Chapter II: Introduction: 9 (1)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 15

PHILIP SCHAFF 20

Cosmopolitan Character of “American
Nationality” 21

FRANCES D’ARUSMONT 29

The Constitution and Establishment of
the Federal Government 30

FRANCIS LIEBER 33

A German Immigrant Points Out the
Dangers of Segregation 34

Political Liberty in America 36

CARL SCHURZ 38

An Immigrant’s Tribute to Lincoln 39

“True Americanism” 40

EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN 44

An Immigrant’s Faith in Democracy 45

JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY 52

“The Exile of the Gael” 52

“The Pilgrim Fathers” 54

“Liberty Lighting the World” 55

“America” 57

HANS MATTSON 58

Scandinavian Contribution to American
Nationality 59

JACOB RIIS 61

“A Young Man’s Hero”: An Immigrant’s
Tribute to Roosevelt 63

JACOB VAN DER ZEE 66

“Why Dutch Emigrants Turned to America” 67

EDWARD BOK 71

OSCAR SOLOMON STRAUS 72

“America and the Spirit of
American Judaism” 73

FELIX ADLER 77

The American Ideal 78

MARY ANTIN 82

An Immigrant’s Tribute to the Public
School and to George Washington 83

“The Law of the Fathers”: A View of
the Declaration of Independence 89

ABRAHAM MITRIE RIHBANY 91

America Offers Something Better
than Money 92

An Immigrant Tells his Struggles with
the English Language 94

EDWARD ALFRED STEINER 96

“The Criminal Immigrant” 97

Industrialism and the Immigrant 105

GEORGE A. GORDON 111

“The Foreign-born American Citizen”:
Cost, Privilege and Duties of his
Citizenship 112

SERAPHIM G. CANOUTAS 121

Americanization: Its Principles
and Meaning 123

STEFANO MIELE 125

Some Obstacles to Americanization 126

JOHN KULAMER 130

“The American Spirit and
Americanization” 131

ENRICO C. SARTORIO 136

Patronizing the Foreigner 137

Training for Citizenship 140

OTTO HERMANN KAHN 143

“Capital and Labor--A Fair Deal” 144

MARCUS ELI RAVAGE 150

The New Immigration 151

What College Life in the West Did for
an Immigrant 152

ELIZABETH G. STERN 160

The Pathos of Readjustment 161

ROBERT M. WERNAER 166

“The Soul of America” 167

“We Must Be True” 172

ANGELO PATRI 173

An Immigrant and His Father 174

An Immigrant and the Children 177

ANZIA YEZIERSKA 181

“How I Found America” 182

* * * * *

LIST OF AUTHORS WITH THEIR WRITINGS FROM WHICH SELECTIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN FOR INCLUSION IN THIS VOLUME

PAGE

Adler, Felix 77

_The World Crisis and Its Meaning_

Antin, Mary 82

_The Promised Land_

_They Who Knock at Our Gates_

Bok, Edward 71

Canoutas, Seraphim G. 121

_Hellenism in America_

D’Arusmont, Frances (1795-1852) 29

_Views of Society and Manners
in America_

Godkin, Edwin L. (1831-1902) 44

_Problems of Modern Democracy_

Gordon, George A. 111

_The Appeal of the Nation_

Kahn, Otto H. 143

_Capital and Labor--A Fair Deal._
Pam. pub. by the author

Kulamer, John 130

_The American Spirit
and Americanization_

Lieber, Francis (1800-1872) 33

_The Stranger in America_

Mattson, Hans (1832-1893) 58

_Reminiscences_

Miele, Stefano 125

_America As a Place to Make Money._
(In “World’s Work,” December, 1920)

O’Reilly, John Boyle (1844-1890) 52

_Selected Poems._ Kenedy

Patri, Angelo 173

_A Schoolmaster of the Great City_

Ravage, Marcus E. 150

_An American in the Making_

Rihbany, Abraham M. 91

_A Far Journey_

Riis, Jacob (1849-1914) 61

_The Making of an American_

_Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen_

Sartorio, Enrico C. 136

_Social and Religious Life of
Italians in America_

Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) 20

_American Nationality._ Pam.

Schurz, Carl (1829-1906) 38

_Abraham Lincoln: An Essay._ Houghton

_Speeches._ 1865. Lippincott

Steiner, Edward A. 96

_From Alien to Citizen_

_Nationalizing America_

Stern, Elizabeth G. 160

_My Mother and I_

Straus, Oscar S. 72

_The American Spirit_

Van der Zee, Jacob 66

_The Hollanders of Iowa_

Wernaer, Robert M. 166

_The Soul of America_

Yezierska, Anzia 181

_How I Found America._ (In “Century
Magazine,” November, 1920)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Several titles have been supplied by the editor; those given in the words of the author are enclosed in quotation marks.

* * * * *

The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth

PHILIP SCHAFF

It is as a theologian and as editor of the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia
and other religious works that Philip Schaff is chiefly known; but
there is a slighter work of his which hardly deserves the neglect
into which it has fallen,--that is, his address on “American
Nationality,” delivered before the Irving Society of the College
of St. James, Maryland, June 11th, 1856. He was born at Coire,
Switzerland, and was educated at the Stuttgart Gymnasium and at the
universities of Tübingen, Halle and Berlin. After traveling for a
while as a private tutor he was called to a professorship in the
theological seminary of the German Reformed Church at Mercersburg,
Pennsylvania, and came to the United States in 1844. In 1870 he
accepted the professorship of sacred literature in Union Theological
Seminary, New York City. He revisited Europe several times, on one
occasion going to Russia in behalf of oppressed people there. It is
not unnatural that one who was born in a land that has sheltered so
many nationalities, and where a strong spirit of liberty has always
existed, should have so keen and farsighted an appreciation of the
meaning and influence of the cosmopolitan character of the American
nation.

Cosmopolitan Character of American Nationality

By nationality we understand the peculiar genius of a people which animates its institutions, prompts its actions and begets a feeling of common interest and sympathy. It is not the result of any compact, but an instinct of human nature in its social capacity, an expansion of the inborn love of self and kindred. To hate his own countrymen is as unnatural as to hate his own brothers and sisters.

Nationality grows with the nation itself and acts as a powerful stimulus in its development. But on the other side it presupposes an organized state of society and is the result of a historical process. Barbarians have no nationality, because they are no nations, but simply material for nations. It is not only the community of origin and language, but also the community of rights and duties, of laws and institutions, of deeds and sufferings, of freedom and oppression, of literature and art, of virtue and religion, that enters into the definition of a nation and gives vigor to the sense of nationality. Historical reminiscences of glory and woe, whether preserved in monuments, or written records, or oral traditions, popular songs and national airs, such as “God save the Queen,” “Ye mariners of England,” “Rule, Britannia,” “Scots wha hae with Wallace bled,” “Allons enfants de la patrie,” “Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Hail, Columbia,” contribute powerfully to strengthen the national tie and to kindle the fire of national enthusiasm.

Nationality begets patriotism, one of the noblest of natural virtues that has filled the pages of history with so many heroic deeds and sacrifices. Who can read without admiration the immortal story of Gideon, Leonidas, Cincinnatus, Horatius Cocles, William Tell, Arnold von Winkelried, the Maid of Orleans, John Hampden, Prince William of Orange, Andreas Hofer, George Washington, who lived or died for their country?

True patriotism does not imply hatred or contempt of foreigners, and is entirely compatible with a proper regard for the rights and welfare of other nations, just as self-love and self-respect may and should coexist with the most generous philanthropy. A narrow-minded and narrow-hearted nationalism which walls out the life of the world, and for this very reason condemns itself to perpetual imprisonment in the treadmill of its own pedantry and conceit, may suit semi-barbarians, or the stagnant heathen civilization of China and Japan[2], but not an enlightened Christian people. True and false nationalism and patriotism are related to each other, as self-love to selfishness. The first is a law of nature, the second a vice. We respect a man in the same proportion in which his self-love expands into love of kindred and country, and his patriotism into love of humanity at large. Washington was always generous to the enemy and was the first to establish amicable relations with England after the conclusion of the American war. The Christian religion, which commands us to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, tends to purify and elevate patriotism, like every other natural virtue, by emancipating it from the selfish, overbearing, all-grasping passion of conquest, and making it contributory to the general welfare of the human family. One of the noblest acts of the English nation, as a nation, is the disinterested abolition of the African slave trade.

The events of modern times tend more and more to break down the barriers between the nations, to bring the ends of the earth together and to realize the unity and universality of the human race.

This we must steadily keep in view, if we would understand the distinctive character and mission of the _American_ nation, i. e., the people of the United States, who are emphatically called by that name, as the chief bearers of the historical life and future significance of the entire Western Continent.

In discussing this interesting topic, we shall avoid, of course, the whirlpool of party politics, and endeavor to rise above those violent sectional strifes, which, for some time past, have been and are still agitating our country on the question of the true nature of Americanism.

Of all the great nations of the earth none has entered into existence under more favorable auspices and prospects, none is better prepared and more clearly called to represent a compact, well defined and yet expansive, world-embracing nationality, than the American. Our motto, _E Pluribus Unum_, is an unconscious prophecy of our national character and destiny, as pointed out by the irresistible course of events and the indications of Providence. Out of many nations, yea, out of all the nations of Christendom, is to be gathered the one cosmopolitan nation of America on the strong and immovable foundation of the Anglo-Saxon race....

Let us now proceed to an analysis of the different elements, which enter into the composition of the American nationality and will, in their combined action, enable it to fulfil its great destiny.

It is evident to the most superficial observer that the basis of our national character is English. It is so, not only in language, but also in manners and customs, in our laws and institutions, in the structure of our domestic, political and ecclesiastical life, in our literature and religion. It is perfectly idle to think that this country will ever become German, or French, or Irish, or Dutch. Let them emigrate by hundreds of thousands from the continent of Europe, they will modify and enrich, but they can never destroy or materially change the Anglo-Saxon ground-element of the American people....

But with all due regard for good old England, America is by no means intended to be a mere copy or continuation of it. If our nationality, owing to its youth and the many foreign elements still entering into its composition, is less solid and compact than that of our older brother, it is, on the other hand, more capable of expansion and development; it is composed of a greater variety of material and destined ultimately for more comprehensive ends by the Almighty Ruler of nations, who assigned us not an island, but a continent for a home, and two oceans for a field of action.

If ever a nation was laid out on a truly cosmopolitan basis and gifted with an irresistible power of attraction, it is the American. Here where our globe ends its circuit seems to terminate the migration of the human race. To our shores they come in an unbroken stream from every direction. Even the tribes of Africa and Asia are largely represented amongst us and call our country their home. But whatever may be the ultimate fate of the red man, the negro and the Chinese, who are separated from us by the unsurmountable difference of race, it is evident that all the civilized nations of Europe, especially those of Germanic origin, have contributed and will continue to contribute to our stock. They meet here on the common ground of freedom and equality, to renew their youth and to commingle at last into one grand brotherhood, speaking one language, pervaded by one spirit, obeying the same laws, laboring for one aim, and filling in these ends of the earth the last and the richest chapter in the history of the world. As Europe is a great advance on the civilization of Asia, so we have reason to believe that America will be in the end a higher continuation of the consolidated life of Europe. The eyes of the East are instinctively turned to the West, and civilization follows the march of the sun.

The history of the colonization and growth of this country strongly supports the view here taken. The descendants of England were indeed the chief, but by no means the only agents in the Colonial period. The Dutch on the banks of the Hudson, the Swedes on the Delaware, the Germans in Pennsylvania and the neighboring States, the Huguenots in South Carolina, New York and Boston, were amongst our earliest and most useful settlers. In a more recent period Scotland, Ireland and all parts of Germany have made the largest contributions to our population. Florida, California and New Mexico are of Spanish origin. The French claimed once by right of exploration and partial occupation the immense central valley from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and between the Alleghenies and the Rocky Mountains; and although these possessions have long since been ceded to England and the United States, the French element can never be entirely effaced on the banks of the lower Mississippi or in Canada East.

In the Revolutionary War the descendants of the Continental Europeans, especially the Germans of Pennsylvania and Virginia, in proportion to their number, fought with as much zeal and success and shed their blood as freely for the independence of the country as the Anglo-Americans. Some of them, as the Muhlenbergs and the Hiesters, acquired considerable distinction as officers of the army or members of the first Congress.

But a number of our most eminent Revolutionary heroes were not even native Americans, but came from different nations to offer us the aid of their means, their enthusiasm, their military skill and experience in the hour of trial. The Irish Montgomery died for us at the gates of Quebec. General Mercer, who fell in the battle of Princeton, was a native of Scotland. Kosciusko, the Pole, paid his early vows to liberty in our cause, and his countryman, Pulaski, perished for it at Savannah. The noble Germans, Baron de Kalb, who shared with Gaines the glory of capturing Burgoyne and fell in the battle of Camden in South Carolina, bleeding of seven wounds, and Steuben, the pupil of Frederic the Great, and the Seven Years War, who left a handsome pension to serve his adopted country and helped to decide the day at Yorktown, crowned in the new world the high military reputation which they had previously acquired in the old; they were amongst the most experienced officers in the American army, and did it essential service, especially by training, with immense labor, the raw recruits, and preparing them for the victories of the battle-field. Our Congress knew well how to appreciate their merits, by erecting to the former a monument at Annapolis, and by voting to the latter a handsome annual pension, to which the legislatures of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York added large donations of land. France threw the weight of her powerful moral influence and material aid into our scale, and sent us the Count de Rochambeau, Baron de Viomenil, and especially the Marquis of Lafayette, the citizen of two worlds, whose name will be handed down to the latest American, as well as French posterity, in inseparable connection with Washington. The West Indies gave us Alexander Hamilton, who fought gallantly in the war, and, after its conclusion, organized our financial credit and took the most distinguished part in the formation and defence of our Federal Constitution, thus joining to the laurels of the battle-field the more enduring honors of peace, like his friend, the Father of his Country, whom we justly revere and love as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Thus all the leading nations of Christendom were actively and honorably represented in the first settlement of our country, and in that great struggle which resulted in the birth of a new nation, and thus earned a title to a share in the blessings of its freedom....

As long, then, as we have such an immense body of land waiting for living men, and such a gigantic task of the future before us, there is no cause to discourage immigration. Let this continent of land continue to attract another continent crowded with men, that they may thus both prove a blessing to each other. How could we cherish a proscriptive spirit without striking at the fundamental creed and glory of our institutions? How could we indulge in hatred of foreigners and shut the gate to the stranger, without insulting the memory of our own fathers and of the fathers of this country? Let us never forget the sacred trust of civil and religious liberty committed to us; never forget our past history and our comprehensive destiny. Ourselves the children of the pilgrims of a former generation, let us welcome the pilgrims of the present day, and open a hospitable asylum to the oppressed and persecuted of every Christian nation. Favored by the free gift of Providence with a territory almost as large as Europe, and capable of sustaining ten times the amount of our present population, let us cordially invite and encourage the immigrants, till prairies and forests, and mountains and valleys resound with the songs of living men and the praises of God.

Here are our millions of acres stretching towards the setting sun and teeming with hidden wealth, that must be made available for the benefit of society. Here is room enough for all the science, learning, art, wisdom, virtue and religion of Europe, that, transplanted into a virgin soil and breathing the atmosphere of freedom, they may bring forth new blossoms and fruit and open a new epoch in the onward march of civilization. Here is the general congress of the noblest nations of Christendom, the sterling, energetic Briton; the strong-willed, enterprising Scotch; the hard-working, generous Irish; the industrious, deep-thinking German; the honest, liberty-loving Swiss; the hardy, thrifty Scandinavian; the even-tempered, tenacious Dutch; the easy, elegant Frenchman; the earnest, dignified Spaniard; the ingenious, imaginative Italian; the patriotic, high-minded Magyar and Pole,--that they might renew their youth, and, laying aside their prejudices and defects and uniting their virtues, may commingle into the one American nation, the freest, the most enlightened, the most comprehensive of all, the nation of the new world, the nation of the future....

The destiny and mission of such a cosmopolitan nation can hardly be estimated. It must be majestic as our rivers, magnificent as the Niagara Falls, lofty as the Rocky Mountains, vast as our territory, deep as the two oceans around it, far-reaching as the highways of commerce that already carries our name and influence to the remotest regions of the globe. History points to a boundless future before it, and nothing can prevent it from filling the most important pages in the annals of coming centuries [except] its own unfaithfulness to its providential trust....

Such high views on the destiny of our nation, so far from nourishing the spirit of vanity and self-glorification, ought rather to humble and fill us with a deep sense of our responsibility to the God of nations, who entrusted us with a great mission for the world and the Church, not from any superior excellency of our own, but from free choice and an inscrutable decree of infinite wisdom. Nor should we forget that there are fearful tendencies and dangers growing up in our national life, which threaten to unfit us for our work and to expose us to the judgment of the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, who is not bound to any particular human instrumentality, but can raise a new generation on the ruins of our own to carry out His designs. It is only in steady view of these dangers, and by an earnest struggle against evil temptations, that we can at all succeed and accomplish the great ends for which Providence has called us into existence.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] The reader will, of course, note that this statement was made prior to the modern awakening in these Oriental countries.

FRANCES D’ARUSMONT

Frances D’Arusmont, better known as Frances Wright, was born in
Dundee, Scotland. She seems to have inherited the intellectuality and
liberal feeling of her father, who was a man of independent means and
considerable accomplishments. Scarcely three years after her birth in
1795, she lost both her parents and was brought up by a maternal aunt
in England. She was largely self-educated, and from early youth was
keenly interested in history, particularly the history and condition
of the United States. This interest found definite expression in her
determination to sail for America in 1818, where she spent two years
in the States, publishing in 1821 her “Views of Society and Manners
in America,” a series of letters to a friend in England. While it
is true that these letters are filled with prepossessions, they had
a wholesome effect in counterbalancing a great deal of ignorance
about and prejudice against the United States at that time. After
going back to Europe for a short stay, she returned to the United
States in 1824, eager to solve the slave question. In pursuance of
this desire she bought a tract of land in Tennessee, about fourteen
miles northwest of Memphis, and settled negro slaves on it, in the
hope that they would work out their own liberty and that the Southern
planters would be induced to follow her example. The experiment
proved a failure, and, with health broken, she was ordered to Europe
by her physician. On returning to America again, she became a member
of Robert Owen’s colony at New Harmony in Indiana, and with the
assistance of Robert Dale Owen conducted a socialistic journal. At
this time she frequently appeared on the lecture platform in many
parts of the country. During one of her numerous trips to Europe
she was married in France to M. Phiquepal-D’Arusmont. She died at
Cincinnati in 1852.

Though no fanatic, Frances D’Arusmont had several qualities of the
visionary, courage and enthusiasm without prudence and judgment. It
is greatly to her credit and honor, however, that she was among the
first to realize the importance of the slavery question and to make
an effort to settle it amicably. It is to be regretted that she did
not devote her life solely to the solution of this momentous problem.

The selection here given from her “Views of Society and Manners in
America,” follows the text of the first New York edition, 1821.

THE CONSTITUTION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

What is most worthy of admiration in the history of America is not merely the spirit of liberty which has ever animated her people, but their perfect acquaintance with the science of government, which has ever saved that spirit from preying on itself. The sages who laid the foundation of her greatness possessed at once the pride of freemen and _the knowledge of English freemen_; in building the edifice, they knew how to lay the foundation; in preserving untouched the rights of each individual, they knew how to prevent his attacking those of his neighbor: they brought with them the experience of the best governed nation then existing; and, having felt in their own persons the errors inherent in that constitution, which had enlightened, but only partly protected them, they knew what to shun as well as what to imitate in the new models which they here cast, leisurely and sagely, in a new and remote world. Thus possessed from the beginning of free institutions, or else continually occupied in procuring or defending them, the Colonies were well prepared to assume the character of independent States. There was less of an experiment in this than their enemies supposed.[3] Nothing, indeed, can explain the obstinacy of the English ministry at the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle but the supposition that they were wholly ignorant of the history of the people to whom they were opposed. May I be forgiven the observation, that the inquiries of ... have led me into the belief that some candid and well-informed English gentlemen of the present day have almost as little acquaintance with it as had Lord North.

Respecting the Revolution itself, the interest of its military history is such as to fix the attention of the most thoughtless readers; but in this, foreigners sometimes appear to imagine, was expended the whole virtue of America. That a country which could put forth so much energy, magnanimity, and wisdom, as appeared in that struggle, should suddenly lose a claim to all these qualities, would be no less surprising than humiliating. If we glance at the civil history of these republics since the era of their independence, do we find no traces of the same character? Were we to consider only the national institutions, the mild and impartial laws, the full establishment of the rights of conscience, the multiplication of schools and colleges to an extent unknown in any other country of the world, all the improvements in every branch of internal policy which have placed this people in their present state of peace and unrivalled prosperity, we must allow them to be not only wise to their interests, but alive to the pleas of humanity; but there are not wanting instances of a yet more liberal policy.

How seldom is it that history affords us the example of a voluntary sacrifice on the part of separate communities to further the common good! It appears to me that the short history of America furnishes us with more examples of this kind than that of any other nation, ancient or modern. Throughout the war of the Revolution, and for some years preceding it, the public feeling may be said to have been unusually excited. At such times, men, and societies of men, are equal to actions beyond the strength of their virtue at cooler moments. Passing on, therefore, to the peace of 1783, we find a number of independent republics gradually reconciling their separate and clashing interests, each yielding something to promote the advantage of all, and sinking the pride of individual sovereignty in that of the united whole. The remarks made by Ramsay on the adoption of the federal constitution are so apposite that I cannot resist quoting them:

“The adoption of this constitution was a triumph of virtue and good sense over the vices and follies of human nature; in some respects, the merit of it is greater than that of the Declaration of Independence. The worst of men can be urged to make a spirited resistance to invasion of their rights; but higher grades of virtue are requisite to induce freemen, in the possession of a limited sovereignty, voluntarily to surrender a portion of their natural liberties; to impose on themselves those restraints of good government which bridle the ferocity of man, compel him to respect the claims of others, and to submit his rights and his wrongs to be decided upon by the voices of his fellow citizens. The instances of nations which have vindicated their liberty by the sword are many; of those which have made a good use of their liberty when acquired are comparatively few.”

Nor did the liberality of these republics evince itself only in the adoption of the general government. We find some making voluntary concessions of vast territories, that they might be devoted to national purposes; others releasing part of their own people from existing engagements, and leaving them to consult their wishes and convenience by forming themselves into new communities.

Should we contrast this policy with that employed by other nations, we might hastily pronounce this people to be singularly free from the ordinary passions of humanity. But, no; they are only singularly enlightened in the art of government; they have learned that there is no strength without union, no union without good fellowship, and no good fellowship without fair dealing; and, having learned this, they are only singularly fortunate in being able to reduce their knowledge to practice.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] Mr. Burke, who seems to have possessed a more thorough acquaintance with the institutions and character of the Colonists than any other British statesman, insisted much on “the form of their provincial legislative assemblies,” when tracing the consequences likely to result from the oppressive acts of parliament. “Their governments,” observed this orator, “are popular in a high degree; some are merely popular; in all, the popular representative is the most weighty; and this share of the people, in their ordinary government, never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief importance.” (Author’s note.)

FRANCIS LIEBER

In these latter days when the world has been inclined to wonder
whether any good could come out of Prussia, it is interesting to
recall that Francis Lieber, who came to the United States in 1827 in
the vanguard of the German political refugees of the early nineteenth
century, was born in Berlin, March 18, 1800. His life was one of
intense activity, both physical and mental. He fought in the Prussian
army at Ligny and at Waterloo, and was severely wounded in the attack
on Namur. After the Napoleonic wars he studied in Berlin; and in
1819, because of his political ideas, he was imprisoned on the charge
of plotting against the government. He was discharged without trial;
but, being forbidden to stay at the Prussian universities, he took
his degree at Jena in 1820. After taking part in the Greek Revolution
of 1821 he went to Rome, where he became a tutor in the family of the
famous historian, Niebuhr. On returning to Berlin he was rearrested
and imprisoned, but released through the efforts of Niebuhr. Tired of
this relentless persecution, he left his native land forever in 1825.
Before embarking for the New World he was a teacher in London for a
short time.

Lieber’s first literary undertaking after reaching the United States
was the editing of the Encyclopædia Americana in Boston, 1827-32.
For the next twenty years he was professor of political economy
in South Carolina College, where his most important works were
produced,--“A Manual of Political Ethics,” 1838; “Legal and Political
Hermeneutics,” 1839; “Civil Liberty and Self-government,” 1852. In
1856 he was called to a similar professorship in Columbia College,
New York. He was member of the French Institute and other learned
societies in Europe and America.

The spirit of the man and his work is manifested in his favorite
motto, _Nullum jus sine officio, nullum officium sine jure_ (“No
right without its duties, no duty without its rights”). It is
not necessary to mention his numerous writings except the one of
immediate interest here,--“The Stranger in America,” published in
1834, a series of letters written to a friend in Germany. In the
selection that follows, the reader will be struck by the wisdom and
foresight in pointing out the danger of segregation and the futility
of German immigrants attempting to erect a German state within the
United States.

A GERMAN IMMIGRANT POINTS OUT THE DANGERS OF SEGREGATION

The Germans, as I said, form a most valuable addition to our population, when mingled with the great predominant race inhabiting the northern part of this continent. Whenever colonists settle among a different nation, in such numbers and so closely together that they may live on among themselves, without intermixture with the original inhabitants, a variety of inconveniences will necessarily arise. Living in an isolated state, the current of civilization of the country in which they live does not reach them; and they are equally cut off from that of their mother country: mental stagnation is the consequence. They remain a foreign element, an ill-joined part of the great machinery of which they still form, and needs must form, a part. Sometimes, indeed, particular circumstances may alter the view of the case. When the French Protestant colonists were received into Prussia, it was perhaps judicious to allow them, for example in Berlin, to form for a time a community for themselves, to have their own jurisdiction, schools, and churches, because they were more perfect in many branches of industry than the people among whom they settled; and, had they been obliged to immerge forthwith, their skill, so desirable to those who received them, might have been lost.

At present, however, they too are immerged in the mass of the population. Besides, the inconvenience arising from their forming a separate community was never very great, since they were few in number, and belonged by their professions to the better educated classes. But take an example in the Hussites, who settled in Germany; remember the Bohemian village near Berlin, called Rixdorf, the inhabitants of which obstinately refused intermarrying with Germans, and many of whom, until very recently, continued to speak Bohemian only. Those, therefore, who lately proposed to form a whole German state in our west, ought to weigh well their project before they set about it, if ever it should become possible to put this scheme into practice, which I seriously doubt. “Ossification,” as the Germans call it, would be the unavoidable consequence. These colonists would be unable, though they might come by thousands and tens of thousands, to develop for themselves German literature, German language, German law, German science, German art; everything would remain stationary at the point where it was when they brought it over from the mother country, and within less than fifty years our colony would degenerate into an antiquated, ill-adapted element of our great national system, with which, sooner or later, it must assimilate. What a voluntary closing of the eyes to light would it be for a colony among people of the Anglican race, which, in point of politics, has left every other race far behind, to strive to isolate itself!

POLITICAL LIBERTY IN AMERICA

As a thousand things co-operated in ancient Greece to produce that unrivalled state of perfection in which we find the fine arts to have been there,--a happy constellation of the most fortunate stars,--so a thousand favorable circumstances concur in America to make it possible that a far greater amount of liberty can be introduced into all the concerns of her political society than ever was possible before with any other nation, or will be at any future period, yet also requiring its sacrifices, as the fine arts with the Greeks required theirs.

The influence of this nation has been considerable already; it will be much more so yet in ages to come; political ideas will be developed here, and have a decided effect on the whole European race, and, for aught I know, upon other races. But as the Grecian art has kindled the sense of the beautiful with many nations, but never could be equalled again (as a national affair), so it is possible that political notions, developed here and received by other nations, will have a sound influence only if in their new application they are modified to the given circumstances; for it is not in the power of any man or nation to create all those circumstances under the shade of which liberty reposes here. Politics is civil architecture, and a poor architect indeed is he who forgets three things in building: the place where the building is to be raised, the materials with which he has to build, and the object for which the structure is erected. If the materials are Jews of Palestine, and if the object of the fabric be to keep the people as separate from neighbors as possible, the architect would not obtain his end by a constitution similar to that of one of our new States.

It was necessary for the Americans, in order to make them fit to solve certain political problems, which, until their solution here, were considered chimerical (take as an instance the keeping of this immense country without a garrison), that they should descend from the English, should begin as persecuted colonists severed from the mother country, and yet loving it with all their heart and all their soul; to have a continent, vast and fertile, and possessing those means of internal communication which gave to Europe the great superiority over Asia and Africa; to be at such a distance from Europe that she should appear as a map; to be mostly Protestants, and to settle in colonies with different charters, so that, when royal authority was put down, they were as so many independent States, and yet to be all of one metal, so that they never ceased morally to form one nation, nor to feel as such.

You may say, “Strange, that an abuse of liberty, as this apparent or real party strife in election contests actually is, should lead you to the assertion that no nation is fitter for a government of law.” Yet I do repeat it. How would it be with other nations? It would be _after_ an election of this kind that the real trouble would only _begin_; we see an instance in South America. Here, on the other hand, as soon as the election is over, the contest is settled, and the citizen obeys the law. “Keep to the right, as the law directs,” you will often find on sign-boards on bridges in this country. It expresses the authority which the law here possesses. I doubt very much whether the Romans, noted for their obedience to the law, held it in higher respect than the Americans.

CARL SCHURZ

Carl Schurz, probably the most eminent of German immigrants to the
United States, was born in Rhenish Prussia, in 1829. He came to
America in 1852 and settled in Missouri, from which State he was
sent to Congress as Senator. He served as a general in the Union
Army during the Civil War. In 1875 he removed to New York City and
was editor of _The Evening Post_ from 1881 to 1884. He was active
in support of civil service reform, and as a political thinker
commanded high respect. His most notable works are his “Speeches,”
his “Reminiscences,” a “Life of Henry Clay,” and “Abraham Lincoln: an
Essay.” The last was originally published in _The Atlantic Monthly_
as a review of “Abraham Lincoln: A History,” by Nicolay and Hay.
As a tribute to the life and work of Lincoln it is worthy to stand
beside the “Commemoration Ode” of Lowell and the memorial poems of
Whitman. Both from his natural sympathies and endowments and because
of his participation in the events of the time, Schurz was eminently
qualified to write on the subject. With fine enthusiasm and yet
avoiding extravagant eulogy, he never loses sight of the essentially
human characteristics of the great President. The following passage
comprises the closing words of the essay. The selections on “True
Americanism” are taken from an address delivered in Faneuil Hall,
Boston, on the 18th of April, 1859.

AN IMMIGRANT’S TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN

To the younger generation Abraham Lincoln has already become a half-mythical figure, which, in the haze of historic distance, grows to more and more heroic proportions, but also loses in distinctness of outline and feature. This is indeed the common lot of popular heroes; but the Lincoln legend will be more than ordinarily apt to become fanciful, as his individuality, assembling seemingly incongruous qualities and forces in a character at the same time grand and most lovable, was so unique, and his career so abounding in startling contrasts. As the state of society in which Abraham Lincoln grew up passes away, the world will read with increasing wonder of the man who, not only of the humblest origin, but remaining the simplest and most unpretending of citizens, was raised to a position of power unprecedented in our history; who was the gentlest and most peace-loving of mortals, unable to see any creature suffer without a pang in his own breast, and suddenly found himself called to conduct the greatest and bloodiest of our wars; who wielded the power of government when stern resolution and relentless force were the order of the day, and then won and ruled the popular mind and heart by the tender sympathies of his nature; who was a cautious conservative by temperament and mental habit, and led the most sudden and sweeping social revolution of our time; who, preserving his homely speech and rustic manner even in the most conspicuous position of that period, drew upon himself the scoffs of polite society, and then thrilled the soul of mankind with utterances of wonderful beauty and grandeur; who, in his heart the best friend of the defeated South, was murdered because a crazy fanatic took him for its most cruel enemy; who, while in power, was beyond measure lampooned and maligned by sectional passion and an excited party spirit, and around whose bier friend and foe gathered to praise him--which they have since never ceased to do--as one of the greatest of Americans and the best of men.

TRUE AMERICANISM

It is one of the earliest recollections of my boyhood that one summer night our whole village was stirred up by an uncommon occurrence. I say our village, for I was born not far from the beautiful spot where the Rhine rolls his green waters out of the wonderful gate of the Seven Mountains, and then meanders with majestic tranquillity through one of the most glorious valleys of the world. That night our neighbors were pressing around a few wagons covered with linen sheets and loaded with household utensils and boxes and trunks to their utmost capacity. One of our neighboring families was moving far away across a great water, and it was said they would never again return. And I saw silent tears trickling down weather-beaten cheeks, and the hands of rough peasants firmly pressing each other, and some of the men and women hardly able to speak when they nodded to one another a last farewell. At last the train started into motion, they gave three cheers for _America_, and then in the first gray dawn of the morning I saw them wending their way over the hill until they disappeared in the shadow of the forest. And I heard many a man say, how happy he would be if he could go with them to that great and free country, where a man could be himself.

That was the first time that I heard of America, and my childish imagination took possession of a land covered partly with majestic trees, partly with flowery prairies, immeasurable to the eye, and intersected with large rivers and broad lakes,--a land where everybody could do what he thought best, and where nobody need be poor because everybody was free.

And later, when I was old enough to read, and descriptions of this country and books on American history fell into my hands, the offspring of my imagination acquired the colors of reality, and I began to exercise my brain with the thought what man might be and become when left perfectly free to himself. And still later, when ripening into manhood, I looked up from my schoolbooks into the stir and bustle of the world, and the trumpet-tones of struggling humanity struck my ear and thrilled my heart, and I saw my nation shake her chains in order to burst them, and I heard a gigantic, universal shout for Liberty rising up to the skies; and at last, after having struggled manfully and drenched the earth of Fatherland with the blood of thousands of noble beings, I saw that nation crushed down again, not only by overwhelming armies, but by the dead weight of customs and institutions and notions and prejudices, which past centuries had heaped upon them, and which a moment of enthusiasm, however sublime, could not destroy; then I consoled an almost despondent heart with the idea of a youthful people and of original institutions clearing the way for an untrammeled development of the ideal nature of man. Then I turned my eyes instinctively across the Atlantic Ocean, and America and Americanism, as I fancied them, appeared to me as the last depositories of the hopes of all true friends of humanity.

I say all this, not as though I indulged in the presumptuous delusion that my personal feelings and experience would be of any interest to you, but in order to show you what America is to the thousands of thinking men in the old world, who, disappointed in their fondest hopes and depressed by the saddest experience, cling with their last remnant of confidence in human nature, to the last spot on earth where man is free to follow the road to attainable perfection, and where, unbiased by the disastrous influence of traditional notions, customs, and institutions, he acts on his own responsibility. They ask themselves: Was it but a wild delusion when we thought that man has the faculty to be free and to govern himself? Have we been fighting, were we ready to die, for a mere phantom, for a mere product of a morbid imagination? This question downtrodden humanity cries out into the world, and from this country it expects an answer....

They speak of the greatness of the Roman Republic! Oh, sir, if I could call the proudest of Romans from his grave, I would take him by the hand and say to him, Look at this picture, and at this! The greatness of the Roman Republic consisted in its despotic rule over the world; the greatness of the American Republic consists in the secured right of man to govern himself. The dignity of the Roman citizen consisted in his exclusive privileges; the dignity of the American citizen consists in his holding the natural rights of his neighbor just as sacred as his own. The Roman Republic recognized and protected the _rights of the citizen_, at the same time disregarding and leaving unprotected the _rights of man_; Roman citizenship was founded upon monopoly, not upon the claims of human nature. What the citizen of Rome claimed for himself, he did not respect in others; his own greatness was his only object; his own liberty, as he regarded it, gave him the privilege to oppress his fellow-beings. His democracy, instead of elevating mankind to its own level, trampled the rights of man into the dust. The security of the Roman Republic, therefore, consisted in the power of the sword; the security of the American Republic rests in the equality of human rights! The Roman Republic perished by the sword; the American Republic will stand as long as the equality of human rights remains inviolate. Which of the two Republics is the greater--the Republic of the Roman, or the Republic of _man_?

Sir, I wish the words of the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created free and equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights,” were inscribed upon every gatepost within the limits of this Republic. From this principle the Revolutionary Fathers derived their claim to independence; upon this they founded the institutions of this country, and the whole structure was to be the living incarnation of this idea. This principle contains the programme of our political existence. It is the most progressive, and at the same time the most conservative one; the most progressive, for it takes even the lowliest members of the human family out of their degradation, and inspires them with the elevating consciousness of equal human dignity; the most conservative, for it makes a common cause of individual rights. From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor’s rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. And when the rights of one cannot be infringed without finding a ready defence in all others who defend their own rights in defending his, then, and only then, are the rights of all safe against the usurpation of governmental authority.

This general identity of interests is the only thing that can guarantee the stability of democratic institutions. Equality of rights, embodied in general self-government, is the great moral element of true democracy; it is the only reliable safety-valve in the machinery of modern society. There is the solid foundation of our system of government; there is our mission; there is our greatness; there is our safety; there, and nowhere else! This is true Americanism, and to this I pay the tribute of my devotion.

EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN

Edwin Lawrence Godkin was born of English ancestry at Moyne, County
Wicklow, Ireland, on October 2, 1831. His father, the Rev. James
Godkin, a Presbyterian minister of literary talents, after being
forced from his pulpit for espousing the cause of Young Ireland,
became a journalist of some distinction. The son received his
preparatory education at Armagh, and at Silcoates School, Wakefield,
Yorkshire. In 1846 he entered Queen’s College, Belfast. After
graduating from this institution in 1851, he went to London to study
law at Lincoln’s Inn. After some journalistic experience in the
Crimea and in Belfast, he came to America in 1856 and settled in
New York. His real career began with the founding of _The New York
Nation_ in 1865. His connection with this journal was both long and
distinguished, and his efforts for the encouragement of a sound
and enlightened public opinion have recently been appropriately
recognized in the semi-centenary volume, “Fifty Years of American
Idealism,” edited by Gustav Pollak. He contributed many incisive
essays on political and economic subjects to various magazines.
The most important of these have been collected in three volumes,
“Reflections and Comments,” “Problems of Modern Democracy,” and
“Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy.” It is from the opening essay of
the second that the following selection is taken.

Wendell Phillips Garrison, his associate, said of him: “As no
American could have written Bryce’s ‘American Commonwealth’ or
Goldwin Smith’s ‘History of the United States,’ so it may be doubted
if any native of this country could have erected the standard of
political independence which Mr. Godkin set up in _The Nation_ and
maintained in _The Evening Post_. He did this, however, not as a
foreigner, but as an American to the core. A utilitarian of the
school of Bentham, an economist of the school of John Stuart Mill, an
English Liberal to whom America, with all its flagrant inconsistency
of slaveholding, was still the hope of universal democracy, he
cast in his lot with us, became a naturalized citizen, took an
American wife--gave every pledge to the land of his adoption except
that of being a servile follower of party.” Brilliant, thoughtful,
questioning, he was keenly sensible of the many evil tendencies
in modern democracy; yet with philosophic insight he rejected the
unsound comparisons drawn by many political thinkers between ancient
aristocratic democracies and modern democracy, which he viewed as a
new experiment and therefore to be tested by new principles and new
conditions.

AN IMMIGRANT’S FAITH IN DEMOCRACY[4]

If, indeed, the defects which foreign observers see, and many of which Americans acknowledge and deplore, in the politics and society of the United States were fairly chargeable to democracy,--if “the principle of equality” were necessarily fatal to excellence in the arts, to finish in literature, to simplicity and force in oratory, to fruitful exploration in the fields of science, to statesmanship in the government, to discipline in the army, to grace and dignity in social intercourse, to subordination to lawful authority, and to self-restraint in the various relations of life,--the future of the world would be such as no friend of the race would wish to contemplate; for the spread of democracy is on all sides acknowledged to be irresistible. Even those who watch its advance with most fear and foreboding confess that most civilized nations must erelong succumb to its sway. Its progress in some countries may be slower than in others, but it is constant in all; and it is accelerated by two powerful agencies,--the Christian religion and the study of political economy.

The Christian doctrine that men, however unequal in their condition or in their gifts on earth, are of equal value in the eyes of their Creator, and are entitled to respect and consideration, if for no other reason, for the simple one that they are human souls, long as it has been preached, has, strange to say, only very lately begun to exercise any perceptible influence on politics. It led a troubled and precarious life for nearly eighteen hundred years in conventicles and debating clubs, in the romance of poets, in the dreams of philosophers and the schemes of philanthropists. But it is now found in the cabinets of kings and statesmen, on the floor of parliament houses, and in the most secret of diplomatic conferences. It gives shape and foundation to nearly every great social reform, and its voice is heard above the roar of every revolution.