Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Theodore Roosevelt Advocates Americanism, 1915
www.rpatrick.com ^ | 1915 | Theodore Roosevelt

Posted on 08/17/2005 1:00:45 PM PDT by infocats

... There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.............

Complete Article


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: citizenship; immigration; teddyroosevelt
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

1 posted on 08/17/2005 1:00:46 PM PDT by infocats
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: infocats
It never occurred to me that there were hyphenated Americans back then! What a great statement!
2 posted on 08/17/2005 1:03:58 PM PDT by passionfruit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats

We could use this man in the Whitehouse again.


3 posted on 08/17/2005 1:05:41 PM PDT by TXBSAFH (Free Traitors are communist China's modern day "Useful Idiots")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats

Swell.

Now I suppose the ACLU will demand that his likeness be jackhammered off Mount Rushmore.


4 posted on 08/17/2005 1:05:59 PM PDT by skip_intro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

-- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), Kansas City Star (April 27, 1918).


5 posted on 08/17/2005 1:06:09 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: passionfruit
It never occurred to me that there were hyphenated Americans back then!

Today..we just call them RINO, RATS & "Girlie-men".

6 posted on 08/17/2005 1:27:00 PM PDT by ExcursionGuy84 ("I will Declare the Beauty of The LORD.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Willie Green
An immigrant tries for US citizenship for the 3rd time.
He stands before the judge and says:

Your honor, Imma try to become a citizen, but I can't causa I donta speaka so gooda english.

Judge says: "Donta worry, today youa gunna becoma citizen"
7 posted on 08/17/2005 1:28:05 PM PDT by stylin19a (In golf, some are long, I'm "Lama Long")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: infocats
"The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country."

That's pretty difficult when foreigners insist on bringing and practicing their antagonistic, pagan religions with them under the mistaken notion that the American Constitution protects any and every "religion" in the world.

8 posted on 08/17/2005 1:29:44 PM PDT by nightdriver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats

There is very little that is new in American politics.


9 posted on 08/17/2005 1:31:21 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and open the Land Office)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats

bump


10 posted on 08/17/2005 1:31:56 PM PDT by Christian4Bush (The modern Democratic Party: Attacking our defenders and defending our attackers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TXBSAFH

Amen


11 posted on 08/17/2005 1:38:09 PM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM 53 : 1 The ( FOOL ) hath said in his heart , There is no GOD .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nightdriver

Let me guess; your religion IS protected by the Constitution, right?


12 posted on 08/17/2005 1:42:59 PM PDT by Skylab
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: nightdriver

You should try reading the entire article before commenting and tasting your own shoe leather (which you are undoubtedly used to doing and probably no longer dislike the taste).

From the article: "All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice."


13 posted on 08/17/2005 1:53:24 PM PDT by dmz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: RightWhale

That is so true. Reading about our founders and the issues they argued over is like reading a newspaper today (e.g., powerful central government vs limited gov).

On the lighter side of it, around Preakness time, the horse racing industry was doing its usual, give us money and tax breaks or our industry will go under. It also happened to be the centennial observation of the Baltimore fire. The Sun reprinted a page from the day after the fire, and what was in there, you guessed it, an article bemoaning the fact that with subsidies the horse racing industry in MD would disappear.


15 posted on 08/17/2005 1:58:23 PM PDT by dmz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: infocats
Heard this mentioned on the radio while I was driving earlier, it really pict my interest but I was not near my computer.
That will teach me.
Never leave the house again!


Thanks for the post
16 posted on 08/17/2005 2:00:49 PM PDT by txroadhawg (Don't believe any statistics unless you made them up yourself)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: infocats; yall

Our oath of allegiance is quite specific in that it requires new citizens to:

" -- renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;
that I will support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; --- "

Oath of Allegiance
Address:http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/citizenship/blcitizen-4.htm

Every citizen of the USA in effect has sworn that:
"--- I will support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; --- ".


-- Far to many 'forget' that there are domestic enemies of our Constitution, and that sometimes their own words make them into that enemy.
-- And when they speak those words, -- it is our right, and our duty, to counter those constitutionally repugnant words & ideas; and to defend against them.


17 posted on 08/17/2005 2:07:14 PM PDT by musanon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: passionfruit
Context is important in understanding this quote. In 1915 TR was adamant about joing the Allies against Germany. He spoke these words to a meeting of the Knights of Columbus, the well known Catholic men's group. At the time this group was mostly made up of Irish and German American Catholics, as Italian and Polish Catholics were still in their first generation.

Irish and German Americans were vocal in their opposition to America joining the Allies. Germans for the sake of their old country and the Irish because of England's role in Ireland. TR saw this as a danger to what he believed was a necessary American involvement in the Great War. So he attacked the concept of hyphenated Americans as those who felt America should make policy decisions based on how they would help or hurt their homeland.

Now we think of the idea of hyphenated Americans in terms of people demanding separation and special treatment for their culture. That was not the meaning 90 years ago.

18 posted on 08/17/2005 2:23:24 PM PDT by xkaydet65 (Peace, Love, Brotherhood, and Firepower. And the greatest of these is Firepower!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: xkaydet65

"He spoke these words to a meeting of the Knights of Columbus, the well known Catholic men's group. At the time this group was mostly made up of Irish and German American Catholics, as Italian and Polish Catholics were still in their first generation."

That makes this even gutsier! He said it to the faces of the people he was talking about. What balls!

My own german ancestors had lived in german speaking communities in Pennsylvania. About the time of TR's presidency, they quit speaking German in the home, and switched to English.


19 posted on 08/17/2005 2:38:22 PM PDT by passionfruit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: txroadhawg
"Heard this mentioned on the radio while I was driving earlier"

Sean Hannity? I was listening too and happened to be in front of the computer so I Googled "hyphenated americans", went to the website, and then posted!

20 posted on 08/17/2005 3:36:53 PM PDT by infocats
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson