The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth
General
The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth
American literature; Americanization; Noncitizens -- United States
Let me remind you of the abundant hospitality, the wonderful generosity
of the American people toward aspiring youth. Talent which would be
ignored in Great Britain, promise which would be sneered at in every
continental country in Europe, is here discovered and encouraged
to develop into power. This is a phenomenon of which we must never
lose sight, the chance here in the United States for a man to be
intellectually all that it is possible for him to be. The best teachers
may often be seen here wielding the educational power of history and
the arts to train the youth to whom college is an impossibility, for
service requiring educated powers, in his day and generation.
There is to be noted the opportunity in the way of character and moral
influence that comes to citizens of the United States. What does that
mean? The chance to change and improve the law of the land, the chance
for a man to change and improve the government of the United States,
the chance to modify, in the line of humanity, the social feeling of
the United States. And freedom is here the condition of all; every man
who complains that things are not what they should be has a chance by
his vote to remedy the abuse and to take another step toward the ideal.
Here again there is something new, measuring it against the whole
people. We are dupes and fools when we allow ourselves to be ruled by
groups in this country; we are free men, with the power in our hands.
If we have moral ideals of our own, and moral character, we can so use
them as to lift the character of the land in which we live.
3. Finally, there was the duty of the tribune as a Roman citizen. Paul
was about to be bound and tortured, without trial, when he appealed
to the chief captain, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is
a Roman and uncondemned?” This startled the man. “Tell me, art thou a
Roman? Good heavens, this will never do! I am pledged to do my duty!
Get off those shackles and set the man free and guard his life!” There
was the man’s sense of his duty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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