President Roosevelt to President-elect Gomez.
Washington, November 16, 1908.
Pray accept my hearty congratulations on your election as President of the Republic of Cuba. I have not cabled before because I desired to receive full official reports of the election. These are at hand, and I rejoice at the orderly and law-abiding manner in which the election was carried on; the rigid observance by all the officers not merely of the law, but of the demands of propriety and the loyal acceptance of the result by the people of Cuba.
The conduct of this election shows in impressive fashion the seriousness with which the Cuban people have now prepared themselves once more to assume the duties of a free and independent Republic. In two months from this date your Government will assume complete control and the United States authorities will once more turn over to the representatives of the Cuban people the beautiful and fertile island of which you are so justly proud. I most earnestly wish you and your colleagues in the Government the greatest measure of success, and assure you of the genuine and lasting friendship of the United States.