February 9, 1893. Capt. John G. Bourke, Third Cavalry, C.f. War Department, Washington, D.C. My Dear Captain Bourke: I am glad you saw my allusion to your book. I make a religious point of puffing it on all occasions. I wish you could see the speech too. I should like to have you write a paper on the lines you suggest. All of the incidents you wrote of [struck: I have known of] [inserted: and names you mentioned are familiar to me.] In my speech, however, I was, as a matter of fact, considering the thing chiefly from the American standpoint. I hate to bring in any question of race origin into our politics, and I want to see us all act simply and purely as Americans; in other words, my dear sir, act precisely as you have always acted. To me it is equally abhorrent to object to a man because he is of a certain race origin, or to bid for the voters of that race origin by a plank put it in specially for them as such, and not as American citizens. I can no more understand, for instance, voting against a man because he is Catholic by conviction, and Irishman by descent, than I can understand putting in an American political platform an Irish home-rule plank, with which [2] we have nothing at all to do. I know you sympathize with me in both these respects. I must have a chance for a real talk with you when next you come to Washington. Cordially yours, Theodore Roosevelt