By another strict party vote the House authorized the Speaker to appoint a committee to acquaint the Senate with its resolution to impeach the President before that body, and another committee to draw up the articles of impeachment. The Speaker, Mr. Colfax, appointed Mr. Stevens and Mr. Bingham to constitute the first committee, and Mr. Boutwell, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Bingham, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Logan, Mr. Julian and Mr. Ward to constitute the second. This committee immediately set about its work, and on the 29th was ready to report. [Sidenote: The withdrawal of Stanton's complaint against Thomas.] Meanwhile the day for General Thomas to appear in court, February 26th, arrived. By this time the General had taken legal advice, and the plan of his counsel was to refuse to give further bail, allow him thus to be committed to jail, then sue out a writ of Habeas Corpus from a United States judge, and bring in this way the question of the constitutionality of the Tenure-of-Office Act to judicial determination. But Judge Cartter foiled this plan, according to the word of Judge Luke P. Poland of Vermont, who drew the complaint against Thomas, by declining to make any further order requiring bail, and on the same day Mr. Stanton withdrew the complaint, and the case was thus prevented from reaching the United States courts at all. [Sidenote: The fear of the Republicans to test the Tenure-of-Office Act before the courts.] There is little doubt that the Republicans were afraid to have the Tenure-of-Office Act tested judicially. They preferred recourse to the Court of Impeachment to settle the matter so far as President Johnson was concerned. It is true that Stanton alleged that he brought the case against Thomas in order to test judicially the right of {175} Thomas to the office of Secretary of War, and that he withdrew the complaint as superfluous after the House of Representatives had resolved to impeach the President, but that may have been a mere legal form of excuse. [Sidenote: The managers of impeachment.] Three days after this, as we have seen, the committee charged with preparing the articles of impeachment reported to the House. They were debated until March 3d, when they were adopted by a strict party vote, and the managers to conduct the prosecution were elected. They were Messrs. Bingham, Boutwell, Wilson, Butler, Williams, Logan and Stevens. [Sidenote: The charges against the President.] Disregarding the legal order and form of the eleven articles of impeachment, we may say briefly that the charges against the President were: First, that he violated the Tenure-of-Office Act in issuing an order deposing Stanton from the office of Secretary of War, and another order appointing Thomas to the office of Secretary of War _ad interim_.