Wilmot Proviso
He was elected to the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congress, and served from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1849. In 1846, during the debates about the Wilmot Proviso, he proposed an amendment to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific coast. Wick feared that free blacks would flood the urban northeast. The proposal was defeated 89–54. The Wilmot Proviso passed the House and was defeated in the Senate.