David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, retired from Congress after six years of service, March 4, 1851, with his name more generally involved in the political discussion of the country than that of any other of our statesmen. He was born in Bethany, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1814, and died in Towanda, March 16, 1868. After acquiring an academic education wholly by his own efforts he was admitted to the bar in Wilkes-Barre in 1834. He at once located at Towanda, the county seat of Bradford, where he commenced his career and to which place he brought great and lasting honor. He took a leading part in the support of Van Buren for the presidency in 1836, and in 1844 he was elected to Congress from the Twelfth District, then composed of the Counties of Bradford, Susquehanna and Tioga. At that time there existed much friction with Mexico over the boundary line, also ominous signs of a determined effort to extend slavery beyond its then existing limits, tariff agitation, trouble with Great Britain in the Oregon region, and other grave questions of national import. The admission of Texas as a State, March 1, 1845, which was favored by Wilmot and his party, was followed by the war with Mexico a year later. A bill was introduced August 8, 1846, which authorized the placing of $2,000,000 at the disposal of President Polk for the purpose of negotiating peace with Mexico and the crucial hour in our history had arrived. The prospect of the erection of future slave States out of Mexican territory aroused the anti-slavery sentiment of the North, and among the most pronounced of the dozen or more anti-slavery Democrats was David Wilmot. At a conference of anti-slavery Democrats was presented what became known as the Wilmot proviso, of which the text was a repetition of the Jefferson proviso to the ordinance of 1787, except that it was framed for the present situation. The following is the full text: “Provided, that as an expressed and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of such territory, except for crime whereof the party shall be first duly convicted.” When offered by Wilmot the proviso produced the utmost consternation in the House, as many members had become alarmed at the anti-slavery sentiment in their districts. The House was in committee of the whole, and to the surprise of both sides the proviso was adopted by a vote of 83 to 64, the Democrats of the North supporting it with but three exceptions. An effort was made in the Senate to remove the proviso, but the last day of the session the gavel fell while the proviso was being debated, the first instance in which a bill was defeated by speaking against time in the Senate.