Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/139

 word in the English [should be 'our'] language,' did occur in a letter to his son." And this positive affirmation, both as to the spuriousness of The Duty Letter, and the genuineness of the Duty Sentence, is repeated by Dr. Jones in "Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee," published in 1906. (See page 436).

It is a remarkable fact that neither in his first book concerning General Lee, published in 1874, nor in the second, published in 1906, thirty-two years later, does Dr. Jones give any reason, whatever, for pronouncing The Duty Letter "unquestionably spurious," or any authority for his emphatic statement that the expression, "Duty, then, is the sublimest word in our language," "did occur in a letter to his son." And yet he must have known, when he published his second book, that many had refused to accept his ipse dixit as to the spuriousness of The Duty Letter; and that those who relied on his assurance of the genuineness of the Duty Sentence, yet longed "to make assurance doubly sure" by being told when the letter containing this precious sentence was written, to which son (General Lee had three sons), and with what context. On all these matters, in both his books, Dr. Jones is as silent as the grave.