In order to emphasize to Congress that Illinois would be a free state, the legislature passed in January 1818 a bill that would both abolish Illinois' "indentured servant" system of "de facto" slavery, and prohibit Illinois' future Constitution from reinstating it. Governor Edwards issued his only veto to send the bill back to the legislature, and it was never revised. He made his objections on constitutional grounds, but he also had a conflict of interest as the owner of several enslaved people himself.