Letters to Mr. Bradford

DEAR MR. BRADFORD,—
It has always been a pleasure to read your articles in the Atlantic Monthly ; in fact, it has well-nigh become a habit. So, anticipating my usual pleasurable half hour I read the article on Judah P. Benjamin which appeared in the last number of that excellent magazine.
That your point of view of Mr. Benjamin’s life-activity should differ from mine is your prerogative. That in the course of your article you should have cast a slur upon his people, —my people too, — I cannot but feel to be outrageous and improper. Writing of his having made good a large note which he indorsed for a friend, you say that it was noteworthy for a Jew; such a remark is certainly aside from the supposed object of the article, and a gratuitous reflection upon a group in American life, whose commercial standing and integrity is at least up to that of their Gentile neighbors and competitors, if not at times a little above it.
I feel certain that if you would take the trouble to look into the matter you might learn some mighty interesting things about the commercial morality of the Jew. I should like you to inquire into the Nipissing incident, in which the Guggenheims — now so prominent in public denunciations — showed a standard of commerical integrity rare in Wall Street or in any other financial quarter. I could tell you of an incident here in this city of an old Jewish money-broker who sacrificed a quarter of a million dollars to his sense of loyalty to a firm in difficulties, who at one time had been trusted clients. I might add several personal experiences, not least of which was the act of a small tailor, whose son I have the honor to be, who paid out the small — yet to him princely sum—of five thousand dollars rather than allow paper to be dishonored which bore his name as guarantor. And I am sure this list could be extended indefinitely.
I feel certain that, with the general prejudice prevailing even in such minds as yours against the Jew, had he not treated his customers and clients in the business and financial world honorably he never would have attained the position he holds in those circles to-day. Jacob Schiff is still spoken of as the White Man of Wall Street, and in European circles Rothschild is synonymous with honor and steadfastness. What Mr. Benjamin did in this case was what every other Jewish or Christian gentleman would have done under the same circumstances; and surely no rogue, be he Christian or Jew, would have felt in honor bound to respond to the claim.
Why in God’s name and in the name of truth, honesty, and justice, cannot gentlemen like yourself write a straight account of an historical character without dragging in perforce such asides as the one to which I have the honor of calling your attention in these lines?
Very respectfully yours,
MARTIN A. MEYER.<BR/> [Rabbi Temple Emanu-el,
San Francisco.]

DEAR MR. BRADFORD,—<BR/> Will you permit me to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading your Lee the American? I had already seen some of the chapters, but I reperused them with the same pleasure with which I read the others. The book from beginning to end is scholarly, fair, and delightful, and I am glad, as a Harvard man myself, that Mr. Adams and yourself have been the means of showing Lee’s character not only to the people of the North, but to us of the South as well. I am also immensely proud, as a Southerner and a great admirer of Lee, that two Massachusetts men see him in the same light that I do.
I wonder whether you have read Stuart’s Cavalry, by John S. Mosby? It occurs to me that it throws some light on General Lee’s anxiety at Gettysburg. The fight there was brought on prematurely by Generals A. P. Hill and Heth, but General Lee accepted it, and found a little later that he had stumbled into a hornet’s nest. No wonder he was anxious. It may be that this is the real reason of his statement that the battle and its result was all his fault. I think we should not place much confidence in General Longstreet’s book. It was written when he was old and peevish, and his peculiar relation to the people of Georgia on account of his politics, the difference in the way he and Gordon were treated by them, etc., made the old gentleman very sore. He used General Lee’s splendidly magnanimous letters to him after the war in a way he should not, and altogether he is not to be taken too seriously. As you of course know, his argument about Gettysburg is absurd, amounting to this, that he did not approve of Lee’s plans, and General Lee knew it; therefore he should have ordered some other general to carry them out; therefore Longstreet is to be exonerated from blame in being so terribly slow on two occasions that the fate of the battle was possibly changed by it! Just or unjust, the opinion of practically all the men at Gettysburg is that Longstreet was to blame for the merely partial victory on the second day and the defeat on the third day. The late Major Weston, of the 26th N. C., once said to me with flashing eyes, ‘ If Stonewall Jackson had been at Gettysburg he’d have had Longstreet shot on the field for disobedience of orders.’
Splendid warrior as he was, General Longstreet was notoriously obstinate, ridiculously so. When he was besieging Knoxville, an old farmer went to him and told him that the Federals were receiving supplies by means of flatboats from the loyal Union people in the N. C. mountains, and that if the French Broad were blockaded these boats could be stopped and the supplies diverted to the Confederates. Longstreet said, ‘What nonsense! The French Broad comes into the Holston below Knoxville.’ ‘But, General, I know better, — I live just where the rivers come together, 5 miles above Knoxville, and I see the boats floating down.’ For answer Longstreet showed him a military map on which some careless draughtsman had made the French Broad come into the Holston below Knoxville, and nothing the old fellow could say would change his conviction. So Dr. James Park, of Knoxville (who related the story to my father-in-law), hearing of this conversation, went himself to Longstreet, and corroborated the old farmer’s story. By that time Longstreet was very cross, and dismissed Dr. Park almost roughly, nor did lie even send scouts to find out. The whole Knoxville campaign showed how ill-fitted Longstreet was for a completely independent command.
But I have no right to take your time in making you read of matters about which you are doubtless more familiar than I, who am but a lay student of the war, as it were, in my spare hours. But I have always been a great admirer of General Lee, as I said before, and anything about him is of interest to me. So I thank you again for the treat you have given me and thousands of others in your book.
Very truly yours,
A. H. PATTERSON.
[Dean of the University of North Carolina.]

DEAR MR. BRADFORD, —
In common with all who served under General Lee, I have read with sincere admiration your articles upon him in the Atlantic Monthly. I do not know in all literature so profound a study of a man’s character drawn from books and not from personal contact. I have to say that these articles have been read and re-read by my friends who served under General Lee, and their entourage, and we are grateful to the author. . . .
I beg leave to enclose to you some anecdotes of General Lee which you may not have seen, and which illustrate phases of his character, and beg you to return me the manuscript after you have read it.
There are two other stories of General Lee which you may not have seen: one his conversation with General Hampton after the War, in which he said that he did what he thought was right at the time and would do the same under similar circumstances again, referring to his resignation from the Army and acceptance of service in the Confederate States; and another his conversation with the Governor of Texas, at the White Sulphur Springs, in which (referring to Reconstruction) he said, ‘ If I had known what use they would make of their victory, I would have died with my sword in my hand and in the midst of my men.’ If you have never seen these stories in print, I can send them to you.
Again expressing my profound admiration for your work, I beg leave to ask if the same will be published in book form, which we hope, as it will save us from the necessity of binding your articles taken from the pages of the magazine, which we would otherwise have to do.
Very truly yours,
FREDERICK M. COLSTON.
[Formerly Captain C. S. A., and Assistant to Chief Ordnance Officer, Army of Northern Virginia.]