Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, goes further yet. He knows what some men think of slavery, and tells them, "Very well, think so; but keep your thoughts to yourselves." He is not content with bidding the "Freest and most enlightened nation in the world," be silent on this matter: he is not content, with Mr. Badger, to declare that if an evil, it is not a sin, and to find it upheld in the Old Testament, and allowed in the New Testament; he tells us that he "regards slavery as a great moral, social, political and religious blessing--a blessing to the slave, and a blessing to the master." Thus, the issue is fairly made between the two principles. The contradiction is plain. The battle between the two is open, and in sight of the world. But this is not the first time there has been a quarrel between the idea of slavery and the idea of freedom in America. The quarrel has lasted, with an occasional truce, for more than sixty years. In six battles, slavery has been victorious over freedom. 1. In the adoption of the Constitution supporting slavery. 2. In the acquisition of Louisiana, as slave territory. 3. In the acquisition of Florida as slave territory. 4. In making the Missouri Compromise. 5. In the annexation of Texas as a slave State. 6. In the Mexican war--a war, mean and wicked, even amongst wars. Since the Revolution, there have been three instances of great national importance, in which freedom has overcome slavery; there have been three victories: 1. In prohibiting slavery from the Northwest Territory, before the adoption of the Constitution. 2. In prohibiting the slave-trade in 1808. I mean, in prohibiting the African slave-trade; the American slave-trade is still carried on in the capital of the United States. 3. The prohibition of slavery in Oregon may be regarded as a third victory, though not apparently of so much consequence as the others. Now comes another battle, and it remains to be decided whether the idea of slavery or the idea of freedom is to prevail in the territory we have conquered and stolen from Mexico. The present strife is to settle that question. Now, as before, it is a battle between freedom and slavery; one on which the material and spiritual welfare of millions of men depends; but now the difference between freedom and slavery is more clearly seen than in 1787; the consequences of each are better understood, and the sin of slavery is felt and acknowledged by a class of persons who had few representatives sixty years ago. It is a much greater triumph for slavery to prevail now, and carry its institutions into New Mexico in 1850, than it was to pass the pro-slavery provisions of the Constitution in 1787. It will be a greater sin now to extend slavery, than it was to establish it in 1620, when slaves were first brought to Virginia.