President Polk and the

Wilmot Proviso

During the early months of the war with Mexico, President Polk prepared for a

treaty with Mexico to decide on a permanent border. He asked Congress for

2 million dollars for the negotiation efforts. Some northerners worried about

the slave expansion in the new territories gained from Mexico.

Wilmot ProvisoDavid Wilmot, a northern Democrat from Pennsylvania introduced an amendment to the negotiation treaty called the Wilmot Proviso. This amendment called for the banning of slavery in any territory that the United States might gain from Mexico.

The House of Representatives supported the Wilmot Proviso and passed it multiple times. The Senate

however continued to stall the amendment, which stalled the negotiation efforts.

President Polk straddled the fence and refused to give a definite position on the Wilmot Proviso. Polk either did not understand or refused to acknowledge the connection between expansion and slavery. He thought that the slavery debate was philosophical and should be handled when it was appropriate and after the real conflict was solved.

Polk was very goal oriented and some might argue that he had a one-track mind. To him,

the first priority was to gain the new territories and make good on his manifest

destiny campaign. He believed that determinations for how the territories were

governed (or whether or not these territories permitted slavery) should only be decided

afterwards.

When the treaty eventually passed, the Wilmot Proviso amendment was not included. Although it didn’t pass, Polk’s actions and ignorance fueled the country’s division on slavery and was a contributing factor to the formation of the Free-Soil party and eventually the Republican party.