was delivered on the 5th and 6th of December, and Mr.
Wilson's reply immediately after Mr. Boutwell had concluded on the
second day. Both speeches were able and positive, holding the
attention of members in a marked and exceptional degree. A large
majority of the House desired the vote to be taken as soon as Mr.
Wilson had concluded; but some dilatory motions kept off the decision
until the succeeding day (December 7, 1867), when amid much excitement,
and some display of angry feeling between members, the resolution
calling for the impeachment of the President was defeated by an
overwhelming majority,--_ayes_ 57, _noes_ 108.(2) The affirmative vote
was composed entirely of Republicans, but a larger number of
Republicans were included in the negative; so that apart from any
action of the Democratic party the advocates of Impeachment were in the
minority.

By this decisive vote the project of impeaching the President was in
the public belief finally defeated. But those best acquainted with
the earnestness of purpose and the determination of the leading men,
who had persuaded themselves that the safety of the Republic depended
upon the destruction of Johnson's official power, knew that the closest
watch would be kept upon every action of the President, and if an
apparently justifying cause could be found the project of his removal
would be vigorously renewed. It is difficult to understand the
intensity of conviction which had taken possession of certain minds
on this subject--difficult to understand why the same causes and the
same reasons which operated so powerfully on certain Republicans in
favor of Impeachment, should prove so utterly inadequate to affect
others. Why should Mr. Boutwell be so decidedly on one side and Mr.
Dawes with equal firmness on the other? Why should General Schenck and
William Lawrence vote for impeachment and General Garfield and John A.
Bingham against it? Why should Thaddeus Stevens and Judge Kelley vote
in the affirmative and the four Washburns in the negative?

Geographically there was a traceable division in the vote. In New
England, usually so radical, only five members favored Impeachment.
New York gave but two votes for it and Pennsylvania gave but six.
The large majority of those who exhibited such an earnest desire to
force the issue to extremes came from the West, but even in that
section the Republicans who opposed it were nearly equal in number to
those who favored it.