VII.
2. The Editorial Emendation Theory.
This is the theory advanced by Mr. Montgomery Wright, of Washington, D. C. In a letter to the New York Sun, printed February 25, 1913,[1] Mr. Wright shows, for the same reasons which are given in the Repudiation Letter, of December 20, 1864, and in the letter of General Custis Lee, October 23, 1910, that General Lee could not, in 1852, have written the first two sentences of The Duty Letter.[2] But he adds: "General Lee's
- ↑ The letter of Mr. Montgomery Wright, above referred to, is noteworthy as the first publication, now extant, since the Repudiation Letter in the Richmond (Va.) Sentinel in 1864, in which the anachronism in the first two sentences of The Duty Letter was pointed out as casting doubt on its authenticity. But the Repudiation Letter was forgotten after the war until found by Mr. L. K. Gould, in May, 1913, and is now republished for the first time in this paper. The letter of General Custis Lee to the writer, dated October 23, 1910, showing that General R. E. Lee did not write the first two sentences in The Duty Letter, for the identical reasons given by Mr. Wright, is published for the first time in this paper. Dr. J. William Jones, as far back as 1874, in his "Personal Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee," pronounced The Duty Letter "undoubtedly spurious"; but no reasons were given by him in this book, nor in his second book, "Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee," published in 1906. But some time between 1874 and 1904 Dr. Jones did give reasons for his denial of the genuineness of The Duty Letter, in a published article, which the writer has not been able to find. See as to this a fuller statement hereafter.
- ↑ The occasion for Mr. Wright's letter to the Sun was the publication of The Duty Letter in that paper, on February 22, 1913, soon after the death of General Custis Lee. The Duty Letter was sent to the Sun by Mr. Robert E. Kelly, now of Jersey City, N. J., but a native of New Orleans, La. Soon after The Duty Letter appeared in the Sun, it was copied by the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, the Boston Transcript, and no doubt by other papers. Mr. Kelly states that it was published in the New Orleans Picayune, as far back as October 22, 1872, about one year after its first publication after the war, in 1871, in John Esten Cooke's "Life of General R. E. Lee." Between the dates 1871 and 1913, The Duty Leter has continued to appear, from time to time, in the public press, printed with high commendation, but with communications questioning its authenticity following hard on its publication.
As showing the intensity of feeling in the South in respect to The Duty Letter, I venture to copy, without permission, a few lines from
ing his absence from Texas. 1857 to 1860. his leave was extended several times, and in the meantime he was engaged at various times on special duty as a member of a court of inquiry at West Point in 1858, member of an equipment board in 1859, and on detached duty at Harper's Ferry in November-December, 1859." General Lee's Memorandum Book shows that he was ordered to Harper's Ferry, October 17, 1859.
