Michigan │ 23,940 │ 30,687 │ 10,389 ║ ―― │ 5 Indiana │ 69,907 │ 74,745 │ 8,100 ║ ―― │ 12 Illinois │ 53,047 │ 56,300 │ 15,774 ║ ―― │ 9 Wisconsin │ 13,747 │ 15,001 │ 10,418 ║ ―― │ 4 Iowa │ 11,084 │ 12,093 │ 1,126 ║ ―― │ 4 ├───────────┼───────────┼────────────╫───────┼──────── Totals │ 1,360,099 │ 1,220,544 │ 291,263 ║ 163 │ 127 ══════════════════╧═══════════╧═══════════╧════════════╩═══════╧════════ [13] By Legislature. All parties made earnest efforts to control the popular branch of Congress, and national interest naturally centred in the Wilmot district of Pennsylvania, as he was the author of the Wilmot Proviso, that was the fountain of the slavery dispute. He had been twice elected to Congress in what was then a strong Democratic district, composed of Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga, but which have been among the strongest Republican counties in the State since the organization of that party. The district had given over 2000 majority for Polk against Clay, and although Wilmot was the only member of Congress from Pennsylvania who voted for the tariff of 1846, he was re-elected in the fall of that year by a decided majority. When Van Buren was nominated, Wilmot openly declared himself as a Free-Soil Democrat, but he received the regular Democratic nomination for Congress in his district. The Cass pro-slavery Democrats bolted and nominated Jonah Brewster as a Simon-pure Democrat, and the Whigs nominated Henry W. Tracy, confidently expecting to elect him. Wilmot was triumphantly elected, receiving 8597 votes to 4795 for Tracy, Whig, and 922 for Brewster, Cass Democrat. He also nearly evenly divided the Democratic vote of Bradford and Tioga between Cass and Van Buren, giving Taylor a large plurality over Cass in the district. While the Wilmot Free-Soil Democrats bolted on the Democratic national ticket, they generally supported Morris Longstreth, the Democratic candidate for Governor, who was defeated by Johnson in October by 305 majority. The re-election of Wilmot in one of the strong Democratic districts of Pennsylvania greatly strengthened the antislavery cause throughout the country. He and his followers fell back into the regular Democratic line in 1852 in support of Pierce, and they finally severed their relations with the Democratic party in 1854, provoked by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in 1856 they carried the Northern counties of the State by large majorities for Fremont.