Letter from Robert E. Lee to His Son

Arlington House, April 5, 1852

My dear son:

I am just in the act of leaving for New Mexico. My fine old regiment has been ordered to that distant region, and I must hasten to see that they are properly taken care of. I have but little to add in reply to your letter of March 26. Your letters breathe a true spirit of frankness; they have given myself and your mother great pleasure. You must study to be frank with the world, frankness is the child of honest courage. Say what you mean to do on every occasion, and take it for granted you mean to do right. If a friend should ask a favor, you should grant it, if it is possible and reasonable, if not, tell him plainly why you cannot. You will wrong him and yourself by equivocation of any kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one. The man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice. Deal kindly but firmly with all your classmates. You will find it the policy which wears best. Above all do not appear to others what you are not. If you have any fault to find with anyone, tell him, not others, of what you complain. There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back. We should live and act and say nothing to injure of any one. It is not only best as a matter of principle but it is the path to peace and honor. In regard to duty, let me in conclusion of this hasty letter, inform you that nearly a hundred years ago there was a day of remarkable gloom and darkness, still known as the dark day, a day when the light of the sun was slowly extinguished as if by an eclipse. The legislature of Connecticut was in session and as its members saw the unexpected and unaccountable darkness coming on, they shared in the general awe and terror. It was supposed by many that the day of judgment had come. Some one in the consternation of the hour moved for an adjournment. Then there arose an old patriotic legislator, Davenport of Stamford, who said that if the last day had come, he desired to be found in his place of duty, and therefore moved that candles be brought in so that the house could proceed with its duty. There was quietness in that man's mind, the quietness of heavenly wisdom, an inflexible willingness to obey his duty. Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things, like the old puritan. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less. Let not me or your mother wear one gray hair for any lack of duty on your part.

Your affectionate father,

R. E. LEE.

to G.W.Custis Lee.

Notes

• From a file prepared by Mattie S. Meadows, September 7, 1937, available online at the Library of Virginia's Virginia Historic Inventory.
• The subject document was in the possession of Belle Ragsdale Carter, widow of Scott Carter, at her home in Chatham. Apparently copies of the original had been distributed; a similar but not identical report was filed by Mabel Moses on October 5, 1937, from a document found at the home of Mrs. Pansey Easley, 11 miles southeast of Chatham.
• Early publication of the letter occurred in the New York Sun on November 25, 1864; in the Philadelphia newspaper The Press, November 29, 1864; and in the Richmond Sentinel on December 16, 1864; as well as other publications.
• “The Duty Letter,” as it became known, has been widely quoted ever since its initial publication, but its authenticity has been controversial from the outset. Professor Charles A. Graves of the Law School of the University of Virginia studed the controversy in great detail, and issued his findings in a 1914 research paper. Graves concluded that the letter was indeed a forgery, apparently accomplished by an individual who was generally familiar with Lee's personal reputation but not familiar with the details of Lee's prewar military service.
• In 1852 Robert E. Lee was a Colonel in the United States Army. That same year he was appointed Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
• At the time “The Duty Letter” letter was supposedly written, George Washington Custis Lee was nineteen years old and a second-year cadet at West Point. He later served under his father as a Major General in the Confederate army.
• Electronic formatting is by Jonathan Mitchell.
• Research assistance was provided by Henry Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell.

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