o exceed "90 to 120 days."
The proposed conquest of Mexico was so inlaid with treachery that
this prediction was justified. The Administration conspired with
the then exiled Santa Anna "not to obstruct his return to Mexico."

"It was the arrangement with Santa Anna! We to put him back in
Mexico, and he to make peace with us: of course an _agreeable peace_
. . . not without receiving a consideration: and in this case some
millions of dollars were required--not for himself, of course, but
to enable him to promote the peace at home."(59)

Accordingly, in August, 1846, before Buena Vista and other signal
successes in the war, the President asked an appropriation of
$2,000,000 to be used in promoting a peace.

But already jealousy and envy toward the generals in the field had
arisen, which culminated in President Polk offering to confer on
Senator Thomas H. Benton (of his own party) the rank of Lieutenant-
General, with full command, thus superseding the Whig Generals,
Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor, then possible Presidential
candidates.(60)

The acquisition of more territory from Mexico being no secret, a
bill for the desired appropriation precipitated, unexpectedly, a
most violent discussion of the slavery question, never again allayed
until slavery was eliminated from the Union.

A Democratic Representative from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot, who
favored the acquisition of California and New Mexico, for the
purpose of "_preserving the equilibrium of States_," and as an
offset to the already acquired slave State of Texas, which was then
expected to be soon erected into five slave States, moved, August,
1846, the following proviso to the "two million bill":

"That no part of the territory to be acquired should be open to
the introduction of slavery."

This famous "Wilmot Proviso" never became a part of any law; its
sole importance was in its frequent presentation and the violent
discussions over it.

Thus far the national wrong against Mexico had for its manifest
object the spread of slavery.

The proposition to seize Mexican territory and dedicate it to
freedom threw the advocates of slavery and the war into a frenzy,
and consternation in high circles prevailed.

The proviso was adopted in the House, but failed in the Senate.
It was, in February, 1847, again, by the House, tacked on the "three
million bill," but being struck out in the Senate, the bill passed
the House without it. But the proviso had done