Early Life
David Wilmot was born in Bethany, Pennsylvania to Randall (1792–1896) and Mary Grant Wilmot (1792–1820). His father was a well to do merchant, and David’s early life was a comfortable one. He was educated at the local Beech Woods Academy and later at the Cayuga Lake Academy in Aurora, New York. Moving to Wilkes-Barre in 1832, he read law under George W. Woodward and was admitted to the bar in Bradford County, Pennsylvania in August 1834. In 1836 he married Anna Morgan and the couple had three children, none of whom survived childhood.
Wilmot practiced law for some time in Towanda, Pennsylvania and was involved in local politics as a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson. Wilmot was elected Representative from the 12th District of Pennsylvania as a Democrat in 1844. He served from 1845 until 1851, in the 29th, 30th and 31st Congresses. He initially supported the policies of President James Polk. Also, as a Representative of a largely agrarian district, he voted for the Walker Tariff of 1846 which made a moderate reduction in tariff rates. Only gradually did Wilmot come to believe that the South was dominating the national government to the detriment of the rest of the nation.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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