gallery twenty feet higher than the body, and at least forty distant from it. Admiral Davis stood at the head and I at the foot of the coffin. No one else was in view. The effect of the picture would be general, taking in the whole scene, but not giving the features of the corpse.

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Answer before General Dix leaves Albany this p. m.

NEW YORK, April 26, 1865.

(Received 7.10 p. m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON:

Messrs. Gurney, photographers, wish me to ask you to so far modify your order to General Dix respecting the negatives taken of President Lincoln as to order him to hold them without breaking until Gurney can present to you the facts in the case. They do not intend to have the face represented.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

Get answer before 9 o'clock.

NEW YORK, April 26, 1865.

(Received 8.40 p. m.)

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

I respectfully join in Mr. Beecher's request that General Dix may postpone destroying the negatives of President Lincoln taken by Gurney & Son till they can see you.

H. J. RAYMOND.

NEW YORK, April 26, 1865.

Honorable CHARLES A. DANA,

Assistant Secretary of War:

SIR: A dispatch to General Dix directs the seizure and destruction of the photographs taken by us of President's remains. We have obtained delay until 10 o'clock in hopes of securing a revocation of the order. We shall see Mr. Beecher and Mr. Raymond, and hope the Secretary will see the propriety of waiting until all the facts are in his possession. In the meantime can you not assist us?

T. GURNEY & SON,

707 Broadway.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, April 26, 1865.

T. GURNEY & SON,

707 Broadway, New York:

The Secretary of War is of opinion that photographs of the President's remains should not have been taken without the consent of his family. In that view he ordered the plates to be seized and destroyed.