er deadly designs Mr. Johnson might be suspected, there was
no man of intelligence in the United States willing to believe that
Mr. Ewing could be tempted to do an unpatriotic act, to violate the
Constitution, or to fail in executing with fidelity the laws of the
land. If the President intended to corrupt the army, as charged by
Mr. Boutwell, he had certainly chosen a singular co-laborer in the
person of Mr. Ewing. Wild rumors had been in circulation that the
President was determined to install General Thomas by military force,
and to eject Mr. Stanton with violence from the War Office which he
refused to surrender. The public uneasiness resulting from these
sensational reports was in large degree allayed, when it was announced
that the President had signified his desire that a grave and
considerate man with long-established reputation for ability and
probity should serve as Secretary of War. The surprise in the whole
matter was that the President should have selected Mr. Ewing, who, as
was known to a few friends, had earnestly advised Mr. Johnson against
removing Secretary Stanton.

The Senate however was in no mood to accept any nomination for the
War Office from President Johnson. The issue was not whether Mr.
Ewing was a judicious and trustworthy man for the vacancy, but whether
any vacancy existed. If Mr. Johnson had removed or attempted to remove
Mr. Stanton from office in an unlawful and unconstitutional manner, the
Senate, in the judgment of those who were directing its action, would
be only condoning his offense by consenting to the appointment of a
successor. Mr. Johnson's right to nominate any one was denied, and
when the name of Mr. Ewing was received it was known by all that a
committee of Representatives might at any moment appear at the bar of
the Senate to present an Impeachment against the President for
unlawfully attempting to remove Mr. Stanton. The course of the Senate
had been fully anticipated by the President and his advisers, and they
had, in their own judgment at least, obtained an advantage before the
public by so complete an abnegation of all partisan purposes as was
implied in the offer to confide the direction of the War Department to
Mr. Ewing.

The formal presentment of the charges against the President at the bar
of the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States,
and sitting as a Court of Impeachment, was made on the fifth day of
March (1868), when the House