General Taylor and the Wilmot proviso

Adams, John Calvin

Wilson & Damrell, 1848.

Bound in publisher's blue wraps. 31, [1] pages. The Wilmot Proviso proposed to ban slavery territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican War.  The conflict surrounding the proviso set the stage for the American Civil War but highlighting section disputes and accelerated the collapse of the Whig party.  President Taylor (a slaveholding, Southern Whig), was initially believed to be in favor of the proviso while a candidate for the presidency.  While President, Taylor rejected the Proviso and attempted to diffuse the divide over slavery by creating slave Texas and free California.  The author, John C. Adams, an anti-slavery minister from Massachusetts, argues that the pro-slavery Taylor would not sign the Proviso. Cushing, p. 266.  From the library of Joseph K Newell (Captain Co. I, Mass. 10th Inf., GAR).  Newell's book plate on fep (Interestingly, Newell lived in Hampden Co. Mass, where I acquired this pamphlet.)