The trial began on the 5th of March, Chief Justice Chase presiding. The President was represented by Henry Stanbery, Benjamin R. Curtis, William S. Groesbeck, William M. Evarts, and Thomas A. R. Nelson. The House managers were overmatched in point of legal ability by the President's counsel, and still more by the facts in the case. The first eight articles of impeachment were based upon the President's attempt to remove Stanton and appoint Thomas as Secretary of War _ad interim_, but inasmuch as Senator Sherman had publicly declared that Stanton, being an appointee of Lincoln, was not protected by the Tenure-of-Office Law, and that he ought to be removed anyhow if he refused to resign at the President's request, it was deemed best by the impeachers to divide the offense into two parts. So the first article related only to the removal of Stanton and the second only to the appointment of Thomas. This, it was believed, would enable Sherman to vote not guilty on the first, but guilty on the second. He could vote that the President had a perfect right to remove his Secretary of War, but no right to fill the vacancy, and that any attempt on his part to do so would be a high misdemeanor, punishable by impeachment and removal from office. And so it turned out as regarded Sherman's vote, and also that of Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, who shared Sherman's view that Stanton was not protected by the law. The ninth article charged the President with having a conversation with General Emory, who commanded the military department of Washington, and saying to him that that portion of the Army Appropriation Act, which provided that all orders relating to military affairs should be issued through the General of the Army, or the officer next in rank, and not otherwise, was unconstitutional, thus seeking to induce said Emory to violate the provisions of said act. The tenth article recited that Andrew Johnson did at certain times and places make and "deliver with a loud voice certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues and did therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress as the laws of the United States duly enacted thereby, amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled." Extracts from the speeches were embodied in this article, "by means whereof the said Andrew Johnson has brought the high office of President of the United States into contempt, ridicule, and disgrace, to the great scandal of all good citizens, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did commit, and was then and there guilty of, a high misdemeanor in office." This article was the production of General Butler.