It gradually forced negro slavery from three middle states, and then began to march its armies of emigration towards the Pacific. It compelled the national government to consecrate to liberty the area of five great states in the northwest. It created a new power in central and western New York, which confirmed the policy of the Empire State. It formed the civilization of the five northwestern states east of the Mississippi. When a new empire was brought in by the Louisiana purchase, it rallied its forces and secured the territory north of the Missouri Compromise Line, from which it already has fashioned three great states. It scaled the Rocky Mountains and covered Oregon and Washington with the proviso of freedom. And when the second vast empire was annexed to the national domain, it swept along its border and consecrated the whole Pacific coast to liberty. The idea of society founded on civil and religious liberty for all men has laid the foundation of eighteen American states, containing, in 1860, 18,000,000 of people; the best commonwealths that were ever created in a time so brief. It has also, in less degree, influenced the rising confederacy of the Canadas, and is slowly preparing that vast region for self-government. It has diverted a large emigration from the Southern States, of men attracted by the hopes and opportunities of free society. Its possessions stretch from the northeastern coast of the Atlantic with southwesterly inclination to the southern shores of the Pacific, nearing the lower extremity of North America.