USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War .

Detailed explanation-2: -Laws require the approval of both houses of Congress, however. The Senate, equally divided between free states and slave states could not muster the majority necessary for approval. Angrily the House passed Wilmot’s Proviso several times, all to no avail. It would never become law.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 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.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Wilmot Proviso was dead in three days. It passed twice in the U.S. House of Representatives where Northerners had the majority. But it failed in the U.S. Senate where there was an equal amount of support for the free states and the slave states.

Detailed explanation-5: -While only a short episode in American politics, the Wilmot Proviso provides insight into anti-slavery positions among northerners and reopened debates about slavery in the territories which had lasting effects on the larger American political landscape.