Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/339

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The Charleston News and Courier of Wednesday published the following letter from Gen Wade Hampton and addressed to the editor of that paper:

"My Dear Sir: In the News and Courier of November 10 is an appreciative tribute to General Lee by Mr. Hanckel, which I have read with interest and pleasure, but the writer has fallen into an error which I am able to correct on the authority of General Lee himself. Mr. Hanckel intimates that General Lee felt embarrassed in determining the course he would take when the war between the States took place, but in this he is mistaken. He did not hesitate for a moment, and while, like many of us who followed him, he doubtless regretted the war and doubted the wisdom of it he felt that his duty demanded that he should give his services to his native State, and he never for a moment regretted that he had followed the dictates of duty. He once said that duty was the sublimest word in our language, and if there was ever man whose every action was prompted by a sense of duty he surely was that man.

"Some time after the close of the war I had the pleasure of spending several days with the General at his home in Lexington, and once while discussing the war he said: 'I did only what my duty demanded. I could have taken no other course without dishonor, and if it was all to do over I should act precisely as I did.'

"It was his intention to write a history of the war, but, unfortunately for the South and for the truth of history, death cut short his work. But he had commenced the work, in which he began by speaking of the difference of opinion as to the true construction of the Constitution and how those opposing views