What is true of creed is no less true of nationality. 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 anyone 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. There
is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The
only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and
nothing else.
I appeal to history. Among the generals of Washington in the
Revolutionary War were Greene, Putnam and Lee, who were of English
descent; Wayne and Sullivan, who were of Irish descent; Marion,
who was of French descent; Schuyler, who was of Dutch descent, and
Muhlenberg and Herkemer, who were of German descent. But they were
all of them Americans and nothing else, just as much as Washington.
Carroll of Carrollton was a Catholic; Hancock a Protestant; Jefferson
was heterodox from the standpoint of any orthodox creed; but these and
all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence stood on an
equality of duty and right and liberty, as Americans and nothing else.
So it was in the Civil War. Farragut’s father was born in Spain and
Sheridan’s father in Ireland; Sherman and Thomas were of English and
Custer of German descent; and Grant came of a long line of American
ancestors whose original home had been Scotland. But the Admiral was
not a Spanish-American; and the Generals were not Scotch-Americans or
Irish-Americans or English-Americans or German-Americans. They were
all Americans and nothing else. This was just as true of Lee and of
Stonewall Jackson and of Beauregard.
When in 1909 our battlefleet returned from its voyage around the world,
Admirals Wainwright and Schroeder represented the best traditions and
the most effective action in our navy; one was of old American blood
and of English descent; the other was the son of German immigrants. But
one was not a native-American and the other a German-American. Each was
an American pure and simple. Each bore allegiance only to the flag of
the United States. Each would have been incapable of considering the
interests of Germany or of England or of any other country except the
United States.
To take charge of the most important work under my administration, the
building of the Panama Canal, I chose General Goethals. Both of his
parents were born in Holland. But he was just plain United States. He
wasn’t a Dutch-American; if he had been I wouldn’t have appointed him.
So it was with such men, among those who served under me, as Admiral
Osterhaus and General Barry. The father of one was born in Germany, the
father of the other in Ireland. But they were both Americans, pure and
simple, and first rate fighting men in addition.
In my Cabinet at the time there were men of English and French,
German, Irish and Dutch blood, men born on this side and men born in
Germany and Scotland; but they were all Americans and nothing else;
and every one of them was incapable of thinking of himself or of his
fellow-countrymen, excepting in terms of American citizenship. If any
one of them had anything in the nature of a dual or divided allegiance
in his soul, he never would have been appointed to serve under me, and
he would have been instantly removed when the discovery was made. There
wasn’t one of them who was capable of desiring that the policy of the
United States should be shaped with reference to the interests of any
foreign country or with consideration for anything, outside of the
general welfare of humanity, save the honor and interest of the United
States, and each was incapable of making any discrimination whatsoever
among the citizens of the country he served, of our common country,
save discrimination based on conduct and on conduct alone.
For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American
or an English-American is to be a traitor to American institutions;
and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by
threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American
Republic.