"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
So, I checked it out on Snopes.com (Read the synopsis here.}And it's true. Turns out Roosevelt had put significant thought into immigrant assimilation into the United States. I have to say, I agree with him. What he said makes a hell of a lot of sense.
But even more than that, what he feared would happen, has. He feared the hyphen would be divisive to the country. Read a newspaper or watch the news. He was right. Dividing ourselves into Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, et al, is not doing our country a blessed bit of good. We aren't all red, white, and blue Americans anymore. We're Groups A through Z hyphenate Americans, each group with its own set of requirements for the nation.
The Snopes synopsis is interesting reading. Too bad our nation didn't listen to Roosevelt. We might be a lot stronger for it.
