THE WILMOT PROVISO.

THERE are various ways of becoming famous in our day and generation. To those who desire to be much in the mouths of men there are many paths open. Some public men seek the bubble at the cannon's mouth, and ask oceans of glory for the display of a little brute courage-ask not only praise, but solid instalments of substantial pudding, for their valorous deeds; as our sorely hero-afflicted country can now bear melancholy witness. Others are satisfied with the mere notoriety attainable by noise and strength of wind, as the host of mighty men of the political stump, and the various congressional and legislative bear-gardens. Others, again, are cunning in spreading their sails to catch the wind of popular favor, blow from what quarter it may, and glide into notice and prosperity before the propitious breeze. These are they who pander to the worst passions of an excited mob; who appeal to the basest of partisan and sectarian prejudices; and who will have their path to fame lighted by the blaze of burning churches and abolition-halls. Now and then, however, we find a man of sufficient boldness and originality to attach his name to a true and right thing, and to stand by it, secure in the immortality of whatever is really true and right. Such a man is DAVID WILMOT. If his name is now mentioned more frequently than even those of the candidates for the presidency, it is because it stands wedded to a great principle of legislation, about which the whole moral force of the free States rallies, and against which the unrighteous power of slavery shrieks in illdisguised fear. Admit, then, all that is said concerning Mr. WILMOT, that he is ambitious, greedy of fame and power, disposed to start a most exciting topic to gain himself a nameadmit it all, and the simple conclusion remains, that he has chosen the surer and the better way to do it. He has had wisdom enough, reliance enough upon Truth and Righteousness, to believe that they will necessarily triumph over Falsehood and Unrighteousness, and he with them. If he has ambition, it is certainly a wise and prudent kind of it. A thousand pities that the great leader of his party in the present canvass, had not learned it from him, and not turned his back upon the principle and policy to which he was pledged by his whole position and

previous action, for the sake of a nomination. DAVID WILMOT'S ambition-if ambition he has-will show well in his manly adherence to his conviction, beside the shuffling and time-serving lust of office displayed by LEWIS CASS.

Certainly, the Wilmot Proviso has made more noise in the land than any other political topic since the Bank question became, in DANIEL WEBSTER's language, an "obsolete idea.” It has been discussed in Congress, in the newspapers, on the stump, at the street-corners, and in bar-rooms and pot-houses over the whole country, until, if it were a mere ineptitude, as are so many prominent political questions, it would have become an intolerable nuisance. But there is a great and important principle in it; its issues are not of to-day; upon its settlement hang the destinies of the great central region of our continent; it will determine, one way or another, the great question of human freedom or slavery, for a century to come. It is, therefore, no poor question of the moment,-not an idea that can become "obsolete." This makes it curious to observe how the various classes of our community approach it. Evidently, the politicians by trade have been terribly afraid of it. It comes to them like the crack of doom, raising discussions which they dread, and involving facts and considerations about which they know nothing. They would fain keep the popular mind filled with the old saws, twaddling away at the same old common-places year after year, and thus leaving Custom House and Post Office undisturbed by new ideas. The slave-holding community receive it with an unanimous clamor of denunciation, as a covert stab at the perpetuity of the "peculiar institution." But how has it been welcomed by the free hearts of our free people everywhere? As all great truths have been at first doubtingly, almost fearfully, but with a thrilling hope; then more freely; and now, when fully recognised, with a burst of enthusiastic acclamation, which no party organization can long resist. The fiat of a free people is even now being proclaimed. The Wilmot Proviso must and will be the established law of the land. The barrier is to be placed beyond which the blighting curse of human slavery cannot pass, and the virgin soil of our wide territory must become the happy dwelling place only of freemen.

The history of the Wilmot Proviso, therefore, becomes a portion of the history of the great moral and reformatory movement of the day, and, as such, claims a place upon these pages. Its full history we do not propose to write. That task must be left to abler hands, and to those who are more conversant with the details of political movements. Our object is to lay before our readers a sketch of the origin and present state of the discussion, with its probable results.

The Proviso, and with it, the political prominence of its

author,-dates but a little more than two years back. At that time, our country was engaged in a war with Mexico, the results of which could not be doubtful. There was no prospect that so feeble a power could long resist the force of our arms. policy of seizing and ultimately annexing new territory,-strongly enforced by the present Whig candidate for the presidency, under whose direction the military operations were commenced,*

The

-was openly avowed by the administration and its leading friends. It became evident that such a line of policy would eventually be carried out, and new territory added to our already wide domain, most of which would lie south of the line of the Missouri compromise, thus presenting inducements for the emigration of slave-owners. The slave territory of the Union had but recently been largely increased by the annexation of Texas. It was, therefore, natural that those whose hearts revolted at the further extension of the damning shame and curse of human bondage, should look with suspicion on this new movement in the same direction. At this moment, the Executive called upon Congress for an appropriation of money, not for the prosecution of the war, but avowedly for the purpose of enabling him to carry out this plan of acquisition. Now, or never, was the time for the friends of freedom to act. It wanted but a man to lead the movement, and that man was found in DAVID WILMOT of Pennsylvania, a member of the Democratic party, and in all other respects, a warm supporter of the administration. A bill being introduced, making the desired appropriation, he offered his famous Proviso as an amendment. It provided simply, that all the soil thus acquired should be kept sacred from human slavery. The private history of the origin of the Proviso is thus given by Mr. WILMOT in his speech at Albany, Oct. 29th, 1847.

"The occasion which called for it, arose but a few hours before the adjournment of the first session of the late Congress; which took place at 12 o'clock M. of Monday the 10th of August. On the Saturday before, the message of the President, asking that two millions be placed at his disposal, was received and read in the House of Representatives. It was the subject of general remark and speculation. That day at dinner, the conversation turned upon it; in which Robert Dale Owen of Indiana, Robert P. Dunlap of Maine, Jacob S. Yost of Pennsylvania and myself took a part. I remarked that it was clear, that the two millions asked for by the President, was to be paid, if paid at all, as the first instalment of purchase money, for large accessions of territory from Mexico to the United States: and then declared my purpose, in case Mr. M'Kay, (the chairman of the committee of ways and means,) should bring in a bill, to move an amendment, to the effect that slavery should be excluded from any territory acquired by virtue of such appropriation. Mr. Owen objected, and said he would make a speech against Governor Dunlap and Mr. Yost approved of such amendment, and advised me to adhere to my purpose. If anything of the kind had been suggested before the House took a recess for dinner, I cannot, and I have

it.

* See General Taylor's letter to General Gaines.

tried to do so, recollect it. I would not, however, say that it had not. After dinner, in front of the hotel, I had further conversation with several members. Those that I now recollect, were Mr. Grover of New York, Mr. Brinckerhoff of Ohio, and Mr. Hamlin of Maine. We agreed to advise with our northern friends generally, when we re-assembled in evening session, and if the measure met with their approbation, that it should be pressed. We did so, and so far as I heard, northern Democrats were in favor of the movement. When the Bill was introduced, or called up, several gentlemen collected together to agree upon the form and terms of the proposed amendment. I well recollect that Mr. Rathbun, Mr. King, and Mr. Grover of New York; Mr. Brinckerhoff of Ohio, Mr. Hamlin of Maine, and Judge Thompson and myself, of Pennsylvania, were of the number, if we did not constitute the entire group. Some were engaged in drafting an amendment, myself among the number, and several were submitted; all of which underwent more or less alterations at the suggestions of those taking part in the business going on. various drafts had been drawn and altered, the language in which the amendment was offered was finally agreed upon, as the result of our united labors. It is but justice to Mr. Owen to say, that at no time did he object to the principle involved in the Proviso, but ever declared himself in its favor."

After

Very little opposition was at first made to the amendment. It passed the House of Representatives, and was carried to the Senate almost at the last hour of its session. Had that body been able to act upon it then, it is probable that it would have passed there also, and all this turmoil been saved. Before the next session, however, the slave-power had time to array its forces and prepare itself for the contest. Since then, the discussion has been violently conducted over the whole country. Unfortunately, the approach of a presidential election offered opportunities of preventing the calm and disinterested arrangement of the matter. The following extract from Mr. WILMOT's speech in Congress, August 3d, 1848, gives us the history of the controversy at this period, in a nutshell.

"The failure of prompt action on the part of the Senate, threw the question into the arena of party politics. It was caught up by politicians, and used as an element to combine the power of the South, and enable that section of the Union to reward, with the honors of a presidential nomination, him who should prove himself the most pliant instrument of the slave power. Through the press, in their Legislative assemblies, in State and county conventions, and in the primary meetings of the people, the voice of the united South was heard, in resolve upon resolve, declaring that she would support no man for the presidency, who did not openly repudiate the doctrine of preserving freedom in free territory. The presidency, in fact, was held up to the highest Northern bidder, and the humiliating spectacle presented to the world, of an ignominious rivalship among the leading men of the North, in a race of subserviency to Southern demands. Those who should have led in the inculcation of a sound and virtuous public sentiment, who should have been the champion of the rights of free labor, the standard-bearers in this struggle for freedom, were first and foremost in yielding to the mandates of the slave power."

This is strong language, but none the less true. The three prominent aspirants for the presidency, in the democratic party, hastened to make fair weather with the south. So long had

they been obfuscated by the atmosphere of Washington, and the twaddle of the absurd old patriarch of the "Union," that they seemed to think that all the popular favor worth having was that which ripened beneath a southern sun. Perhaps they thought they might safely rely upon that easy pliability of the north which had been so often tested by previous politicians. JAMES BUCHANAN was first in the race, and bid high indeed. In his famous, or more properly, infamous letter to the Berks County Harvest-home, be broadly reasserted the geographical Missouri compromise, which would give the greater and better portion of the new territory, hopelessly and without restriction to the dominion of slavery, forming a belt of it, from the Gulf to the Pacific, effectually stopping the southward spread of free labor. GEORGE M. DALLAS followed in his Pittsburg speech, which was an attempt to say "good Lord" and "good Devil" with the same breath. He certainly stopped short of his competitors, and did not deny the right of Congress over the subject either under the constitution or the compromise, but the recommendation to leave the whole matter with the people of the territories, when organized, was a cowardly evasion of the true issue, and a pitiable winking at the wrong. He knew that slavery, once introduced to any extent, would claim the right of possession, and that what is now simply prevention would then become practical abolition, or there could be no cure. Next came the celebrated "Nicholson letter" of LEWIS CASS, which obtained him his nomination,—a letter, broaching doctrines the most novel and surprising. The unqualified assertion that the general government has no power to legislate on the subject of slavery in its territories was never before made; it is the discovery and exclusive right of LEWIS CASS. Let no man dispute it with him. It has served him the turn he intended, but he is not done with it yet. It will cling to him like Nessus' shirt. It stands between him and the position for which he sold his fair fame. It will rise before him, like Banquo's ghost, at bed and board. It is to be the evil genius of his future life, and lead him on his way to a despised old age and an unhonored grave. The doctrine that slave-owners may carry their victims into any and every part of our now free territory, in defiance of the government and popular sentiment of the Union, and there establish a perpetual house of bondage, was, of course, well received at the south. We can imagine how grimly JOHN C. CALHOUN must have smiled to see himself outdone by this prince of the "dough-faces!" But the free north had also something to say in the matter. In New York the deep dissatisfaction began to find expression early, but by a contested claim for seats in the Baltimore Convention by two setts of delegates, the vote of that state was cast out. LEWIS CASS obtained the nomination by the favor of the slave-power. He had played