_Usurpations and Aggressions of the Slave Power._--Look at the extent to which this malign influence has predominated. The Slave States are far inferior to the Free States in population, wealth, education, libraries, resources of all kinds, and yet they have taken to themselves the lion's share of honor and profit under the Constitution. They have held the Presidency for fifty-seven years, while the Free States have held it for twelve years only. But without pursuing this game of political sweepstakes, which the Slave Power has perpetually played, we present what is more important, as indicative of its spirit,--the aggressions and usurpations by which it has turned the National Government from its original character of Freedom, and prostituted it to Slavery. Here is a brief catalogue. Early in this century, when the District of Columbia was finally occupied as the National Capital, the Slave Power succeeded, in defiance of the spirit of the Constitution, and even of the express letter of one of its Amendments, in securing for Slavery, within the District, the countenance of the National Government. Until then, Slavery existed nowhere on the land within the reach and exclusive jurisdiction of this Government. It next secured for Slavery another recognition under the National Government, in the broad Territory of Louisiana, purchased from France. It next placed Slavery again under the sanction of the National Government, in the Territory of Florida, purchased from Spain. Waxing powerful, it was able, after a severe struggle, to impose terms upon the National Government, compelling it to receive Missouri into the Union with a Slaveholding Constitution. It instigated and carried on a most expensive war in Florida, mainly to recover fugitive slaves,--thus degrading the army of the United States to slave-hunters. It wrested from Mexico the Province of Texas, in order to extend Slavery, and, triumphing over all opposition, finally secured its admission into the Union with a Constitution making Slavery perpetual. It next plunged the country into unjust war with Mexico, to gain new lands for Slavery. With the meanness as well as insolence of tyranny, it compelled the National Government to abstain from acknowledging the neighbor Republic of Hayti, where slaves have become freemen, and established an independent nation. It compelled the National Government to stoop ignobly, and in vain, before the British queen, to secure compensation for slaves, who, in the exercise of the natural rights of man, had asserted and achieved their freedom on the Atlantic Ocean, and afterwards sought shelter in Bermuda. It compelled the National Government to seek the negotiation of treaties for the surrender of fugitive slaves,--thus making the Republic assert in foreign lands property in human flesh. It joined in declaring the foreign slave-trade _piracy_, but insists upon the coastwise slave-trade under the auspices of the National Government.