Efforts to impeach the President were first begun in the House on January 7, 1867, and the Judiciary Committee, to which the matter was referred, reported in March that it was unable to conclude its investigations, and it recommended a continuance of the proceedings. President Johnson now took the step that ultimately brought about his impeachment. In August, 1867, he suspended Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War; the suspension was not approved by the Senate in January, 1868, but the President, holding that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional, removed (February 21, 1868) Mr. Stanton from office and appointed Adjutant-general Lorenzo Thomas. This act was declared illegal by the Senate and a second impeachment was immediately reported in the House and adopted February 24, 1868. The House selected John A. Bingham, Geo. S. Boutwell, James F. Wilson, Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas Williams, John A. Logan and Thaddeus Stevens, all Republicans, as managers of the impeachment proceedings. The counsel for the President were no less eminent: Henry Stanbery, Benjamin R. Curtis, William M. Evarts and William S. Groesbeck. On May 11, 1868, the Senate voted thirty-five "guilty" to nineteen "not guilty," and the impeachment failed by one vote. Had the President been impeached, Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, would have become President. The result was deeply disappointing to the Republicans, and for many years there was considerable feeling against the seven Republicans who voted with the twelve Democrats against the impeachment, but lapse of time has brought about a view that the interests of the country were best served by the failure of the impeachment, not that President Johnson's policy and the action of the South under it are to be adopted, but because it is believed that the issues caused by the war were more speedily settled by the failure to impeach. So bitter was the feeling of Congress against the President, and so great was the distrust of him, that when the Thirty-ninth Congress adjourned on March 4, 1867, the Fortieth Congress convened on the same day, and a series of adjourned meetings were held during the months until December, so that the President would not have undisputed sway during the recess which usually came between March and December.