it is known. It passed the House
by a fair majority with the support of both Whigs and Democrats. At the
time of the original introduction in August, 1846, the Senate did not
vote upon the measure. Davis of Massachusetts moved its adoption but
inadvertently prolonged his speech in its favor until the hour for
adjournment. Hence there was no vote on the subject. Subsequently the
proviso in a new form again passed the House but failed of adoption in
the Senate.

During the war the Wilmot Proviso was the subject of frequent debate
in Congress and of continuous debate throughout the country until
the treaty with Mexico was signed in 1848. A vast territory had been
acquired as a result of the war, and no decision had been reached as
to whether it should remain free or be opened to settlement by
slave-owners. Another presidential election was at hand. For fully ten
years there had been ever-increasing excitement over the question of
the limitation or the extension of slavery. This had clearly become
the topic of supreme interest throughout the country, and yet the two
leading parties avoided the issue. Their own membership was divided.
Northern Democrats, many of them, were decidedly opposed to slavery
extension. Southern Whigs with equal intensity favored the extension of
slavery into the new territory. The platforms of the two parties were
silent on the subject. The Whigs nominated Taylor, a Southern general
who had never voted their party ticket, but they made no formal
declaration of principles. The Democrats repeated with colorless
additions their platforms of 1840 anti 1844 and sought to win the
election with a Northern man, Lewis Cass of Michigan, as candidate.

There was, therefore, a clear field for a party having fully defined
views to express on a topic of commanding interest. The cleavage in the
Democratic party already begun by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso was
farther promoted by a factional division of New York Democrats. Martin
Van Buren became the leader of the liberal faction, the "Barnburners,"
who nominated him for President at a convention at Utica. The spirit of
independence now seized disaffected Whigs and Democrats everywhere
in the North and Northwest. Men of anti-slavery proclivities held
nonpartizan meetings and conventions. The movement finally culminated
in the famous Buffalo convention which gave birth to the Freesoil party.
The delegates of all political persuasions united on the one prin