USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Wilmot Proviso, as it became known, would forbid the extension of slavery to any territory acquired from Mexico. The proviso caused a split among the Democrats as northerners supported it and southerners opposed it.

Detailed explanation-2: -Although the Wilmot Proviso never became law, John C. Calhoun responded to it with a series of resolutions, maintaining that any attempt to ban slavery was unconstitutional: slaves were property, and if a person wanted to take his property to another part of the country, no law could prevent him from doing so.

Detailed explanation-3: -Calhoun’s political rivalry with William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, over the pursuit of the presidency in the 1824 election, complicated Calhoun’s tenure as War Secretary.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Wilmot Proviso further divided the North and the South over the issue of slavery. Many Southerners believed that slavery should be legal everywhere in the United States. A growing number of Northerners, including many Ohioans, opposed slavery’s expansion.

Detailed explanation-5: -While a congressman from Illinois in 1846 to 1848, Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso, which, if it had been adopted, would have banned slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico.