CA. 1907 "In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the person becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here.
Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here and that is the English language...
and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is loyalty to the American people."
It sounds like T.R. said it all pretty well 100 years ag0!
Can't argue with the sentiment. Take pride in your heritage and background, but also understand what you are now...
I also really like this part: "he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin"
It's nice to go to snopes.com and have something in an email that's attributed to someone famous turn out to be true, for once.
But the quote is from a letter written shortly before his death in 1919, and is addressing the problem he had seen during WWI of some German-Americans staying loyal to Germany, instead of to their adopted country. And although some of them definitely did so, the problem tended to be exaggerated in the media and in people's minds, with a whole group getting the blame for a few bad apples (as usual).
I have the utmost respect for Teddy Roosevelt, though. If I could somehow go back in time and hang out with any one person in American history, he's probably the one I'd choose.
