The bill passed the Senate July 22, 1861. In the House it was amended so as to limit the negroes to be freed more strictly to those employed in military service.[319] The bill went back to the Senate, which concurred in the amendment,[320] and it received the signature of the President, August 6, 1861.[321] [Sidenote: The Emancipation Proclamation.] =§ 91. Confiscation provisions extended.=--Propositions more far reaching were introduced into the Senate in the session of 1861-62.[322] January 15, 1862, Mr. Trumbull, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to whom the various propositions had been referred, reported an original bill, and asked that the committee be discharged from the consideration of others.[323] March 14, 1862, Mr. Harris introduced into the Senate a bill to confiscate the property of rebels and for other purposes.[324] These propositions were considered at length, but never came to a vote. It is not necessary to enter here into the discussion of confiscations and of the constitutional right of Congress to free the slaves; in most of the bills there was a provision against the return of slaves to disloyal masters. The Harris bill declared that, before any order for the surrender of fugitives should be given, the claimant must establish not only his title to the slave, as was then provided by law, but also that he is and has been loyal to the United States during the Rebellion. Mr. Pomeroy objected to this because it would make it "obligatory on the government of the United States to surrender a person claimed to be indebted to another for service or labor, if the claimant proves that he is loyal to the government. Would not this re-enact the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850?"[325] An amendment was therefore adopted which so changed the law that any reference to the act of 1850 was avoided.[326] After several debates the proposition was recommitted, May 6.[327] Mr. Clark reported a bill, May 14, which retained the provision in regard to fugitives as at first offered.[328] In the House, resolutions on confiscation and emancipation were offered on the first day of the session, but the final action was based upon one of several bills introduced by Mr. Eliot, May 14, 1862.[329] His first bill, upon the confiscation of the property of the rebels, need not be followed out here; but the second bill provided for the emancipation of the slaves of disloyal masters, and forbade their return as fugitives. After various recommitments[330] a bill was brought in, according to which, in any suit brought by a claimant to recover the possession of slaves to enforce such service or labor, it was to be a sufficient bar to allege and prove that the master was disloyal to the government.[331] The bill then passed the House by a vote of 82 to 54.[332]