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Interview This Week In Black History

August 8: Wilmot Proviso became known globally

August 8: Wilmot Proviso became known globally
  • PublishedAugust 8, 2020

August 8, 1846: The Wilmot Proviso became globally known.

On August 8 Wilmot Proviso, in U.S. history, is an important congressional proposal in the 1840s to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories, a basic plan upon which the Republican Party was subsequently built. Soon after the Mexican War, Pres. James K. Polk asked Congress for $2,000,000 to negotiate peace and settle the boundary with Mexico.

On behalf of anti-slavery forces throughout the country, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania named David Wilmot offered an amendment (August 8, 1846) to the bill forbidding slavery in the new territory, thus precipitating bitter national debate in an atmosphere of heightening sectional conflict.

Despite repeated attempts, the Wilmot Proviso was never passed by both Houses of Congress. But out of the attempt by both Democrats and Whigs to subordinate or compromise the slavery issue grew the Republican Party, founded in 1854, which specifically supported the Wilmot principle.

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Written By
Africh Royale

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