckoned it could always manage the House of
Representatives and govern the nation. The key to all the politi