波爾克總統提出的「威爾莫特但書」替代方案是回歸密蘇里協議的作法，該協議在1820時同意密蘇里維持奴隸制度、同時間建立的緬因州則廢除奴隸制度。

波爾克建議延伸密蘇里協議的精神，應用到往西直至太平洋岸的領土上，這樣一來在36' 30'緯度線以下的地區（現今的南加州、新墨西哥、亞利桑納州）屬於維持黑奴制度的地區，而該緯度以上的地區（現今的華盛頓、奧勒岡、愛達荷、猶他、內華達、北加州各地）則屬廢除黑奴制度的地區。奴隸制度最後是否能在新領土上繼續施行？

President Polk's alternative to the Wilmot Proviso was to fall back on the Missouri Compromise, an 1820 law that permitted Missouri to be admitted as a slave state with Maine as a free state.

Polk recommended extending the line of the Missouri Compromise west to the Pacific Ocean. That would have allowed slavery below the 36' 30' latitude line (present-day southern California, New Mexico, and Arizona) and forbid it above (present-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and the northern half of California). Was slavery ultimately allowed in the new territory?

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