Wilmot Proviso

A proviso is a clause in a contract where a condition is introduced.  The Wilmot Priviso was an event that lead to the Civil War.  This event would have banned slavery in territories acquired from Mexico.  It is named after Congressman David Wilmot.  It was brought to the House of Representatives in 1846 and it passed but it did not pass in the Senate since the South had a greater representation there.  It was reintroduced twice more and both failed.  Since this proposal looked to prohibit the extension of slavery, the debate over it provoked and reflected the growing separation and disagreements between the North and the South.

The Wilmot Proviso is related to Walt Whitman because he wrote about the Civil War which was a war between the North and the South.  As mentioned, the Wilmot Proviso came before the Civil War and basically solidified the disagreements between the two sides.  Whitman wrote about the war by idealizing the workmen and leaders.  He visited soldiers in hospitals and attended to their needs as he was a volunteer nurse during the Civil War.

Not knowing about the Wilmot Proviso prior to this, I feel that Whitman would have been a supporter.  In "Song of Myself" he writes about housing a slave and how illegal it is but he didn't care.