nvestigation. Nothing was heard from the
committee until the 2d of March, when on the eve of the expiration of
Congress they reported that many documents had been collected, a large
number of witnesses examined, and every practicable thing done to
reach a conclusion of the case; but that not having fully examined all
the charges preferred against the President, they did not deem it
expedient to submit any conclusion beyond the statement that sufficient
testimony had been brought to the committee's notice to justify and
demand a further prosecution of the investigation. They therefore
passed the testimony they had taken into the custody of the Clerk of
the House, as a notification to the succeeding Congress that inquiry
into the matter should be pursued. The report was made by Mr. James
F. Wilson of Iowa, chairman of the committee, and concurred in by all
the Republican members. Mr. Rogers, a Democratic member from New
Jersey, made a minority report, stating that he had carefully examined
all the testimony in the case; that there was not one particle of
evidence to sustain any of the charges which had been made; that the
case was entirely void of proof; and that most of the testimony taken
was of a secondary character, such as could not be admitted in any
court of justice. He objected to continuing the subject and thereby
keeping the country in a feverish state. No action was taken by the
House except to lay both reports upon the table.

There was on the part of conservative Republicans a sincere hope that
nothing more would be heard of the Impeachment question. If a
committee industriously at work for sixty days could find nothing on
which to found charges against the President, they thought that
wisdom suggested the abandonment of the investigation. But Mr. Ashley,
with his well-known persistency, was determined to pursue it; and on
the 7th of March, the third day after the new Congress was organized,
he introduced a resolution directing the Judicial Committee to continue
the investigation under the same instructions as in the preceding
Congress, with the additional power to sit during the recess. Mr.
Ashley expressed the hope that "this Congress will not hesitate to do
its duty because the timid in our own ranks hesitate, but will
proceed to the discharge of the high and important trust imposed upon
it, uninfluenced by passion and unawed by fear." He was answered
with indignation by Mr. Brooks and Mr. Fernan