Americanism What It Is

This little book is intended to set forth as clearly as possible what is most original and distinctive in American political conceptions and most characteristic of the American spirit.It cannot be maintained that Americanism, whatever it is, is a matter of race. Our country from the beginning has been populated by people of widely different ethnic origins. Some of their qualities are perpetuated with practically little effacement, others are obscured by the syncretism of races; but there is no definable ethnic type that is exclusively entitled to be called American.And yet not every man who lives in the United States, or who has been born here, can be classed as an American, in the sense which we all, with more or less clearness, attach to that word. We feel that we are not misusing language when we say of a man who entertains certain ideas and sentiments that he is un-American.Our Americanism is a positive, constructive force. It starts with the idea, that the human individual has an intrinsic value. It holds that he has an inherent right to bring to fruition all his native powers, and to enjoy the fruits of his efforts. His real value lies not in what he has, but in what he is and may become; and he may become anything his capacities and his achievements may enable him to be.