pation, in several of the
States not included in the Emancipation Proclamation, are matters of
profound gratulation. And while I do not repeat in detail what I have
heretofore so earnestly urged upon the subject, my general views remain
unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair opportunity of
AIDING THESE IMPORTANT STEPS TO A GREAT CONSUMMATION."

Mr. Lincoln's patient but persistent solicitude, his earnest and
unintermitted efforts--exercised publicly through his Messages and
speeches, and privately upon Members of Congress who called upon, or
whose presence was requested by him at the White House--in behalf of
incorporating Emancipation in the Constitution, were now to give
promise, at least, of bearing good fruit.

Measures looking to this end were submitted in both Houses of Congress
soon after its meeting, and were referred to the respective Judiciary
Committees of the same, and on the 10th of February, 1864, Mr. Trumbull
reported to the Senate, from the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he
was Chairman, a substitute Joint Resolution providing for the submission
to the States of an Amendment to the United States Constitution in the
following words:

"ART. XIII., SEC. I. Neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude, except
as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.

"SEC. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by
appropriate legislation."

This proposed Amendment came up for consideration in the Senate, on the
28th of March, and a notable debate ensued.

On the same day, in the House of Representatives, Thaddeus Stevens--with
the object perhaps of ascertaining the strength, in that Body, of the
friends of out-and-out Emancipation--offered a Resolution proposing to
the States the following Amendments to the United States Constitution:

"ART. I. Slavery and Involuntary Servitude, except for the punishment
of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, is forever
prohibited in the United States and all its Territories.

"ART. II. So much of Article four, Section two, as refers to the
delivery up of Persons held to Service or Labor, escaping into another
State, is annulled."

The test was made upon a motion to table the Resolution, which motion
was defeated by 38 yeas to 69 nays, and showed the necessity for
converting three members from the Oppositi