It is a very great thing for a man to be able to feel, as you will feel when on your seventieth birthday you prepare to leave the Embassy, that you have been able to serve your country as it has been served by but a very limited number of people in your generation. You have done much for it in word and in deed. You have adhered to a lofty ideal and yet have been absolutely practical and, therefore, efficient, so that you are a perpetual example to young men how to avoid alike the Scylla of indifference and the Charybdis of efficiency for the wrong….
With regards and warm respect and admiration,
Faithfully yours,
(Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
HON. ANDREW D. WHITE,
Ambassador to Germany,
Berlin, Germany.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON.
OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK,
September 15, 1902
MY DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR:
Will you read the inclosed on your seventieth birthday? I have
sealed it so you can break the seal then.
Faithfully yours,
(Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
HON. ANDREW D. WHITE,
U. S. Ambassador,
Berlin, Germany.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON.
OYSTER BAY,
September 15, 1902.