The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European historyGrant, Madison
History
The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history
Grant, Madison
Ethnology -- Europe
Whatever may be its intellectual, its literary, its artistic or its
musical aptitudes, as compared with other races, the Anglo-Saxon branch
of the Nordic race is again showing itself to be that upon which the
nation must chiefly depend for leadership, for courage, for loyalty, for
unity and harmony of action, for self-sacrifice and devotion to an
ideal. Not that members of other races are not doing their part, many of
them are, but in no other human stock which has come to this country is
there displayed the unanimity of heart, mind and action which is now
being displayed by the descendants of the blue eyed, fair-haired peoples
of the north of Europe. In a recent journey in northern California and
Oregon I noted that, in the faces of the regiments which were first to
leave for the city of New York and later that, in the wonderful array of
young men at Plattsburg, the Anglo-Saxon type was clearly dominant over
every other and the purest members of this type largely outnumbered the
others. In northern California I saw a great regiment detrain and with
one or two exceptions they were all native Americans, descendants of the
English, Scotch and north of Ireland men who founded the State of Oregon
in the first half of the nineteenth century. At Plattsburg fair hair and
blue eyes were very noticeable, much more so than in any ordinary crowds
of American collegians as seen assembled in our universities.
It should be remembered also that many of the dark-haired, dark-eyed
youths of Plattsburg and other volunteer training camps are often
three-fourths or seven-eighths Nordic, because it only requires a single
dark-eyed ancestor to lend the dark hair and eye color to an otherwise
pure Nordic strain. There is a clear differentiation between the
original Nordic, the Alpine and the Mediterranean strains; but where
physical characters and characteristics are partly combined in a mosaic,
and to a less degree are blended, it requires long experience to judge
which strain dominates.
With a race having these predispositions, extending back to the very
beginnings of European history, there is no hesitation or even waiting
for conscription and the sad thought was continually in my mind in
California, in Oregon and in Plattsburg that again this race was
passing, that this war will take a very heavy toll of this strain of
Anglo-Saxon life which has played so large a part in American history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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