It accordingly continued its work and voted on the 1st of June, by 5 to 4, that there was no evidence that would warrant impeachment; but at the earnest solicitation of the minority it kept the case open during the recess which Congress took from July to November. In this interval one member of the committee changed his vote and this change made the committee stand 5 to 4 in favor of impeachment. The report of the committee was presented by Boutwell, of Massachusetts, November 25, accompanied by a resolution that Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, chairman of the committee, submitted a minority report adverse to impeachment, and the House on the 7th of December sustained Wilson and rejected the majority report by a vote of 57 to 108. Among those voting against impeachment were Allison, Bingham, Blaine, Dawes, Poland, Spalding, and Washburne, of Illinois. On the other side were Thaddeus Stevens, B. F. Butler, and John A. Logan. On the 5th of August, the President sent to Stanton a note of three lines saying that his resignation as Secretary of War would be accepted. Stanton replied on the same day declining to resign before the next meeting of Congress. The President thereupon decided to remove him regardless of consequences, but he felt the necessity of finding somebody to take the office who would be acceptable to the country. His choice fell upon General Grant, who was perhaps the only person whose appointment under the circumstances would not have caused a disturbance. No plausible objection could be raised against him in any quarter, not even by Stanton himself. Grant reluctantly consented to accept the place. Accordingly one week after Stanton had refused to resign, the President suspended him and appointed Grant Secretary _ad interim_ and so notified Stanton. The latter had undoubtedly made plans for retaining the office in defiance of the President and was chagrined to find that a man had been appointed whom he could not resist. Although a few months earlier he had advised the President that the Tenure-of-Office Law was unconstitutional and had assisted in writing the message vetoing it on that ground, he now denied the President's power to suspend him without the consent of the Senate, but said that he yielded to superior force. He then surrendered his office to Grant. Although the usual expressions of confidence and esteem were exchanged between himself and his successor, a residue of asperity remained in the breast of the retiring Secretary, who felt that the head of the army ought not to have enabled the President to get the better of him. But as a matter of fact Grant did not want the office. He accepted it only because he feared that trouble might follow from the appointment of somebody less familiar than himself with conditions prevailing in the South.