Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/129

Rh though suggested by General Custis Lee and Captain McCabe, and affirmed by Pr. Jones, must, I think, be rejected.

We have now seen the evidence tending to show that General Lee did not write The Duty Letter; and with this, perhaps, the discussion might close. But the question presses, if General Lee did not write The Duty Letter, who did? Somebody wrote it. What was his motive?

This is the region of conjecture, but I believe proper inferences from known facts will disclose both the forger and his motive.

The Duty Letter was published, as has been stated, in the New York Sun, November 26, 1864, with this introduction, written by the forger, or else by the editor on information supplied by him: "The original of the following private letter, from General Lee to his son, was found at Arlington House, and is interesting as illustrating a phase in his character." Now, it is rare that a lie is all a lie; usually it has some basis of truth. In this case, while no letter of General Lee was "found at Arlington House" of which The Duty Letter was a true copy, yet letters of General Lee were found there which suggested the literary imposture (for that is all it was), furnished the topics discussed, and served as models of General Lee's sententious and aphoristic style, otherwise unknown to the fabricator. This assumes (1)