of Representatives, the grand inquest of
the nation, attended the Managers as they came to the discharge of
their solemn duty. Mr. Bingham, the chairman of the managers, read the
Articles of Impeachment against Andrew Johnson. At the conclusion of
the reading the Senate adjourned to the 13th, when the counsel of the
President appeared and asked that forty days be allowed for the
preparation of his answer to the charges. The time was regarded as
unreasonably long, and the Senate voted to adjourn until the 23d of
March, when it was expected that the President's counsel would present
his answer. The President's cause was represented by an imposing array
of ability and legal learning. The Attorney-General, Henry Stanbery,
had from an impulse of chivalric devotion resigned his post for the
purpose of defending his chief. His reputation as a lawyer was of the
first rank in the West, where for nearly forty years he had been
prominent in his profession. But though first named, on account of his
personal and official relations with the President, he was not the
leading counsel. The two men upon whom the success of the President's
cause chiefly rested were Judge Curtis and Mr. Evarts.

Benjamin R. Curtis, when he appeared in the Impeachment case, was in
the fullness of his powers, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. At
forty-one he had been appointed to the Supreme Bench of the United
States at the earnest request and warm recommendation of Mr. Webster,
then Secretary of State. Mr. Webster is reported to have said that
he had placed the people of Massachusetts under lasting obligation to
him by inducing Governor Lincoln, in 1830, to appoint Lemuel Shaw Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, a position which he honored
and adorned for thirty years. Mr. Webster thought he was doing an
equal service to the people of the entire Union when he induced the
President to call Mr. Curtis to the Supreme Bench. But judicial life
had not proved altogether agreeable to Judge Curtis, and after a
remarkable and brilliant career of six years he resigned, in October,
1857, and returned to the practice of the law--his learning increased,
his mind enriched and broadened by the grave national questions
engaging the attention of the court during the period of his service.
Thenceforward during his life no man at the bar of the United States
held higher rank. He was entirely devoted to his profession. He had
taken no interest in