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Mosby, John S., 1833-1916 to Alexander Spottswood Campbell

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05738 Author/Creator: Mosby, John S., 1833-1916 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Typed letter signed Date: February 25, 1909 Pagination: 5 p. : Height: 26.7 cm, Width: 20.3 cm Order a Copy

Spottswood was possibly Mosby's grandson (son of daughter May Virginia Campbell and Robert Campbell). Typed on Department of Justice stationery with the printed heading, "Carbon copy for the file". Transmits a clipping from the Times-Dispatch on an essay on Robert E. Lee by "a Northern girl." Declares that it is a fair assessment of Lee, and discusses the article at length: "...if there had been free schools in the south there would have been no war simply because an enlightened public opinion in that section would not have submitted to the rule of a slave holding oligarchy. A large majority of the white people were not slaver holders and suffered almost as much from the institution as the negro... A great deal has been said about reconstruction. I went through it all and was restive under it as anybody; but I did not run off to Canada to escape it... When the yoke was removed and I was permitted to share under the Government every privilege of a Union soldier my passion cooled and my reason resumed its sway... George Washington was guilty of treason; Benedict Arnold was guilty of treachery... it was much better for our whole country that slavery was abolished and the Union restored... I may have fought on the side that was wrong but I fought on the right side...The southern people would have abolished slavery... it is a great error to hold a soldier responsible for the merits of a cause in which he happens to fight; the side he takes is controlled by a power he cannot resist.... When I hear Confederates deny that they were guilty of treason I tell them that ... I am proud of it."

Mosby, John Singleton, 1833-1916
Campbell, Alexander Spottswood, fl. 1909
Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Washington, George, 1732-1799
Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

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