Republican resistance to this measure now ceased and the rôle of opposition was taken up by the Democrats. Powell, of Kentucky, contended that the power to suspend the writ of _habeas corpus_ was lodged in Congress exclusively and could not be delegated to the President. He raised the objection also that there was no definition of the phrase "political offenses." Trumbull agreed to strike out that phrase altogether, in which case the President would have the power to suspend the writ for all offenses, and could determine for himself which ones were political and which were non-political. As to the right of Congress to delegate its own powers to the President in analogous cases, he cited the power to borrow money, the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal, and the power to call forth the militia, all of which were lodged in Congress, but which Congress never exercised directly, but only by delegating its powers to the Executive. Senator Carlile, of Virginia, held that the writ of _habeas corpus_ ought never to be suspended in places where the courts were open. Trumbull replied that if it were not suspended in those places it could never be suspended at all, for if there were no courts open, the writ itself could not be issued. Yet the Constitution clearly contemplated the necessity of suspending it in certain conditions where it actually existed. February 23, 1863, Trumbull's substitute was agreed to by yeas 25, nays 12, and the bill was passed by 24 to 13. All of the negative votes, except two, were cast by Democrats. February 27, the Senate took up the Stevens House bill to indemnify the President and adopted a substitute proposed by Trumbull. The substitute was not adopted by the House, but a conference was asked for and agreed to by the Senate. The conferees decided to consolidate into one act the Indemnity Bill and the _Habeas Corpus_ Bill, which was still pending between the two houses. The report of the Conference Committee was presented to the Senate by Trumbull on March 2, one day before the end of the Thirty-seventh Congress. Except the financial bills, this was the most important measure of the session, and the one about which the most heat had been engendered. On the 24th of September, 1862, the President had proclaimed martial law throughout the nation as to persons discouraging enlistments or resisting the Conscription Act and had suspended the writ of _habeas corpus_ as to such persons. On the 1st of January following, he had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, of which he had given preliminary notice one hundred days before. These measures were extremely distasteful to the Democrats and especially so to those of the border slave states. The pending measure was intended to condone all former arbitrary arrests and to sanction an indefinite number in the future, although providing for speedy trials.