[2] The bill was introduced as the War Aims Resolution, but it became better known for its sponsors Representative John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, both slaveholders.
Both houses of Congress passed this resolution days after the First Battle of Bull Run made it clear that the war would not end quickly.
The resolution intended to retain the loyalty of Unionists in the slave-holding border states, as well as reassure Northerners who would fight to save the Union but not to free the slaves.
Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, an abolitionist, had opposed the bill when it was introduced on the grounds that, in war, Congress and the President had the right to take “any step which would subdue the enemy,” but he abstained from voting on the measure.
[3] The resolution was introduced on July 19, 1861, as troops massed at Manassas Junction, Virginia, about 25 miles from Washington, two days before the Battle of Bull Run.
[7] The second branch read: "That in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.
[8] A motion was brought to expel Powell, but was defeated, in part due to a defense given by Illinois Senator Trumbull.