Motive For Acquiring Territory. The Wilmot Proviso.

and Mr. Trist was appointed by the President to conduct them on the part of the United States. The Mexican Commissioners were instructed to procure a stipulation, by which " The United States shall engage not to permit slavery in that part of the tenitory which they may ac- quire by treaty." It is to be presumed that Mr. Trist was well acquainted with the views of the Cabinet at Washington, on this subject. In an official despatch to the Secretary of State, of 4th September, 1847, he thus describes his conference with the Mexican Commissioners, on this point of their instructions :—" In the course of their remarks on this subject (exckision of slaveiy), I was told that, if it were proposed to the people of the United States to part with a portion of their territory, in order that the inquisition should be therein established, the proposal could not excite stronger feelings of abhor- rence than those awakened in IMexico, by the prospect of the introduction of slavery in any territory parted with by her.