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.Fernando Wood of New York, and the question becoming a party issue Mr.Ashley's resolution was carried without a division after an ineffectual attempt to lay it on the table,--a motion which was sustained by only thirty-two votes.
The committee proceeded in their work during the recess of Congress, and reported the testimony on the 25th of the ensuing November (1867).
Some ninety-five witnesses had been examined, and the report of testimony covered twelve hundred octavo pages.

Much of the evidence seemed irrelevant, and that which bore directly upon the question of the President's offense fell far below the serious character assigned to it by previous rumors.

This was especially true in regard to the testimony given by General Grant.

There were secret and ominous intimations that General Grant had been approached by the President with the view of ascertaining whether, if it should be determined to constitute a Congress of Democratic members from the North and rebel members from the South (leaving the Republicans to come in or stay out as they might choose), the Army could be relied upon to sustain such a movement.

There is no doubt that many earnest Republicans were so impressed by the perverse course of President Johnson that they came to believe him capable of any atrocious act.