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Read Ebook: The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth by Stauffer Robert Elihu Editor
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Ebook has 651 lines and 58822 words, and 14 pages
OTTO HERMANN KAHN 143
"Capital and Labor--A Fair Deal" 144
MARCUS ELI RAVAGE 150
The New Immigration 151
What College Life in the West Did for an Immigrant 152
ELIZABETH G. STERN 160
The Pathos of Readjustment 161
ROBERT M. WERNAER 166
"The Soul of America" 167
"We Must Be True" 172
ANGELO PATRI 173
An Immigrant and His Father 174
An Immigrant and the Children 177
ANZIA YEZIERSKA 181
"How I Found America" 182
PAGE
Adler, Felix 77
Antin, Mary 82
Bok, Edward 71
Canoutas, Seraphim G. 121
D'Arusmont, Frances 29
Godkin, Edwin L. 44
Gordon, George A. 111
Kahn, Otto H. 143
Kulamer, John 130
Lieber, Francis 33
Mattson, Hans 58
Miele, Stefano 125
O'Reilly, John Boyle 52
Patri, Angelo 173
Ravage, Marcus E. 150
Rihbany, Abraham M. 91
Riis, Jacob 61
Sartorio, Enrico C. 136
Schaff, Philip 20
Schurz, Carl 38
Steiner, Edward A. 96
Stern, Elizabeth G. 160
Straus, Oscar S. 72
Van der Zee, Jacob 66
Wernaer, Robert M. 166
Yezierska, Anzia 181
FOOTNOTE:
Several titles have been supplied by the editor; those given in the words of the author are enclosed in quotation marks.
The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth
PHILIP SCHAFF
It is as a theologian and as editor of the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia and other religious works that Philip Schaff is chiefly known; but there is a slighter work of his which hardly deserves the neglect into which it has fallen,--that is, his address on "American Nationality," delivered before the Irving Society of the College of St. James, Maryland, June 11th, 1856. He was born at Coire, Switzerland, and was educated at the Stuttgart Gymnasium and at the universities of T?bingen, Halle and Berlin. After traveling for a while as a private tutor he was called to a professorship in the theological seminary of the German Reformed Church at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and came to the United States in 1844. In 1870 he accepted the professorship of sacred literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He revisited Europe several times, on one occasion going to Russia in behalf of oppressed people there. It is not unnatural that one who was born in a land that has sheltered so many nationalities, and where a strong spirit of liberty has always existed, should have so keen and farsighted an appreciation of the meaning and influence of the cosmopolitan character of the American nation.
Cosmopolitan Character of American Nationality
Nationality grows with the nation itself and acts as a powerful stimulus in its development. But on the other side it presupposes an organized state of society and is the result of a historical process. Barbarians have no nationality, because they are no nations, but simply material for nations. It is not only the community of origin and language, but also the community of rights and duties, of laws and institutions, of deeds and sufferings, of freedom and oppression, of literature and art, of virtue and religion, that enters into the definition of a nation and gives vigor to the sense of nationality. Historical reminiscences of glory and woe, whether preserved in monuments, or written records, or oral traditions, popular songs and national airs, such as "God save the Queen," "Ye mariners of England," "Rule, Britannia," "Scots wha hae with Wallace bled," "Allons enfants de la patrie," "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland," "The Star Spangled Banner," "Hail, Columbia," contribute powerfully to strengthen the national tie and to kindle the fire of national enthusiasm.
Nationality begets patriotism, one of the noblest of natural virtues that has filled the pages of history with so many heroic deeds and sacrifices. Who can read without admiration the immortal story of Gideon, Leonidas, Cincinnatus, Horatius Cocles, William Tell, Arnold von Winkelried, the Maid of Orleans, John Hampden, Prince William of Orange, Andreas Hofer, George Washington, who lived or died for their country?
True patriotism does not imply hatred or contempt of foreigners, and is entirely compatible with a proper regard for the rights and welfare of other nations, just as self-love and self-respect may and should coexist with the most generous philanthropy. A narrow-minded and narrow-hearted nationalism which walls out the life of the world, and for this very reason condemns itself to perpetual imprisonment in the treadmill of its own pedantry and conceit, may suit semi-barbarians, or the stagnant heathen civilization of China and Japan, but not an enlightened Christian people. True and false nationalism and patriotism are related to each other, as self-love to selfishness. The first is a law of nature, the second a vice. We respect a man in the same proportion in which his self-love expands into love of kindred and country, and his patriotism into love of humanity at large. Washington was always generous to the enemy and was the first to establish amicable relations with England after the conclusion of the American war. The Christian religion, which commands us to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, tends to purify and elevate patriotism, like every other natural virtue, by emancipating it from the selfish, overbearing, all-grasping passion of conquest, and making it contributory to the general welfare of the human family. One of the noblest acts of the English nation, as a nation, is the disinterested abolition of the African slave trade.
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