illions of dollars be
appropriated, to be "applied under the direction of the President
to any extraordinary expenses which may be incurred in our foreign
intercourse." The war was not referred to, Mexico was not named,
and the simple phraseology of the Jefferson Act of 1803 was repeated
word for word.

A very animated debate followed, in which Northern men took the
lead. Mr. Robert C. Winthrop spoke of the administration with
unwonted harshness, declaring that "it and its friends had thought
fit, during the present session, to frame more than one of these
important measures, so as to leave their opponents in a false
position whichever way they voted." . . . He "could not and would
not vote for this bill as it now stood. . . . It was a vote of
unlimited confidence in an administration in which, he was sorry
to say, there was very little confidence to be placed." Mr. John
Quincy Adams differed from Mr. Winthrop, and could not refrain from
a pardonable thrust at that gentleman for his previous vote that
"war existed by act of Mexico." He differed from his colleague,
Mr. Adams demurely affirmed, with a regret equal to that with which
he had differed from him on the bill by which war was declared.
He should not vote for this bill in any form, but suggested that
it be so amended as to specify expressly that the money is granted
for the purpose of negotiating peace with Mexico.

THE WILMOT PROVISO.

The bill was promptly modified in accordance with the desires of
Mr. Adams, and at the moment when its passage seemed secure it was
arrested by an amendment of momentous character, submitted by a
young member from Pennsylvania. David Wilmot represented a district
which had always given Democratic majorities, and was himself an
intense partisan of that political school. He was a man of strong
_physique_ and strong common sense; of phlegmatic temperament,
without any pretension to genius; a sensible speaker, with no claim
to eloquence or oratory. But he had courage, determination, and
honesty. He believed the time had come to arrest the progress and
extension of slavery. He knew that the two-million bill was urged
by the President because he wished to use the money to promote the
acquisition of territory, and he determined then and there to make
a stand in favor of free soil. He thereupon, on the 8th of August,
1846, moved a _proviso_ to the two-million bill, decl