Union
Theo. Seminary.
June 2. 1866
Dr.
Sir.
On receipt of yr. last, I again communicated my wishes to Mr. Blelock:
and received on yesterday his reply, couched in courteous, and I trust,
satisfactory terms. I will quote a
part of his own words.
“We regret exceedingly that our action or that of our agents, has been
in any way distasteful to Gen.Lee. We
supposed from conversation with Mr. Niven (a valued friend) of both parties in
N. Y. and from the fact that Gen. Lee did, to a limited extent, read and correct
the MS. that our modest statement, a copy of which we enclose, and which is the
only one we have made, would not displease him.
Our agents, we perceive, have enlarged upon this to (it seems) an
unwarrantable extent. We have
however taken immediate steps to have the whole thing stopped, thoroughly, and
at once. It will, of course, take a
few days time to completely effect this; but we will do it thoroughly.”
I feel sure that Mr. Blelock may be relied upon to do this:
and, regretting exceedingly that a moment of your time or thought has
been expended on the matter, through his error; I hope that you will not find
yourself farther concerned to direct yr. valuable time to an annoyance which we
had no right to execute. My purpose
in writing now is only to show that I have done my best to comply with yr.
request in your last, and that I have, as I trust, done so with effect.
I therefore beg that you will not take the trouble to reply.
Believe me, my dear General,
Warmly
Yr. ob. servant
R. L.Dabney
Genl
R. E. Lee
Notation
on reverse in General Lee’s handwriting:
2 June 1866
Revd
R. L. Dabney
Sends
Blelocks
promise
to erase
statement
of my
endorsement
of his
life
of Jackson