Chapter 46: An amendment known as the “Wilmot Proviso” shocks the South.

On August 8, 1846 first year Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot rises to propose the following amendment to a $2 million appropriations bill to fund the war.

Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of
any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any
treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive
of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall
first be duly convicted.

What’s even more alarming to the South is not only that the bill passes the House by a margin of 85-80 but that the vote follows sectional, not party lines. Northerners, be they Whigs, Democrats or Know Nothings, vote Aye by 85-0, while Southerners vote No by 80-0.

While Senate Democrats table the amendment for the time being, the damages is already done.

The Wilmot Proviso echoes the 1819 Tallmadge Amendment signaling a northern threat to oppose expansion of slavery in the west. Support will become a cause celebre across the North between 1846 and the start of the Civil War.