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In fact, from Day One of the Republic, the Slave Power was assertive, aggressive, demanding, expansionist, violent and uncompromising on its own basic principles. There was to be no suggestion -- zero, zip, nada -- of abolishing slavery in the South, and every political negotiation involved questions of where slavery could, or could not, expand to.

I don't think this is entirely accurate. In the early days of the country, anti-slavery societies were more numerous in the South than the North, especially in VA.

This was during the period when slavery was not particullarly profitabe for most owners, and was assumed by pretty much everybody to be a doomed institution, and the basic discussion was about how to wind it down with the least turmoil resulting.

But after the first decade of the 19th or so, slavery was increasingly profitable, plus it drew more began moving away from their abolitionists.

Southerners more and more abandoned their original position that slavery was an immoral but necessary institution and in self-defense (as they saw it) became increasingly aggressive in insisting on the protection and expansion of slavery.

By 1850 they had indeed reached the attitudes you describe, but that was most certainly not how G. Washington or T. Jefferson or most of the contemporaries viewed things.

The peculiar part of all this is that both sides viewed themselves as only defending themselves against the aggression of their opponents. And they were both right, in a way.

Sherman Logan: "I don't think this is entirely accurate. In the early days of the country, anti-slavery societies were more numerous in the South than the North, especially in VA."

Agreed, and indeed, 1860 era slavery was different from, say, 1760s slavery and very different from 1660s slavery.
The institution and those supporting it changed considerably over the years -- and not for the better.

But I suspect there was a "moment of truth" in Thomas Jefferson's life which probably marks the turning point from Southerners' considering slavery an unnecessary evil to insisting it was a necessary and good thing.
That moment happened when Jefferson was working at his estate's financial books, adding up the numbers, and realized that his slaves not only did productive work, producing an operating profit, they also increased in value over time producing higher net worth, and they increased in numbers at a predictable rate.

Suddenly the light goes on in Jefferson's mind and he realizes: what's not to like about slavery?

This happened early in the 1800s, and the Slave Power never looked back, or revisited the question afterwards.