During the American Civil War, Julian called for arming blacks and for their enlistment as Union soldiers. In 1864, during the Thirty-eighth Congress, he was unsuccessful in his effort to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. (It was tabled by a 66 to 51 vote, but a similar bill became law two years later.) Julian also challenged the pleas that called for the war to be fought within constitutional limits. Taking the House floor to counter "the never-ending gabble about the sacredness of the Constitution," Julian told his colleagues, "It will not be forgotten that the red-handed murderers and thieves who sete this rebellion on foot went out of the Union yelping for the Constitution which they had conspired to overthrow by the blackest perjury and treason that ever contronted the Almighty."