It built up instead a growing and formidable slave class, and interest in the Union.

With the rise of giant slave interests, there followed the rise of a power devoted to their encouragement and protection.
Three far-reaching concessions the slave States obtained in the convention of 1787, viz., the right to import slaves from Africa until 1808; the rendition of fugitive slaves escaping into the free States, and the three-fifths slave representation clause of the Constitution--all of which added vastly to the security and value of this species of property, and as a consequence contributed to the slave revival.
The equality of the States in the upper branch of the National Legislature, taken in connection with the right of the slave States to count five slaves as three freemen in the apportionment of representatives to the lower House of Congress, gave the Southern section an almost immediate ascendency in the Federal Government.

To the South was thus opened by an unexpected combination of circumstances a wide avenue for the acquisition of fabulous wealth, and to Southern public men an incomparable arena for the exercise of political abilities and leadership.

An institution, which thus ministered to two of the strongest passions of mankind--avarice and ambition--was certain to excite the most intense attachment.

Its safety naturally, therefore, became among the slave class an object of prime importance.