The House refused to concur in the Senate's amendment, and the Senate adhered, therefore a committee of conference was appointed. In the meantime, the House had been debating the Missouri bill, and pending the conference it was passed by a vote of 93 to 84 with a clause prohibiting the further introduction of slaves. When this bill went to the Senate, the prohibition was stricken out and the Thomas proviso attached, and it was then passed and returned to the House. The Committee of Conference at the same time reported recommending that the Senate recede from its amendment to the Maine bill and that the House pass the Missouri bill as amended by the Senate. The House agreed to the amendment to the Missouri bill, striking out the clause for prohibiting slavery, by a vote of 90 to 87, and to that inserting the Thomas proviso, by a vote of 134 to 42, 35 of the latter being Southern members who objected to the proviso as unconstitutional, and 5 being Northern men who objected because it did not go far enough. The Senate receded from its amendment to the Maine bill and both bills were thus passed. President Monroe signed the Missouri bill after much hesitation, upon having his scruples as to the constitutionality of the proviso removed, and upon being assured that the restriction as to the territories extended to them only while in the territorial condition. The bill in relation to Maine admitted that state into the Union at once, but that in regard to Missouri was a mere act enabling the people to frame a Constitution, and a joint resolution for the admission of the state after the formation of the Constitution was still necessary.