07-09-2008, 07:40 AM
"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 man's becoming in very fact 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, and this excludes the red flag,
which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it
excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...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 a loyalty to the American people."
~Theodore Roosevelt~
The passages were culled from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.
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 man's becoming in very fact 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, and this excludes the red flag,
which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it
excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...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 a loyalty to the American people."
~Theodore Roosevelt~
The passages were culled from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.