The Wilmot Proviso was an amendment put before the house of representatives in 1846. David Wilmot proposed the amended that non of the territory acquired in the Mexican war should be open to slavery. This was another factor that added to the animosity between north and south, regarding slavery and the new territory that was to be claimed. Whitman openly supported the Wilmot Proviso and the free soil movement in his editorials that he put out.
Whitman, would very much agree with this amendment. In his poem, Song of Myself, he talks about housing a run away slave, feeding and caring for him and sharing his home. Whitman held no shame in helping a slave and contributed to the slave's journey north into new territory where he could be free.
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