John Quincy Adams Speaks To The House

Former President John Quincy Adams also expressed his belief that the war was fundamentally an effort to expand slavery in a speech he gave before the House on May 25, 1846.

In response to such concerns, Democratic Congressman David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso, which aimed to prohibit slavery in any new territory acquired from Mexico. Wilmot's proposal did not pass Congress, but it spurred further hostility between the factions.

David Wilmot (January 20, 1814 – March 16, 1868) was a U.S. political figure. He was a sponsor and eponym of the Wilmot Proviso which aimed to ban slavery in land gained from Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. Wilmot was a Democrat, a Free Soiler, and a Republican during his political career. His opposition to slavery did not include the abolitionist position of ending slavery in the entire country, and his views on race, by today’s standards, could be classified as racist.