ld not only expand the size of the slave states, but also increase the power that they held in Senate, therefore assisting them in gaining control of more of the free states. To solve this problem, northern congressmen voted for a resolution to exclude slavery from the new territories, the so-called Wilmot Proviso. The Representative David Wilmot called for an amendment of the appropriations bill for the Mexican War, stating, "that, as an express and fundamental condition of the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico...neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory". This proviso, however, was not merely about the prevention of the expansion of slavery, but also about political power. Northern Democrats were more than weary of Southern domination of the party, as they were seen as placing their own interests above all else, not bothering to look out for the North. Various bills that would have given the North an advantage were defeated by Southern Democrats, and that President Polk went to war for the whole of Texas but compromised with Britain for a part of Oregon was seen as a betrayal of the North by the South. However, the bill was blocked in the Senate by the South's greater power, it consisting in 1847 of 15 slave states in contrast to the North's 14 free states. The South had provided most of the soldiers who fought in the Mexican War, and was consequently reluctant to give up the benefits of taking slavery to the new territories.
             If the Wilmot Proviso were to have be
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