New York and other Atlantic ports. The city is well laid out. Among the prominent structures are the United States Government building, the city hall, the county court-house, and the Masonic Temple. There are also Cape Fear Academy, a public library, the City and County Hospital, and the United States Marine Hospital. Wilmington is primarily a commercial city. Its foreign trade for the year ending June 30, 1901, aggregated $12,194,571, including exports to the value of $12,013,659. Cotton, lumber, and naval stores constitute the principal shipments. In manufacturing the city ranks fourth in the State, its various industries in the census year 1900 having $2,968,199 capital and a production valued at $2,960,028. There are lumber mills, cotton presses, cotton mills, cottonseed-oil mills, rice mills, dye works, and manufactories of fertilizers, tea chests, etc. Under the charter of 1866, the government is vested in a mayor, chosen biennially, and a unicameral council. A board of audit and finance, appointed by the State Governor, fixes salaries and controls the city finances. The subordinate administrative officials are elected by the council. Population, in 1890, 20,056; in 1900, 20,976.
Settled as ‘Newtown’ in 1730, Wilmington was incorporated in 1739 as a town under its present name. In 1743 it became the capital of the province. It was occupied by the British in 1781-82. During the Civil War it was the centre of communication between the Confederate States and foreign governments. Consult Powell (editor), Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900).
WILMINGTON. The county-seat of Clinton County, Ohio, 55 miles northeast of Cincinnati, on the Baltimore and Ohio and the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley railroads (Map: Ohio, C 7). It is the seat of Wilmington College (Friends), opened in 1870. Farming is the leading industry of the surrounding country, and the city manufactures auger bits, bridge work, bentwood products, furnaces, and butter. Population, in 1890, 3079; in 1900, 3613.
WIL′MOT, Alexander (1836—). A British colonial official, born at Edinburgh, and educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. For many years he served in various offices in Cape Colony, and in 1889 became a member of the Legislative Council. In politics he adhered to the ‘Progressive’ (Rhodes) party. Among his published works are: The History of the Cape Colony (with J. C. Chase, 1869); The History of the Zulu War; The Geography of Cape Colony (1882); The Story of the Expansion of South Africa; and The History of Our Own Times in South Africa (1897-99).
WILMOT, David (1814-68). An American political leader and jurist, born in Bethany, Pa. He was admitted to the bar at Wilkes-Barre in 1834, and practiced at Towanda. In time he became prominent as a Democratic politician, and from 1845 to 1851 was a member of the National House of Representatives. Although elected as a Democrat, he opposed the extension nf slavery into the territory that it was expected the United States would acquire from Mexico, and in 1846 he moved his famous amendment, known as the Wilmot Proviso (q.v.). In 1848 he supported Van Buren for the Presidency instead of the regular Democratic candidate, and afterwards became a Republican. He was president-judge of the thirteenth district of Pennsylvania during 1853-61; was defeated as a candidate for Governor on the Republican ticket in 1857; served in the United States Senate 1861-63; and then held the office of judge of the United States Court of Claims until his death.
WILMOT, Robert Duncan (1809-91). A Canadian statesman, born at Fredericton, New Brunswick. When the boy was only five years old, the family removed to Saint John, where he was educated. After engaging in shipping, and after a short period spent in England, he entered the Parliament of his province in 1846, holding his seat down to the union of 1867. He was Mayor of Saint John (1849); Surveyor-General of New Brunswick (1851-54); Provincial Secretary (1856-57); and delegate to the colonial conference in London (1866-67). Upon the formation of the Union (1867) he was called to the Senate by royal proclamation. In 1878 he became a member of Sir John Macdonald's Ministry and Speaker of the Senate. In 1880 he resigned to become Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, a post which he held till 1885.
WILMOT PROVISO. The name applied to an amendment proposed in the United States Congress in 1840 by David Wilmot (q.v.), a Democratic Representative from Pennsylvania, to a bill appropriating money for the purchase of territory from Mexico. On August 8, 1846, President Polk sent to Congress a special message asking that body to appropriate money to be used in adjusting the boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico. In response a bill appropriating $2,000,000 was introduced in the House, and it was expected that the money would be used in buying the Mexican claims to the disputed territory. In the debate that followed, Wilmot moved an amendment which provided “that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.” This amendment was adopted in the House by a vote of 83 to 64, and the entire bill was then passed. When it was taken up in the Senate, however, Lewis, of Alabama, moved to strike out the proviso; but Davis, of Massachusetts, spoke against the motion, and continued his opposition until Congress adjourned. In the following December the President again asked for the measure, and, as most of the Northern State Legislatures had declared in favor of it, bills were soon reported in both Houses. On February 8, 1847, Wilmot again moved his proviso to one of these bills (appropriating $3,000,000 instead of the original $2,000,000), and it was again adopted, on February 15th, by a vote of 115 to 106. Meanwhile, however, the Democratic Senate had passed a similar bill without the proviso, and this bill came up before the House. That body in committee of the whole voted to amend the Senate bill by adding the proviso, but the proviso was rejected by the Senate and the bill was finally passed without it.
In the contest the pro-slavery men had naturally fought the proviso, and in the effort to preserve harmony between the Northern and Southern wings of their party the Democrats were forced to evolve the doctrine of popular
