[passionfruit]

It never occurred to me that there were hyphenated Americans back then! What a great statement!

[ExcursionGuy84]

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

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

[xkaydet65]

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.