The second section, giving to Congress special power to enforce this article, seems, at first, unnecessary, because according to the last paragraph of Section 8, Article I., of the Constitution, Congress is vested with the authority to make all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution all the powers vested by the {28} Constitution in any department or officer of the Government. This abolition of slavery was, however, a restriction on the "States." It laid a new limitation upon their powers, and hence it was thought that Section 8 of Article I. might not apply in the execution of such a provision against the "States." But if we regard the provision from the point of view of the rights of an individual to his freedom against any "State" law to the contrary, then we must see that the amendment does invest the United States courts with the power to impose the restriction in behalf of the individual seeking deliverance from the attempt of a "State" to enslave him or to continue his enslavement. And once the power vested in the courts to do this the general provision of Article I., Section 8, will certainly apply. The resolution offered by the Judiciary Committee passed the Senate by the requisite majority on the 8th of April, 1864. [Sidenote: The House draft.] During this same period, Mr. William Windom, of Minnesota, offered in the House of Representatives a resolution upon the subject in the identical words of the Senate's resolution. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the House, February 15, 1864. While it lay in the room of the Committee, Mr. Stevens offered a substitute for it, which read: "Slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, is forever prohibited in the United States and all its Territories." This is another bit of evidence for the proposition that what was meant by the words "or any place subject to their jurisdiction" in Mr. Trumbull's resolution was all parts of the country not enjoying "State" government in local matters. [Sidenote: Rejection of the Senate's draft in the House.] The Senate resolution was sent into the House on the {29} 31st of May, and was there lost on June 15th, having received a large majority, indeed, in its favor, but not a two-thirds majority. [Sidenote: Reconsideration of the Senate's measure in the House, and its final passage.]