After being sworn in as president following the assassination of president McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is a dreadful thing to come into the Presidency in this way, but it would be far worse to be morbid about it. Here is the task, and I have got to do it to the best of my ability; and that is all there is to it.” Among his first tasks as president was to send a message to the American people. His four-page draft still rests on the desk in the room where he took the oath. I photographed it from a close vantage point. The words are illegible, but the gilded pen and yellowed paper symbolize historical importance. Roosevelt’s message was intended to calm a grief-stricken nation, and promised to continue the policies of McKinley’s administration.