TLS as president, one page, 7 x 8.75, White House letterhead, August 4, 1908. Letter to journalist, war photographer, writer, and colonial administrator in the Philippines William Dinwiddie. In full: "I return you that interesting article. To be frank, there is in it much as to which the writer is hopelessly and indeed ludicrously wrong; but with his main thesis—that we should develop a navy, that we should prepare, in order to avert trouble with anyone, and that we should be heartily ashamed of extravagant and boastful conceit, or of wrongdoing other nations—I entirely agree." President Roosevelt makes a few handwritten corrections to the text. In fine condition, with light edge toning.
An interesting letter by President Roosevelt, who had always been an advocate for a strong naval force. He had first come to national prominence as a historian, with the publication of The Naval War of 1812 in 1882. He would then serve as Assistant Secretary of the Navy early in the McKinley administration. At the time of this letter, the Great White Fleet was making its world tour—by Roosevelt's order, sixteen American battleships visited every populated continent between December 1907 to February 1909.
Roosevelt's correspondent, William Dinwiddie, is particularly noteworthy—he had been a journalist and a war photographer for Harper's Weekly during the Spanish-American War, assigned to report and photograph the American campaigns in Cuba and Puerto Rico. One of the best photographs he took was of Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders at the top of the hill which they captured during Battle of San Juan.
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