The House referred the governor’s communication and the associated documents to a joint select committee consisting of seven representatives and four senators. The House immediately selected its representatives on the joint committee, and the Senate, after voting down a motion to indefinitely postpone consideration, named its participants on December 30. On January 12, 1837, the joint select committee issued its report, which concluded with four proposed resolutions. The Senate tabled the report and proposed resolutions, but on January 13, the House referred the proposed resolutions to a select committee of five. The select committee reported back the resolutions on January 20 with an amendment to each resolution. The House Journal provides no text for these amendments. The House readily concurred in the amendments to the first and second resolutions, respectively, but the amendment to the third sparked debate and numerous amendments from the floor. Abraham Lincoln moved to amend the second clause of the amendment by inserting after the word “Congress,” the words, “unless the people of said District petition for the same.” Lincoln’s motion failed and, after amendment to the first clause, the House concurred in the third resolution as amended. The House concurred in the amendment to the fourth resolution, and adopted the resolutions of the joint select committee as amended by a vote of 77 yeas to 6 nays, with Lincoln voting nay. The Senate concurred on January 25 by a vote of 32 yeas to 0 nays. On January 30, the General Assembly delivered the report of the joint select committee and the resolutions to Governor Duncan.

The House Journal did not print the text of the final resolutions, but the resolutions as modified did not satisfy Lincoln and Daniel Stone, who issued their protest six weeks later, after the General Assembly had passed, among other important pieces of legislation, an act to move the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, and an act creating the Illinois Internal Improvement System.