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#33 Ferry Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan,
December 8th, 1905.

Dear Mr. Saint-Gaudens:-

On my return from New York yesterday I found your two kind letters of November 29th and December 2nd, and I am deeply interested in all that you have so courteously expressed.

In the first place, let me assure you that the proposed monument by Rodin in nowise affects the plan we have under consideration nor would I like you to feel that there is the slightest disappointment felt by us in the time you have taken for studying the subject. On the other hand, I wish to express the deepest appreciation of the thought you have devoted already to the work. The result of your preliminary sketches far exceeds our hopes, and I am sure that if your design is executed it will be a monumental master-piece. Its importance leads me to a new field of thought and I am wondering if the full-length figure of Paining, arranged with a laurel tree, etc., as described, would not perhaps be more appropriate for the building I expect to erect in Washington to hold the collection which I have offered the Nation, than for erection at West Point.

President Roosevelt, together with the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, are now considering the advisability