Words Of Lasting Wisdom
 

7-12-2018

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism! There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only hundred percent Americanism, and only for those who are Americans and nothing else!

We have room in this country for but one flag – the Stars and Stripes… We have room for but one loyalty, loyalty to The United States… We have room here for but one language – The English Language…”

by - President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt

“The greatest thing that anyone could ever aspire to be in life, is to be a loyal and patriotic citizen of the greatest nation to ever exist upon the face of this planet – The United States of America”…. hrt/12 July/2018


Hardcore

Hyphenated American
 

We've heard this word before on a thread or two. To be more specific (see below).

The dictionary states the following:

An American citizen who can trace their ancestry to another, specified part of the world, such as an African American or an Irish American (so called because terms like African American are often written with a hyphen).

In the United States, the term hyphenated American refers to the use of a hyphen (in some styles of writing) between the name of an ethnicity and the word "American" in compound nouns. It was an epithet used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country through the use of the hyphen. It was most commonly directed at German Americans or Irish Americans (Catholics) who called for U.S. neutrality in World War I. President Theodore Roosevelt was an outspoken anti-hyphenate and Woodrow Wilson followed suit.[1] Contemporary studies and debates refer to hyphenated-American identities to discuss issues such as multiculturalism and immigration in the U.S. political climate, however the hyphen is rarely used per the recommendation of modern style guides.

A. Theodore Roosevelt stated:

The term "hyphenated American" was published by 1889,[2] and was common as a derogatory term by 1904. During World War I the issue arose of the primary political loyalty of ethnic groups with close ties to Europe, especially German Americans and also Irish Americans. Former President Theodore Roosevelt in speaking to the largely Irish Catholic Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on Columbus Day 1915, asserted that,[3]

1. 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 … 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 … 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.

B. President Woodrow Wilson stated:

President Woodrow Wilson regarded "hyphenated Americans" with suspicion, saying, "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."