General Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso.
- Creator(s):
- [Adams, John Calvin].
- Title:
- General Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso.
- Description:
- In 1846, when Congressman Lincoln was sworn in, the United States was again expanding. The Republic of Texas had just joined the Union as the twenty-eighth state, and the U.S. had its eyes on Mexican territory, hoping to take California and the land in between. The expansionist president James Polk initiated a war with Mexico, claiming that Mexico attacked first. Lincoln fell in line with the Whig Party, condemning the rationale for the Mexican-American War and endorsing the Wilmot Proviso, which would have prohibited slavery in any territories acquired from Mexico. As the above propaganda pamphlet explains, the proviso did not pass. But the Wilmot Proviso foregrounded slavery as the central issue and increased the divide between the South and the North. Lincoln’s opposition to the war made him politically unpopular in Illinois. He did not run for reelection.
- Source:
- Photograph by Vincent Dilio. Courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.
- Citation:
- [Adams, John Calvin]. General Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso. Boston: [n.p.], 1848.