"PINKERTON" is a name associated with the discovery of crime the world over. It is a word shrouded in mystery and through it works one of the most subtle forces on the face of the earth to-day. Sixty-five years ago an unassuming man fled from Scotland to America. It was charged against him that he was a chartist. Eight years later he was in Chicago established in the detection of crime. While the distant rumbles of a Civil War were warning the nation, he went to Washington and became closely attached to President Lincoln. When a plot was organized to assassinate Lincoln in his first days of the presidency, this strange man discovered the murderous compact. It was he who, in 1861, hurriedly organized the Secret Service of the National Army and forestalled conspiracies that threatened to overthrow the Republic. In speaking of himself he once said: "Now that it is all over I am tempted to reveal the secret. I have had many intimate friends in the army and in the government. They all know Major E. J. Allen, but many of them will never know that their friend, Major Allen and Allan Pinkerton, are one and the same person." To those who knew Major Allen this picture is dedicated. It reveals Allan Pinkerton divested of all mystery, father of the great system that has literally drawn a net around the world into which all fugitive wrongdoers must eventually fall. Under the guise of Major Allen, chief of the Secret Service in the Civil War, he was passing through the camp at Antietam one September day in 1862. He was riding his favorite horse and carelessly smoking a cigar when one of Mr. Brady's men called to him to halt a moment while he took this picture.
BRADY said he always made two exposures of the same scene, sometimes with a shift of the camera which gave a slight change in the same general view. He related several interesting incidents of his early experiences in photography in America. It is generally conceded that Mr. Brady should be recognized as one of the great figures of the epoch in which he worked.
It is here my duty to record an unfortunate incident that is not unusual in the annals of art and literature. Brady's life, which seems to have been burdened with more ill luck than the ordinary lot of man, found little relief in its venerable years. Misfortune followed him to the very threshold of his last hour. He died about eight years ago in New York, with a few staunch friends, but without money, and without public recognition for his services to mankind. Since Brady's death some of those who knew and esteemed him have been interested in making a last endeavor to bring his work before the world. Mr. Taylor has worked unceasingly to accomplish this result. The late Daniel S. Lamont, Secretary of War in President Cleveland's Cabinet, was much interested. Brigadier-General A. W. Greeley, in supervisory charge of the Government collection, said: "This collection cost the United States originally the sum of $27,840, and it is a matter of general regret that these invaluable reproductions of scenes and faces connected with the late civil conflict should remain inaccessible to the general public. The features of most of the permanent actors connected with the War for the Union have been preserved in these negatives, where also are portrayed certain physical aspects of the War that are of interest and of historic value ... graphic representations of the greatest of American, if not of all, wars."
SECRET SERVICE GUIDE DIRECTING BRADY TO SCENE OF ACTION—Pointing toward the edge of the woods where General Reynolds was killed at Gettysburg in July, 1863—Brady carried his cameras onto this field
The Government, however, has stated positively that their negatives must not be exploited for commercial purposes. They are the historic treasures of the whole people and the Government has justly refused to establish a dangerous system of "special privilege" by granting permission for publication to individuals. As the property of the people the Government negatives are held in sacred trust.