Theodore Roosevelt wrote this message on January 3, 1919. Both by its character and the circumstances of its publication, it's considered his final message to the American people. He sent it to the president of the American Defense Society, and it was read at a great mass meeting under the auspices of that organization in the Hippodrome in New York, on the evening of January 5. It was published on the morning of January 6, the day of his death.