Wilmot Proviso

The Wilmot Proviso was an 1846 proposal to prohibit slavery in territory acquired from Mexico. Though never enacted, it intensified conflict over slavery’s expansion.

Mexican–American War: A war between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 that transferred a vast region of western North America to the United States. The prospect of land seized from Mexico prompted David Wilmot to propose restricting slavery there.
Proviso: A clause added to a bill or other legislative measure that sets a condition or limitation. The proposal took the form of a restrictive clause attached to wartime funding legislation.
Free Soil Party: A United States political party founded in 1848 that opposed the expansion of slavery into western territories. The proviso’s supporters helped build the antislavery-expansion coalition that formed this party.
Wilmot Proviso and the Tallmadge Amendment: An 1819 proposal to restrict slavery in Missouri and gradually free enslaved people born there. Both proposals sought congressional restrictions on slavery’s expansion, but addressed different territories and moments.
David Wilmot: A Pennsylvania Democratic congressman who introduced the Wilmot Proviso in 1846. He offered the amendment that gave the proposal its name.
Congressional amendment: A proposed change to a bill considered by a chamber of the United States Congress. Wilmot sought to attach the slavery restriction to an appropriations bill through this procedure.
Compromise of 1850: A package of laws addressing slavery and territorial questions after the Mexican–American War. The compromise settled the status of some lands won from Mexico without adopting the proviso’s blanket ban.
Missouri Compromise: An 1820 agreement admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state while restricting slavery in part of the Louisiana Purchase. It was an earlier congressional effort to manage sectional conflict through a geographic slavery restriction.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: The 1848 treaty that ended the Mexican–American War and ceded a large territory to the United States. Its land cession made the question of slavery’s status in former Mexican territory urgent.
U.S. House vote on the Wilmot Proviso: The House’s consideration of the Wilmot Proviso as an amendment to wartime appropriations legislation. The House approved the proposal more than once, demonstrating its Northern support.

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