General Lee was at Petersburg, only 22 miles from Richmond. He could easily have been consulted, personally or by letter. Can it be believed that this was not done?
But if General Lee did not give his express assent to the Repudiation Letter surely he knew of it, and acquiesced in it. He was an assiduous reader of the newspapers Northern and Southern, as, indeed, was his duty. He was in winter quarters, an hour's ride by rail from Richmond. On December 14, 1864, only two days before the publication of The Duty Letter in the Sentinel, and six days before its repudiation in the same paper. General Lee wrote to President Davis: "Everything at this time is quiet in the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina."
Both the Whig and the Sentinel were small papers; and the Repudiation Letter in the Sentinel was accompanied by extended comment. How could General Lee have failed to see The Duty Letter in the Whig and Sentinel, and its commendation and final repudiation in the Sentinel? And if he had overlooked all of these, would they not have been brought to his attention by some member of his staff, or certainly by some member of his family? In December, 1864, Mrs. Lee and her three daughters were residing in Richmond. General Custis Lee was stationed in Richmond. There were other Lees in the vicinity, officers in the Confederate army. How could General Lee have remained ignorant of The Duty Letter, and of its repudiation? And if he knew of the repudiation, and passed it by in silence, did he not acquiesce in the repudiation? And can it not be claimed that The Duty Letter was repudiated by General Lee himself? And this explains why it has always been repudiated by the Lee family.
Another consideration which tends strongly to prove that the "source entitled to know" was so close to General Lee as to be virtually himself, is the conduct of the editor of the Sentinel on the receipt of the Repudiation Letter. He had uttered an "exceeding bitter cry," when he found that he was "stung." He knew the "source entitled to know" (though we can only guess), and did not doubt or question. The psychology of this
