Quarto, one page, formerly folded, in very good, clean and legible condition.
Wilmot, an Anti-Slavery Senator writes to H.
L. Scott:
“Send me as soon as possible a letter of
recommendation signed by some of our business men. I do not know that it is
necessary but I think it best.”
Written during the last months of his Senatorial term, when Wilmot “requested
and received” President Lincoln’s appointment to a federal judgeship. Lincoln
had known him well since both had been young congressmen during the
Mexican-American War, when Wilmot wrote the famous “Proviso” to prohibit
slavery in any lands acquired from Mexico. Though defeated in the Senate, that
amendment helped redraw the American political landscape, uniting northern “Free
Soil” Democrats like Wilmot with anti-slavery Whigs like Lincoln, a coalition
which later led to the birth of the new Republican Party.
David Wilmot, born in Bethany, Pennsylvania, 1814, lawyer, politician,
Congressman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, 1845-51; U.S. senator, Republican,
1861-63. A leader among the Free-Soilers post 1848 and a founder of the
Republican party, he served as president judge, 13th judicial
district of Pennsylvania, 1851-61. He is principally famous for his addition of
the “Wilmot Proviso” in the bill which appropriated funds for making peace with
Mexico, 1846. Passed by the House but defeated in the Senate, the Proviso was
intended to impede the growth of Southern power by prohibiting slavery in any
territory which might be acquired with the money thus appropriated.
Dictionary of American Biography, vol. X, section 2, p. 317; American
National Biography, vol. 23, 553-554, which notes “no Wilmot papers have
survived.”