compliance with the resolution. May I request to be furnished
with your views on the subject, with such suggestions as may
facilitate the object contemplated.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Wm. L. MARCY, _Secretary of War_.

_____

_Doctor Patterson to the Secretary of War._

To the Honorable
William L. MARCY, Mint of the United States,
Secretary of War. December 12, 1846.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 9th inst., regarding the execution of the Medal voted by
Congress to General Taylor, and asking me to present "my views on
the subject with such suggestions as may facilitate the object
contemplated."

I comply cheerfully with this request, and recommend the
following measures:

_First._ That a likeness of General Taylor be procured in
profile. A good daguerreotype would answer very well.

_Secondly._ That a medallion of the head and bust be made in wax,
on a plate of about four inches in diameter. Mr. Chapman, of New
York, would be competent to make it.

_Thirdly._ This being done, the remainder of the work required
for making the obverse die can be committed to Mr. Franklin
Peale, the chief coiner of the Mint. A cast is made from the
medallion in iron. This is used as a pattern, and a reduced copy
of it is cut in steel, by the action of an apparatus called a
portrait lathe, which we have in our possession here.

When the likeness is thus cut on the die, the legend is to be
struck in, and will consist, I presume, of the name and title,
MAJOR-GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR.

For the reverse, I would recommend that no emblematic design
should be attempted, but that it be composed of a wreath,
enclosing the words:

RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS
JULY 16, 1846.
PALO ALTO
MAY 8, 1846.
RESACA DE LA PALMA
MAY 9, 1846.

The medal awarded General Scott presents an example of that which
is now suggested.

For the dies thus described (hardened and polished complete), (p. 289)
Mr. Peale estimates the whole cost at $600.

For the gold medal the estimate is as follows: