paper and writing on the back from the bottom to top. It was a document complete in itself, the written record ending on the first page of the last half-sheet--thus leaving blank the remainder of that page and the whole of the obverse side; ample room for the death-warrant. To this record, but forming no part of it, the Petition, as we have said, had been affixed, but in such a manner as to be easily separable without mutilation. He must also have brought with him his official report of the trial--styled "The formal brief review of the case," which was subsequently appended to the regular Report of the Judge-Advocate-General to the Secretary of War and transmitted to the Congress in December following--because it is addressed "To the President," is dated "_July 5, 1865_," and is signed "J. Holt." It recites the verdicts and sentences; justifies its brevity by referring to "the full and exhaustive" argument of Judge Bingham; certifies to the regularity and fairness of the proceedings; and recommends the execution of the sentences; _but it makes no mention of the Petition, or any "suggestion" of mercy_. The Judge-Advocate could have anticipated no difficulty in obtaining the approval of the President, conscious as he was that the grounds of such approval were to be furnished to the President by himself. The approval being had, the fixing of the day of execution could cause no disagreement. His only possible source of embarrassment was the petition for commutation. But it would be strange, indeed, if a few apt words could not further emasculate the mild, hypothetical language in which his colleague, Bingham, had seen fit to clothe that paper. He found the President "alone," and (as he himself says) "waiting for" him, "very pale, as if just recovered from a severe illness."