Question

What was the main goal of the wilmot proviso

Answer 1

Answer:

The Wilmot Proviso's main goal was to prohibit slavery in territories acquired after the Mexican-American War.

Explanation:

In 1846, Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania introduced the proviso as an amendment to an appropriations bill in connection with the peace treaty being negotiated with Mexico.  His amendment stipulated that any territory gained from Mexico would be free, not allowing slavery.  Wilmot's amendment passed in the House of Representatives, but was unable to get approval in the Senate.

Wilmot's reason for his proposal was not because he was defending the cause of blacks or seeking to outlaw slavery. In a speech he delivered in the House of Representatives in 1847, Wilmot said: "I make no war upon the South nor upon slavery in the South. I have no squeamish sensitiveness upon the subject of slavery, nor morbid sympathy for the slave. I plead the cause of the rights of white freemen. I would preserve for free white labor a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil, of my own race and own color, can live without the disgrace which association with Negro slavery brings upon free labor."

Answer 2

The Wilmot Proviso was designed to eliminate slavery within the land acquired as a result of the Mexican War (1846-48). Soon after the war began, President James K. Polk sought the appropriation of $2 million as part of a bill to negotiate the terms of a treaty. Fearing the addition of a pro-slave territory, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot proposed his amendment to the bill. Although the measure was blocked in the southern-dominated Senate, it enflamed the growing controversy over slavery, and its underlying principle helped bring about the formation of the Republican Party in 1854.