ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The preparation of this book has proceeded, perforce, without the great help that would have been found in David Wilmot's private papers. These all disappeared, either during Mrs. Wilmot's later years, or in the confused chain of administration that followed her death; and efforts made through living representatives of her family have yielded nothing. The search has therefore led through the correspondence of other men of Wilmot's time, more happily preserved in institutional or private keeping, and through the contemporary press, public documents and records, and the wide. field of related biography and history. Grateful acknowledgment is made to all who have contributed to the result here assembled-to the Librarian and the officials of the Library of Congress, for generous facilities in both reading room and manuscripts divisions; to William Tyler Page, Clerk of the House of Representatives, for the recovery of the original of the Wilmot Proviso; to the Clerk of the United States Court of Claims; to the press of the "Wilmot District," especially the Towanda Review, the Wellsboro Agitator, the Susquehanna Evening Transcript, and the Wayne County Independent, for the service of their columns and their files; to the offices of the State auditor and the State librarian, Harrisburg, and to the commissioners, treasurers and prothonotaries of Bradford, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Potter Counties and the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, for special access to, and assistance in, the use of their records; and to the Historical Societies of Montrose, Athens, and Towanda, Pennsylvania, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, for like courtesies. The publishers and the author further acknowledge the permission for the use of copyrighted material quoted in these pages, courteously granted by Messrs. Callaghan and Company, Chicago; The Century Company, New York; the Chicago Historical Asso ciation; Dodd Mead and Company, New York; Mrs. C. E. Hamlin, New York City; Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston; J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia; Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company, Boston; A. C. McClurg and Company, Chicago; The Macmillan Company, New York; the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon; Miss Helen Nicolay, Washington, D. C.; the North American, Philadelphia; and G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Personal thanks for the contribution of reminiscences or other data, and for opportunities to examine and copy letters and papers, are expressed to Hon. A. C. Fanning, Rev. Dr. Allen, Messrs. Rodney A. Mercur, William M. Spalding, and the late C. F. Heverly, and Mesdames Louis V. Piollet, Joseph Powell and Jennie Tracy Hale, of Towanda; Hon. David Cameron and Mesdames Hugh Young and Robert K. Young, of Wellsboro; Mrs. George B. Dusinberre, of Elmira; Messrs. Chester A. Garratt and Homer Greene, of Honesdale; Mr. Mortimer Lavo and Mrs. Augusta Sutton, of Bethany; Mrs. Elizabeth S. Cope, of Woodbourne; the librarian of the Public Library, Mansfield, Ohio; Dr. George W. Morris, of Philadelphia; Dr. Kerr D. Macmillan, of Aurora, N. Y.; Hon. George R. Bedford and Hon. J. B. Woodward, of Wilkesbarre; Mr. George E. Beers, of New Haven; Mr. U. G. Baker, of Susquehanna; Mrs. O. H. Kuehn, of Gitson, Mont.; and Miss Ida M. Tarbell. C. B. G. Admission to Practice and Removal to Towanda. Début as an Editor. First Political Speeches. De- votion to Martin Van Buren. Activities in Church PAGI A Plunge into the Texas Question. Member of the Committee which Organized the Smithsonian Insti- tution. Serves on Committee for Proposed Impeach- A Short Summary of the Issue. Wilmot's Appear- Wilmot's Attitude on Internal Improvements. His Polk's Scheme for Acquiring Mexican Territory. Dramatic Climax to the First Session of the Twenty- ninth Congress. The Stage and the Setting. Ex- citement Caused by the Demand for Free Soil in the New Territories. Passage of the Proviso in the House. It Is Talked to Death in the Senate. A Dif- Earlier Moves against Slavery Extension. The Jef- fersonian Ordinance of 1787. The Missouri Compro- mise. Balance of Slave and Free-Soil Power. New The Brinkerhoff Claim. The Caucus Myth. Mc- Clure's Approximate Version. Wilmot's Own Story. Confirmation by Authorities and by Internal Evidence. The Original Proviso, in Wilmot's Handwriting. X. SECOND CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN Letters to Political Associates. To James Buchanan. To Constituents. The Tariff Issue Paramount. Tri- XI. THE SECOND SESSION, AND THE REENTRY OF Wilmot's Committee Work. His Support of the Mexican War. Reappearance of Polk's Request for a Peace Appropriation. Wilmot again Attaches the A Digest of the Most Important Arguments on Both XIV. REVERBERATIONS AND REACTIONS The Proviso an Issue in State and National Politics. The Struggle, North and South. Action of Southern Conventions. Resolutions of Northern Legislatures. Formation of Wilmot Proviso Leagues. The Pro- viso a Test Question for Presidential Candidates. Replies of Buchanan, Cass and Dallas. Rise of Hos- tility toward Wilmot in the Administration and XV. OPENING OF THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS Service with Lincoln, Greeley and Horace Mann. Wilmot Proposes a Direct Tax. His Supporting Speech. Enmity of the Administration Waxes. At- tacks by Administration Organs. Comment of the XVI. CAMPAIGN FOR A THIRD TERM Wilmot's Concept of True Democracy. Speech at Tioga. Activity of Enemies in High Places. Confi- XVII. THE PROVISO IN THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS Oregon, New Mexico and California Waiting Organ- ization as Territories. Shall they be Slave or Free? The Wilmot Proviso Haunts House and Senate. Calhoun Arrays the South in Opposition. Lincoln's Advice against Compromise. Passage of the Oregon Bill Containing the Wilmot Proviso. Summary of Free-Soil Conventions of 1847-1848. Wilmot's Choice in the "Great Issue." His Speech at the Herkimer Convention, which Chase Described to Sumner as "an Event Exceeding in Sublimity and Mo- ment all Events in the History of Parties in this Country." The Utica Convention. Wilmot Repels Buchanan's Attack at Harrisburg. His Speech there. XIX. IN THE FIELD FOR FREE SOIL. Wilmot's Activities in the Campaign. Letter to Preston King. Correspondence with Martin Van Buren. Letter to Salmon P. Chase. Letter to a |