WILMOT, David, jurist, born in Bethany, Pennsylvania, 20 January, 1814; died in Towanda, Pennsylvania, 16 March, 1868. He received an academical education at Bethany and at Aurora, New York, was admitted to the bar at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in 1834, and soon began practice at Towanda, where he afterward resided. His support of Martin Van Buren in the presidential canvass of 1836 brought him into public notice, and he was subsequently sent to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1 December, 1845, to 3 March, 1851. During the session of 1846, while a bill was pending to appropriate $2,000,000 for the purchase of a part of Mexico, he moved an amendment "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory." This, which became known as the " Wilmot proviso," passed the house, but was rejected by the senate, and gave rise to the free-soil movement. Mr. Wilmot was president-judge of the 13th district of Pennsylvania in 1853-'6l. a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1856 and 1860, acting as temporary chairman of the latter, was defeated as the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1857, and elected to the United States senate as a Republican, in place of Simon Cameron, who resigned to become secretary of war in President Lincoln's cabinet, serving from 18 March, 1861, to 3 March, 1863. In that body he was a member of the committees on pensions, claims, and foreign affairs. He was appointed by President Lincoln judge of the United States court of claims in 1863, and died in office.