The Wilmot Proviso (#28)

     David Wilmot was the suggestor and the eponym of the Wilmot Proviso. This Pennsylvania Senator piggybacked off a $2,000,000 bill that was meant to resolve the Mexican-American war, adding a small statement which banned slavery in Mexico. Though he feared the addition of a pro-slave state, he supported white supremacy and once said, “Black people are inferior to Caucasians. Blacks constitute a totally distinct group; they overshadow the country with the germ... of evil.”

 

     During James K. Polk’s Presidency, David Wilmot and many others felt anger and dissatisfaction towards their President. Many perceived that Polk had a bias towards the South and compromised the North. Fueled by these fervent emotions, David Wilmot was credited as the founder of the Free Soil Party, which was a New York political rivalry that housed different views on slavery. Wilmot identified himself as a Free-Soiler and was presented as the Free Soil candidate for Speaker of the House in 1849.

 

     In his later years, David WIlmot was nominated for a cabinet position by Lincoln, but politely declined.Moreover, David Wilmot was a key component of the 1861 peace convention in Washington D.C. which was held in order to prevent the impending Civil War. Two years later, Wilmot accepted the position of judge of the Court of Claims that President Lincoln bestowed upon him. He worked as judge until his untimely death in 1868 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery, Towanda.