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THE WILMOT PROVISO.

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LIV.

buoyant in spirit, he never lagged behind his age; but CHAP with careful eye watched the progress of his country, and sympathized with its youthful energies.

1848.

The administration of Mr. Polk was drawing to a close. Its great event had been the Mexican war, the train for which was laid under his predecessor. The tariff of 1842, under which the industry of the country had rapidly recovered from its prostration, after an existence of four years was so modified, as to afford less pro- 1846. tection to American manufactures.

David Wilmot, a member of the House from Pennsylvania, introduced a proposition into Congress, since known as the "Wilmot Proviso," by which slavery should be prohibited in all territory obtained by treaty. The "Proviso" did not become a law, but the subject of slavery was once more brought up for discussion.

The Democratic convention met at Baltimore to nominate a candidate for the office of President. Two sets of delegates appeared from New York, both claiming to be the true representatives of the Democracy of that State.

No compromise could reconcile the parties, and the convention solved the difficulty by excluding both from its deliberations. It then proceeded to nominate Senator Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President, and General William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-President.

The delegates representing the Whig party, and those opposed to the measures of the administration, met at Philadelphia, and nominated General Zachary Taylor for President, and Millard Fillmore, of New York, for VicePresident.

One portion of the Democracy of New York accepted. the nominations of the Baltimore convention; another portion rejected them. The latter called a convention, at Buffalo of those who were opposed to the extension of slavery into free territory. They adopted a platform in

May

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June

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CHAP. favor of "Free Soil," and nominated ex-president Van Buren for the Presidency and Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams) for the Vice-Presidency.

1848.

Aug.

A spirited canvass followed, and the candidates of the Whig party were elected.

During the last year of this administration, Wisconsin was admitted into the Union as a State, and Minnesota organized as a Territory.

A new Department, that of the Interior, was created by Congress, to relieve the Secretary of the Treasury of part of his duties.

On the fifth of March, the fourth occurring on the Sabbath, the new President was inducted into office.

Mr. Polk, broken down in health, retired to his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where in a few months he was June. numbered with the dead. A man of exemplary character; he was lamented by the people.

CHAPTER LV.

TAYLOR AND FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION.

Discussion on Slavery.-Wilmot Proviso.-The Powers of the Constitution;
their Application in the Territories.-Thirty-first Congress.-President's
Message; its Recommendations.-Debate on the Omnibus Bill.-Death
of Calhoun.-Death of President Taylor.-Fillmore Inaugurated.—
The Fugitive Slave Law.-The Mormons; their Origin; Troubles;
Settlement in Utah.-A Disunion Convention.-Lopez invades Cuba.—
The Search for Sir John Franklin.-Dr. E. K. Kane.-Death of Henry
Clay; of Daniel Webster.-The Tripartite Treaty.-Presidential
Election.

LV.

GENERAL Zachary Taylor was a native of Virginia; but CHAP. when he was very young, his father removed to Kentucky, and on the frontiers of that State he spent his youth as a 1849. farmer. At the age of twenty-four he received a commission in the army from President Jefferson, and en- 1808. tered upon a career more congenial to his tastes than cultivating the soil. For forty years he was in the military service of his country; his sphere of duty was on the frontiers; and thus situated he had never even voted at an election. Honest and frank, blest with common sense and firmness of purpose, he was withal unselfish and patriotic, and uncontaminated with political intrigues. His inaugural address on taking the office of President, was brief, and confined to a declaration of general principles. His cabinet, at the head of which was John M. Clayton of Delaware, was at once confirmed by the Senate.

CHAP.

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The question of slavery had appeared under different phases. For twelve years after the passage of the Mis1820. souri Compromise, the subject had not been agitated in Congress, but now attention was drawn to it by the presentation of memorials, praying that body to abolish the slave-trade and slavery in the District of Columbia. Meantime others, who looked upon the system as an evil to be remedied at all hazards, sent through the mail to 1832. the South publications, addressed to the slave-owners themselves, and designed to influence them in favor of emancipation; but there were others who sent papers that contained engravings by no means calculated to make the slave contented with his lot. The fear was great lest the latter might become the occasion of insurrections and blood-shed. President Jackson recommended 1835. to Congress to pass a law prohibiting the use of the mail for the circulation of "incendiary publications." But the bill to that effect did not become a law. The excitement was great, both North and South: in the former sometimes developing itself in violent measures against the abolitionists; in the latter, some broke into the post-offices and destroyed the obnoxious papers, and others raised the cry of disunion, while, so embittered, had the feeling become 1836. in Congress, that for a time memorials on the subject would not be received.

Now the slavery agitation was a legacy left by the previous administration-a question which overshadowed all others, and almost exclusively engaged the attention 1846. of Congress and the nation. Three years before the Wilmot Proviso had initiated the discussion, which was fast acquiring a tone of bitterness hitherto unknown. The contents of the newspapers showed that the question had penetrated into every nook and corner of the land-in social circles and in the retirement of the fireside-all were alive to the importance of the subject at issue; the

DISCUSSION ON THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.

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emotions of a nation swayed in the storm of clashing CHAP opinions.

The annexation of Texas and the consequent war with Mexico, came to be looked upon as designed to further the interests of slavery, and to commit the nation to the policy of extending that system. Those opposed to such measures endeavored to counteract them by means of the Proviso, but that had failed to receive the sanction of Congress. With the exception of Texas proper, it was uncertain whether the newly-acquired territories would admit slavery; the indications were that they would reject it. And this feature of the controversy gave rise to another question; how to introduce the system into free territory. Would Congress subvert the law of Mexico, which had long since prohibited human bondage within her limits? That body never at any time had interfered with slavery as existing in the States, neither had it directly legislated it into free territory: the policy had rather been not to interfere with the inhabitants in deciding the question for themselves.

The last Congress, absorbed in the turmoil of the discussion, had dissolved without providing governments for the territories. To remedy this evil, President Taylor instructed the Federal officers in these territories to encourage the people to organize temporary governments for themselves.

President Polk in his last message had recommended that the Missouri Compromise line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, be extended to the Pacific, and thus leave the territory south of that line liable to be made slaveholding. Motions to that effect failed in Congress. That line had been adopted for the Louisiana territory alone, which was slave, and it made one side free, but if it was produced to the Pacific it would pass through free territory, and therefore make one side slave.

1849.

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