As part of pending civil appropriations legislation, Senators Sumner and Buckalew had proposed amendments four days earlier that neither civil nor criminal U.S. Courts could exclude "any witness on account of color" and this had passed, 29 votes to 10.  The House took up the measure, voted down a Democratic amendment from Robert Mallory of Kentucky to allow states to decide, and then upheld the amendments by a vote of 68 votes to 48. The measure soon then became federal law.  (By John Osborne)

In the Senate, as part of the pending civil appropriations legislation, Senator Charles Sumner proposed an amendment "That in the courts of the United States there shall be no excusion of any witness on account of color." Senator Charles Buckalew added a specific reference to civil cases.  The amendments passed the Senate, 29-10.  The House passed them the following week, 68 votes to 48, and the measure became the law of the United States.  (By John Osborne)

The U.S. Senate was debating a supplementary bill on the charter for the Metropolitan and Alexandria Railroad Company when Senator Charles Sumner proposed the amendment that "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of color." The measure passed by the narrow margin of nineteen votes to seventeen, mostly Democrat, votes, and became law the following June, when the House refused to strike the amendment from the final bill by a vote of  62 to 76.  (By John Osborne) 

During a debate on a bill to pay all Union troops equally despite their race, gadfly Democrat and Kentucky U.S. Senator Garrett Davis introduced an amendment to disarm and discharge "all negroes and mulattoes in the military service of the United States." A vote on the amendment was ordered and seven Senators voted for the action and thirty against.  The full measure to treat all equally passed the U.S. Senate on April 9, 1864, and the full Congress on June 11, 1864.  (By John Osborne) 

After protracted debate and several weeks of postponements, the U.S. Senate passed a measure repealing all of the Fugitive Slave Acts then in force.  These acts had since 1793 required non-slave states under the threat of federal penalties to return all escaped slaves to their masters. Though the laws were in practical terms largely defunct due to wartime measures, Democratic opposition was fierce at times and the final vote of twenty-seven to twelve was largely along party lines.  President Lincoln signed the measure on June 28, 1864.  (By John Osborne) 

Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky, in protest of the current drive to abolish slavery by constitutional amendment, proposed in the U.S. Senate to limit what he considered to be the excessive influence of New England over national affairs.  He mooted the consolidation of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont into the one state of "North New England" and Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island into another, to be called "South New England."  He never brought the proposal to a vote and it made no progress in the Senate or elsewhere.  (By John Osborne)

In Washington, the House of Representatives voted on the joint resolution to submit to the states a constitutional amendment that would abolish slavery throughout the United States.  The Senate had recently passed the resolution but the vote in the House - 95 for, 65 against, and 23 members not voting - did not reach the required two-thirds majority and the measure failed. The House re-voted on the resolution on January 31,1865. This time it passed narrowly and the amendment was sent to the states for ratification.  (By John Osborne)

In Washington, the U.S. Senate voted on the joint resolution to submit to the states a constitutional amendment that would abolish slavery throughout the United States.  The measure easily passed with the two-thirds majority needed by a vote of 38-6.  The measure went on to the House where debate began on May 31, 1864. After initial failures to reach the required majority, the House finally voted through the measure on January 31, 1865.  (By John Osborne)

In Washington, the House of Representatives took up the joint resolution to submit to the states a constitutional amendment that would abolish slavery throughout the United States.  The Senate had recently passed the resolution but immediately Democratic Representative William Holman of Indiana objected to the measure's second reading.  The matter was put to a vote, Holman's proposal was defeated 76-55 and debate continued.  (By John Osborne)