Speech by J. A. McClernand on California Admission and Wilmot Proviso

We are told that the Wilmot Proviso was the hallowed means of rescuing our extensive and valuable territories from the blighting spread of slavery. However, the facts suggest otherwise. Slavery has not actually spread at all during the existence of this government. On the contrary, it has contracted the sphere of its existence, and in many places, it has totally or virtually disappeared. It has disappeared in seven out of the twelve states in which it existed contemporaneously with the formation of this government. It has disappeared in the six new states of the Northwest, and it is now lingering only in Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, where it is likely to disappear at no very distant day.

Slavery is an institution or relation of force, recognized by habit and prescription, which must sooner or later disappear wherever it exists, under the progressive operation of benignant causes. Like many other evils, it must eventually correct itself. In this light, one might ask whether it was not in the spirit of this divine truth that the holy Apostle of Christ taught the familiar precepts.

The fact is that slavery has been contracting, not expanding, under the influence of the present government. It has not spread to the new territories, and there is no reason to believe that it will. The Wilmot Proviso, therefore, was not necessary to prevent the spread of slavery. It was, in fact, a mere abstraction, a political device, a means of agitation, and not a measure of real practical utility.

Moreover, the proviso was not only unnecessary, but it was also unconstitutional. The Constitution expressly recognizes the existence of slavery, and it provides for its protection in certain cases. To prohibit its introduction into the new territories would be a violation of the Constitution, and an invasion of the rights of the slaveholding states.

In conclusion, the Wilmot Proviso was not only unnecessary and unconstitutional, but it was also a source of agitation and discord. It has contributed to the sectional strife and alienation which have so long distracted the country, and which have at length brought us to the verge of civil war. It is time that this agitation should cease, and that the country should return to the principles of the Constitution, and the spirit of mutual forbearance and conciliation which characterized the founders of the Republic.

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