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August 8,1846, President Polk, in a special message to Congress, requested "money for the adjustment of a boundary with Mexico," that is for the purchase of Mexican territory outside of Texas. A bill appropriating $2,000,000 was at once introduced in the House. David Wilmot, a Democrat, of Pennsylvania, proposed as an amendment the since famous "Wilmot Proviso," 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." The bill thus amended passed the House, but failed in the Senate. January 4, 1847, a bill appropriating $3,000,000 instead of $2,000,000 was proposed by Preston King. It passed the Senate with proviso attached, but the latter was dropped in the Senate. For a number of years the Wilmot Proviso was brought up and debated whenever new territories were to be organized. It was discussed in the case of Oregon, California, Utah and New Mexico, but was not finally established until June 9,1861, when Congress passed an act prohibiting"slavery in any territories of the United States now existing, or which may be hereafter formed or acquired."