WILMOT, DAVID (1814-1868), American political leader, born at Bethany, Penn., Jan. 20, 1814. He was admitted to the bar in 1834 and practised law in Towanda. He entered politics as a Democrat, served in the National House of Representatives (1845-51), and, although he favoured the Walker Tariff, the Mexican War, and other party measures, he opposed the extension of slavery. On Aug. 8, 1846, on behalf of advocates of the re striction of slavery he offered an amendment to a bill appropriat ing $2,000,000 to settle the U.S. boundary with Mexico by pur chase of land if necessary, to the effect that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said ter ritory" acquired from Mexico. The bill including the Wilmot Proviso, as the amendment was called, passed the House, but was defeated by the Senate's adjournment. In the next session a similar bill was introduced in the House and again Wilmot moved to attach his proviso. A second time it passed the House, but the
Senate refused to consider it and on the last day of the session secured the consent of the House to the unamended bill. Although the Wilmot Proviso failed in 1847, it was revived in the House again and again in the two years following; it was a formulation of the essential issue of the Civil War; out of the efforts of the Democrats and Whigs to subordinate this issue, grew the Republi can Party that definitely accepted the principle of the proviso. Wilmot supported Van Buren in 1848 and entered the Republican Party at the time of its formation. He was president judge of the 13th judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1853-61, U.S. senator in 1861-63, and judge of the U.S. court of claims in 1863-68. He died at Towanda, Penn., March 16, 1868.
See G. P. Garrison, Westward Extension (1906) ; Charles B. Going, David Wilmot, Free-Soiler (1924).