He signed it on July 12, _but did not notify that fact to Congress until July 17._ On this same day of signature, July 12, Lincoln sent to Congress a proposal of an Act to give pecuniary aid in voluntary state emancipation and held a conference with the congressional representatives of the border states seeking their definite approval of his policy.

A minority agreed but the majority were emphatically against him.

The Confiscation Bill would not affect the border states; they were not in rebellion.

And they did not desire to free the slaves even if compensated[868].
Thus Lincoln, by the stubbornness of the border states, was forced toward the Congressional point of view as expressed in the Confiscation Bill.

On the day following his failure to win the border state representatives he told Seward and Welles who were driving with him, that he had come to the conclusion that the time was near for the issue of a proclamation of emancipation as a military measure fully within the competence of the President.