The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. I, 1898Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. I, 1898
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
“Only the Teutonic races have produced national states.... The
National State is thus the most modern and most complete solution of
the whole problem of political organization which the world has as
yet produced; and the fact that it is the creation of the Teutonic
political genius stamps the Teutonic races as the political nations
_par excellence_, and authorizes them in the economy of the world to
assume the leadership in the establishment and administration of
states.”
This brilliant outburst winds up a series of equally impressive
statements. Just what the Professor means by National States and
political nations I do not know, nor am I sure he knows himself. At
any rate, he appears to lay down a doctrine very delightful to these
governments which bully nations and steal territories, if not quite
so agreeable to those bullied and plundered.
Now listen to his views on the unfortunate Celt; they have the old
familiar ring of anti-Irish hysteria, for which familiarity has bred
Irish contempt.
“Personal attachment in small bodies to a chosen Chief is the
peculiar political trait of the Celtic nations.... The effect of
such a political character has always been the organization of the
Celtic nations into numberless petty military States, in each of
which individual rights have been ignored; between all of which
civil war has been the permanent status; and against which foreign
force has been continually successful.... Violence and Corruption
have always marked the politics of Celtic nations.”
Let us stop for a moment to analyze this tremendous blast from
Columbia University, remembering that Germany and England are
Professor Burgess’s ideal Teutonic nations.
From the time of the Roman retrocession from England until the
landing of William the Norman at Hastings, that unfortunate land was
in the hands of one of the dullest, most unimaginative,
worst-governed, and worst-governing races history mentions—the
Saxons—for six hundred years; it had become a congeries of warring,
military chieftainship, in which civilization was almost
obliterated, learning had disappeared, religion was at its lowest
ebb, life and property had no safety, the people were enslaved, and
the coast harried by foreign and victorious foes. The advent of a
strong conqueror—a mixed Celt and Norseman—changed all this,
hammered England into a strong military kingdom, connected her with
the civilization that has made the world what it is—the Latin—and
did in six years what the pure Teutonic race had signally failed to
do in as many centuries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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