The President began at once to chafe under its restraint. Recognizing the Act, and following its terms, he first suspended Mr. Stanton from office, and then, in anticipation of his restoration by the Senate, made the attempt to win General Grant into surrender of the department, so as to oust Mr. Stanton and render restoration by the Senate ineffectual. Meanwhile Sheridan in Louisiana, Pope in Alabama, and Sickles in South Carolina, who, as military commanders, were carrying into the pacification of these States the energies so brilliantly displayed in the war, were pursued by the same vindictive spirit. They were removed by the President, and Rebellion throughout that whole region clapped its hands. This was done in the exercise of his power as Commander-in-Chief. At last, in unappeased rage, he openly violated the Tenure-of-Office Act, so as to bring himself under its judgment, by defiant attempt to remove Mr. Stanton from the War Department without the consent of the Senate, and the appointment of Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General of the United States, as Secretary of War _ad interim_. IMPEACHMENT AT LAST. The Grand Inquest of the nation, after sleeping on so many enormities, was awakened by this open defiance. The gauntlet was flung into its very chamber, and there it lay on the floor. The President, who had already claimed everything for the Executive with impunity, now rushed into conflict with Congress on the very ground selected in advance by the latter. The field was narrow, but sufficient. There was but one thing for the House of Representatives to do. Andrew Johnson must be impeached, or the Tenure-of-Office Act would become a dead letter, while his tyranny would receive a letter of license, and impeachment as a remedy for wrong-doing would be blotted from the Constitution. Accordingly it was resolved that the offender, whose crimes had so long escaped judgment, should be impeached. Once entered upon this work, the House of Representatives, after setting forth the removal of Mr. Stanton and the appointment of General Thomas in violation of law and Constitution, proceeded further to charge him in different forms with conspiracy wrongfully to obtain possession of the War Department; also with attempt to corrupt General Emory, and induce him to violate an Act of Congress; also with scandalous speeches, such as no President could be justified in making; concluding with a general Article setting forth attempts on his part to prevent the execution of certain Acts of Congress.