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Hague Peace Conference and other diplomatic notes and documents,
prepared by him as Secretary of State in the performance of his duties
as an executive officer of the United States. Although the official
documents have been kept separate from the other papers, this plan has
been slightly modified in the volume devoted to the military and
colonial policy of the United States, which includes those portions of
his official reports as Secretary of War throwing light upon his public
addresses and his general military policy.

The addresses and speeches selected for publication are not arranged
chronologically, but are classified in such a way that each volume
contains addresses and speeches relating to a general subject and a
common purpose. The addresses as president of the American Society of
International Law show his treatment of international questions from the
theoretical standpoint, and in the light of his experience as Secretary
of War and as Secretary of State, unrestrained and uncontrolled by the
limitations of official position, whereas his addresses on foreign
affairs, delivered while Secretary of State or as United States Senator,
discuss these questions under the reserve of official responsibility.

Mr. Root's addresses on government, citizenship, and legal procedure are
a masterly exposition of the principles of the Constitution and of the
government established by it; of the duty of the citizen to understand
the Constitution and to conform his conduct to its requirements; and of
the right of the people to reform or to amend the Constitution in order
to make representative government more effective and responsive to their
present and future needs. The addresses on law and its administration
state how legal procedure should be modified and simplified in the
interest of justice rather than in the supposed interest of the legal
profession.

The addresses delivered during the trip to South America and Mexico in
1906, and in the United States after his return, with their message of
good will, proclaim a new doctrine--the Root doctrine--of kindly
consideration and of honorable obligation, and make clear the destiny
common to the peoples of the Western World.

The addresses and the reports on military and colonial policy made by
Mr. Root as Secretary of War explain the reorganization of the army
after the Spanish-American War, the creation of the General Staff, and
the establishment of the Army War College. Th