Americanization; a school reader and speaker

Front matter

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AMERICANIZATIO

GRISCOM

Preface

" Americanization — to give the term its most comprehensive meaning — is the business of making good American citizens, the business of acquainting every one who inhabits American soil with both physical and spiritual America, to the end that this acquaintance may result in a sturdy loyalty to American institutions and American ideals, and in the habit of living the life of the good American citizen. To Americanize America it is necessary, truly to reach the native born and the immigrant, the adult and the child in school; and incidentally, the task of Americanizing the ! new comer will be rendered comparatively easy if we can but succeed first in Americanizing ourselves. "

In this " business of making good American citizens" we naturally think, first of all, of the citizens-in-themaking, the boys and girls in our schools; for Americanization, broadly considered, means education for citizenship.

This book is intended for use in the intermediate, grammar, and lower high school grades as a reader and speaker. It contains selections from historic American documents and from the writings and speeches of eminent publicists, dealing with various phases of the Americanization problem. The selections are grouped under the following captions: (1) Foundation Stones in our History and Institutions, (2) The Story and Meaning of Our Flag, (3) Great Names in American History, (4) Incentives to Patriotism, (5) Present-day Problems.

Each selection, though a unit in thought, is limited in

PREFACE

length. This plan was adopted for a two-fold purpose: (1) to multiply the units of interest, and (2) to render the selections adaptable for memoriter delivery either in class exercises or in declamation contests. Whether the book is used as a reader or as a speaker, or both, the " questions and exercises" appended to many of the selections will serve to aid in the thought interpretation, to stimulate interest, and to suggest topics for class discussions.

If this book serves to fix more definitely in the minds of the children in our schools the basic principles of American institutions and government, to bring to these citizens-of-to-morrow a keener appreciation of the nature, privileges, and duties of good citizenship, and to incite in them a spirit of loyalty and service — the editor's purpose will be accomplished.

Contents

PAET ONE

FOUNDATION STONES IN OUR HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS

PAGE

Part Two The Stoey And The Meaning Of Our Flag Page

HlSTORY OF THE AMERICAN FLAG 43

The Star-Spangled Banner — Henry Watterson. . 44

Loyalty Pledge — Adapted 49

The Making of Our Country's Flag — Franklin

K. Lane 49

The National Flag — Henry Ward Beeclier 51

America's Mission — Franklin K. Lane 53

A Last Plea for Americanism — Theodore Roosevelt 56

Part Three Great Names In American History

Washington and Americanism — James Sullivan.. 61 Thomas Jefferson, Democrat — W. C. P. Brecken-

ridge 63

John Marshall — Henry Cabot Lodge 67

Alexander Hamilton — Joseph H. Choate 71

Samuel Adams and the New England Town- Meeting — George William Curtis 72

The Legacy of William Penn — Woodrow Wilson 77

Character of Webster — Thomas F. Bayard 78

Charles Sumner — Carl Schurz 82

Abraham Lincoln — Ralph Waldo Emerson 86

Lincoln, The Man of Destiny — Henry Watterson 90

The Spirit of Abraham Lincoln — Woodrow Wilson 92 Looking Through Lincoln's Eyes — Franklin K.

Lane 93

Robert E. Lee — John W. Daniel 94

General Grant-— William McKinley 98

"Stonewall" Jackson — Moses D. Hoge 102

PAGE

The Typical American — Henry W. Grady 106

The Potency of Eoosevelt's Spikit — Adapted by

E. D. Shurter 107

Theodoee Eooseyelt as a Vital Force — Albert

Bushnell Hart 109

PAET FOUE

INCENTIVES TO PATEIOTISM

Civic Creeds — Adapted from the "Creed/' by Edwin

0. Grover 117

I Am An American — Adapted from "The Rotarian" 118

Am I a Good Citizen? — Meredith Nicholson 120

The Ideal Eepublic — William J. Bryan 121

Why Does the Nation Pay for the Schools? —

William McAndrew 123

A Charter of Democracy — Theodore Roosevelt 125

International Patriotism — Bliss Perry 127

The Law of Service — Lyman Abbott 129

America a World Power — Woodrow Wilson ;: 131

American Citizenship — Daniel Webster 134"

Democracy in Education — Philander P. Claxton.. 135

Americans for America — Laurette Taylor 136

Equality of Opportunity — Will H. Hays 139

Equal Justice and Opportunity — Albert Shiels. . 141 The Duty and the Value of Patriotism — Arch-

bishop John Ireland 144 ^

Americanism — What Does It Mean? — Rabbi

Emanuel Sternheim 145

Good Citizenship — Henry Cabot Lodge 147 <

Loyalty to Democratic Standards — Adapted from

"The Christian Science Monitor" 149

Liberty and Discipline — Lawrence Lowell 151

United We Stand — Edwin E. Slosson 153

PAGE

The Ability to Eeason, a Necessary Quality

for Citizenship — Arthur T. Hadley 156

Americanism — Theodore Roosevelt 158

A Man Without a Country — Adapted by E. D.

Shurter 160

Ancestral Ideals — Henry Van Dyke 162

The American Spirit — James Cardinal Gibbons.. 163

PAET FIVE

PEESENT-DAY PEOBLEMS

Faith in America — George William Curtis 169

Public Speaking in the Country Districts —

Albert Shaw 171

Government by Public Opinion — Adapted by E. D.

Shurter 172

American Character — Brander Matthews 174

Cooperation with the Man Lower Down — Frank

Trumbull 175

Work or Die — Hugh Wiley ' 177

The American Mind — Henry Seidel Canby 180

The Scholar in a Eepublic — Wendell Phillips... 182 The Educated Man and Democratic Ideals —

Charles E. Hughes 184

The Pilgrim's Eeligion as a Guide for To-Day —

Gustav A. Carstensen 186

The Influence of the Immigrant on America —

Walter Edward Weyl 188

Can Democracy Be Organized? — Edwin A. Alderman 190

An Immigrant Who Became One of Our Greatest

Builders — Adapted from "The Literary Digest" 191 Labor and the Common Welfare — Samuel Gompers 193

A New Heaven — Lewis B. Avery 195

Citizens of To-Morrow — E. A. Hanley 197

PAGE

The Working of the American Democracy —

Charles Eliot 198

The Higher Patriotism — Jane Ad dams 200

Mob Law — Abraham Lincoln 202

The Power of the Minority in Effecting Ke-

forms — John B. Gough 204

The Tyranny of the Majority — Frank 0. Low den 205

The Message to Garcia — Elbert Hubbard 209

Free Speech — Theodore Tilt on 211

The Conservation of Public Speech — Bruce

Barton 213

The True American — A Conscientious Man —

Franklin Henry Giddings 215

America, a World Power — Archbishop John Ireland 217

Educated Men and Politics — Grover Cleveland. . . . 219

Common Sense — Irving Bacheller 223

Private Gods the Worst Enemy of Democracy —

Irving Bacheller 225

Clean Politics — Theodore Roosevelt 227

Americanization, What Is It? — Don D. Lescohier. 229 The Duty of Christian Citizenship — T. Deiritt

Talmadge 232

School Activities and Public Service — William

McAndrew 234

The Immigrants — Ourselves — Fred C. Butler. . . . 236 The Americanization Problem — Frederic Sieden-

burg 239

International Unity — Philander C. Knox 241

The Press and Modern Progress — John Hay.... 243 The Higher Education of Women — George W.

Curtis 247

A Pan-American Policy — Elihu Boot 247

The Americanism of the Cape Cod Fishermen —

Joseph C. Lincoln 251

The Conditions of a Successful Life — Theodore

Roosevelt 253

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence Frontispiece

PAGE

Jefferson's Draft of Part of the Declaration

of Independence 7

George Washington 27

The Salute to the Flag 47 ^

Thomas Jefferson 65 *"

John Marshall 69

Alexander Hamilton 73 u

William Penn 79

Daniel Webster 83

Abraham Lincoln 87

Eobert E. Lee , 95

Ulysses S. Grant 99 ^

Stonewall Jackson 103^

Theodore Eoosevelt Ill 1

t

Independence Hall 207

Grover Cleveland 22flr

John Hay 245^

Part One Foundation Stones In Our History And Institutions

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

On June 7, 1776, more than a year after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Richard Henry Lee introduced in the Continental Congress a resolution which stated that "The united colonies are, and of right ought to ba, free and independent states." A committee was appointed on June 10th to draw up a formal declaration of independence. The actual composition of this document was the work of Thomas Jefferson. John Adams writing to his wife said, "Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was debated among men. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America." The preamble to the Declaration, slightly amended and adopted July 4, 1776, in the form we have to-day, runs as follows:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among

6 AMBEICANIZATION

these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Then, after giving a list of the wrongs suffered by the Colonies at the hands of the British government, the Declaration concludes as follows:

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by a o o ►

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THOMAS JEFFEKSON 9

authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Questions and Exercises 1. Did the American leaders have any thought of separation from Great Britain at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War? 2. What was the attitude of the British people toward the Colonists? 3. What was the attitude of the British government?

DECLARATION OF THE CAUSES AND NECESSITY OF TAKING UP ARMS

Thomas Jeffeeson

June 23, 1775, a committee was appointed by the president of the Continental Congress "to draw up a declaration, to be published by General Washington upon his arrival at the camp before Boston." The report was brought in the next day, and, after debate, was recommitted, and Dickinson and Jefferson added to the committee. A draft prepared by Jefferson being thought by Dickinson to be too outspoken, the latter prepared a new one, retaining, however, the closing

10 AMEEICAXIZATIOX

paragraphs as drawn by Jefferson. In this form the declaration was reported June twenty-seventh, and agreed to July sixth. The closing paragraphs which Jefferson composed are as follows:

We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favor toward us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly before God and the world declare that exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen than to live slaves.

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our

THOMAS JEFFERSON 11

friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, nor induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or suspicion of offense. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of our aggressors, and their all danger of being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore His divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.

1. What part of this ovation suggests the famous oration of Patrick Henry? 2. In what passages does Jefferson show his firm trust in God? 3. Point out a sentence of which the meaning is not complete until the last word. 4. What is the value of the periodic sentence?

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Carl Schurz

Let your imagination carry you back to the year 1776. You stand in the hall of the old Colonial Court House of Philadelphia. Through the open door you see the Continental Congress assembled; the moment for a great decision is drawing near.

The first little impulses to the general upheaval of the popular spirit, the Tea Tax, the Stamp Act, drop into insignificance; they are almost forgotten; the revolutionary spirit has risen far above them. It puts the claim to independence upon the broad basis of eternal rights, as self-evident as the sun, as broad as the world, as common as the air of heaven.

The struggle of the colonies against the usurping government of Great Britain has risen to the proud dimensions of a struggle of man for liberty and equality. Not only the supremacy of old England is to be shaken off, but a new organization of society is to be built up, on the basis of liberty and equality. That is the Declaration of Independence ! That is the American Revolution !

It is a common thing that men of a coarse cast of mind so lose themselves in the mean pursuit of selfish ends as to become insensible to the grand and sublime. Measuring every character, and every event in history, by the low standard of their own individualities, incapable of grasping broad and generous ideas, they will belittle every great thing they cannot deny, and drag down every struggle of principle to the sordid arena of aspiring selfishness.

CAEL SCHUBZ 13

Eighteen hundred years ago there were men who saw in incipient Christianity nothing but a mere wrangle between Jewish theologians, by a carpenter's boy, and carried on by a few crazy fishermen. Three hundred years ago there were men who saw in the great reformatory movement of the sixteenth century, not the emancipation of the individual conscience, but a mere fuss raised by a German monk who wanted to get married. Two hundred years ago there were men who saw in Hampden's refusal to pay ship money, not a bold vindication of constitutional liberty, but the crazy antics of a man who was mean enough to quarrel about a few shillings.

And now, there are men who see in the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, not the reorganization of human society upon a basis of liberty and equality, but a dodge of some English colonists who were unwilling to pay their taxes.

It is in vain for demagogism to raise its short arms against the truth of history. The Declaration of Independence stands there. No candid man ever read it without seeing and feeling that every word of it was dedicated by deep and earnest thought, and that every sentence of it bears the stamp of philosophic generality.

It is the summing up of the results of the philosophical development of the age; the practical embodiment of the progressive ideas, which, far from being confined to the narrow limits of the English colonies, pervaded the very atmosphere of all civilized countries.

1. Who was Carl Schurz? 2. What is meant by "It is vain for demagogism to raise its short arms against the truth of history"?

IMAGINARY SPEECH OF JOHN ADAMS

Daniel Webster

In his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, Daniel Webster gave the following imaginary speech of John Adams in urging the adoption of the Declaration of Independence :

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence, but there's a divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the declaration?

Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and his own honor? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws? If we postpone independence, do we mean to carry on or to give up the war? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston Port Bill and all? Do we mean to submit, and consent that we ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust?

If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these colonies,

DANIEL WEBSTER 15

and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead.

Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for the restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered immunities held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling around public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for this declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment — independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOR- EVER!

Questions and Exekcises

1. Under what circumstances was this speech supposedly delivered? 2. What is the present policy of Great Britain toward her colonies?

BACK TO THE DECLARATION Abraham Lincoln

In his campaign for the Senate, against Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, Abraham Lincoln said:

The Declaration of Independence was formed by the representatives of American liberty from thirteen states of the confederacy. These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children, and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 17

began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land, so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built.

Now, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the revolution. Think nothing of me — take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than any anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy the immortal emblem of Humanity — the Declaration of American Independence.

1. What does the Declaration of Independence mean when it says that "all men are created equal"? 2. Who was Judge Douglas? In the opening sentence what is this "confederacy" that Lincoln mentions?

BILL OF RIGHTS

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

The English common law, upon which English and American liberties are based, was slowly evolved through centuries of growth. Its maxims embody the most sacred beliefs of our race. It is that "law of the land" to which the Magna Charta refers, and its essential principles are those of the Petition of Right of Charles I, and the Bill of Rights and Act of Settlement of the Revolution of 1688. The Constitution of the United States, framed in Philadelphia, in 1787, breathes forth the ancient Anglo-Saxon love of liberty regulated by precedent and law, their love of order and discipline, their hatred of tyranny, their belief in the inalienable rights of man, and their instinct, as old as the race itself, for local and representative government. As long as Americans observe the spirit of the American Constitution, especially the first ten Amendments thereto, commonly known as The Bill of Rights, our present civilization is safe. Our "Bill of Rights" is embodied in the following ten articles of the Constitution:

I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

II. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

III. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

"BILL OF EIGHTS" 19

IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of war or in public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.