ition and distributed in the country
districts of the North. Sumner was ever after in great demand as a
speaker and anti-Southern agitator. He would not, however, dissolve the
Union to escape slavery; he sought rather to mobilize the forces which
the abolitionists were stirring to activity.

[Illustration: Location of Abolition Societies in 1847]

The war with Mexico came, victories were won, and the national
enthusiasm was running high when President Polk asked Congress in
August, 1846, to vote him two million dollars in order that he might
have the means of inducing Mexico to make satisfactory cessions of
territory. The Western Democrats were smarting under the sting of the
veto of their internal improvements bill, and the "people at home" were
much disappointed at the loss of half of Oregon, "given away," some
said, by a President who was only interested in "Southern policies."[6]
Jacob Brinkerhoff, who had had a quarrel with Polk about the patronage,
drew a proviso to be added to the appropriation bill, which declared
that slavery should be forever forbidden throughout the proposed
accessions of territory. Judge Wilmot, a quiet member from Pennsylvania,
was induced to offer the amendment. He awoke next day a famous man.

[Footnote 6: See chap. _VIII_, 152.]

Northern Whigs who had been compelled by popular sentiment to support
the Administration in all its war measures seized the opportunity to
vote for the proviso; of course the Northwestern Democrats, who were
dissatisfied because of other matters, took this chance to pay the
President for his neglect of them. The abolitionists who were in
politics became more active, and many orthodox, that is non-voting,
followers of Garrison changed their views and thenceforward fought in
the ranks of party organization. It was a critical time for the dominant
South. Only the conservative Senate saved the President from a second
unpopular veto. A strong popular sentiment supported the proviso
movement, and when Congress reassembled in December the determination
of the opposition to prevent the extension of slavery into the new
territory was stronger than ever. The House attached the proviso to the
appropriation bill, which came up again, and the Senate a second time
defeated the anti-slavery forces.

The South was by this time greatly excited, and Virginia, South
Carolina, and Alabama declared that the passage of the proposed
amendment would be resisted to the point of mak