Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/142

138 If Mrs. Lee's conversation, as above supposed, was really the source of Dr. Jones' assertion concerning the Duty Sentence, this would explain the strange indefiniteness of the phrase "to his son"; and the positiveness of his statement, for which he was unwilling to give Mrs. Lee as his authority. But every lawyer knows the danger of such evidence. Dr. Jones may not have remembered Mrs. Lee's precise words. He may not have understood her correctly, and may have taken her words more strongly than she intended. It is not likely that Mrs. Lee would have declared that General Lee did write such a sentence, unless she had more definite knowledge than is indicated by the vague description, "to his son."

But apart from Dr. Jones' assertion (whatever may have been its authority), the question recurs: May not General Lee have written the Duty Sentence, in some letter, to somebody? Undoubtedly he may have done so; and so may Stonewall Jackson or Jefferson Davis; and so may any other man of high character and devotion to duty. It is, of course, impossible to prove a negative. But it must be remembered that when The Duty