Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1845-1853.] A "BLOW STRUCK FOR FREEDOM."

205

day, every member from the State of New York voting in
its favor. It went to the Senate late that night. The following day was Sunday. On Monday morning the bill was
taken up in the Senate, but no vote was had; Mr. Davis, of
Massachusetts, having spoken against it until the hour for
adjournment sine die arrived.
To understand the issue presented by the Wilmot Proviso
it must be observed that its advocates sustained it on the distinct ground that, as slavery had been abolished throughout
the Mexican Republic, the acquisition of territory without
prohibiting slavery would, on the theory asserted by the
Southern States, lead to its restoration where it had ceased
to exist, and make the United States responsible for its extension to districts in which universal freedom had been
established by the fundamental law.
On the 4th of January, 1847, during the next session of
Congress, a new bill, similar to the former, but increasing the
amount of the appropriation to three millions of dollars, was
brought in by Mr. Preston King, a Democratic member from
St. Lawrence County, New York. This bill, which also contained the Wilmot Proviso, passed the House of Representatives,* all the New York representatives, with a single exception, voting for it. When the bill reached the Senate an at* On the passage of the bill in the House of Representatives, Mr. John
Van Buren wrote to General Dix in this vigorous strain, anent the look
of things at the capital:
"I have been suffering for some days with a lame arm from rheumatism, and cannot therefore write you at length as I should wish. But I
am so rejoiced at the passage of Wilmot's Proviso that I cannot help
congratulating you on it. Our friends have stood nobly up to this great
blow struck for freedom. How helpless and contemptible the administration have become! Polk's consolidation of the party by throwing all
the honest men overboard has resulted as might have been expected.
Calhoun's speech is very able and very treasonable. I think General
Jackson would have hung him if he had been in Washington as President. Such an exposure and exaggeration of the weakness of our country for the benefit of an enemy in time of war is unparalleled."