The Wilmot Proviso was a legislative proposal introduced by Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot in 1846. The Wilmot Proviso stated that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any territories that were acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War: California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Wilmot Proviso was the foundation of the battle between North and South in the decades that led to the American Civil War. John C. Calhoun led the opposition to the proviso. From the Southern perspective, if slavery is banned from new territories, it would skew the balance of power.

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