Roosevelt, Immigration, and “Tru Americanism” - 1706 Words

As one of the presidents during the Progressive Era, Theodore Roosevelt led the United States of America through a series of dramatic changes that interrupted the lives and ideologies that Americans during the time were more than familiarized with. Industrialization, women’s suffrage, the sexual revolution, imperialism, and â€Å"muckraking† journalism were just a few of the controversial, yet significant characteristics of this era. However, perhaps one of the largest and most vital influences during this time period came from the outside. Immigration was an issue that Roosevelt himself addressed rather perceptibly in his paper entitled â€Å"True Americanism,† which first appeared in a magazine called The Forum in April, 1894. However, it is not†¦show more content†¦Therefore, it is un-American to imitate the ways and/or plans of other countries. Roosevelt says that it is better to be an original than a copy, even when the copy is of something better t han the original, because despite all of this country’s faults and shortcomings, no other land offers the possibilities offered here (3). One must realize that there is a certain esteem that comes with even being called an American, and he/she is not truly American until this is fulfilled. In relation to immigration, Roosevelt calls upon immigrants to forget about the ways of the governments of their native lands. The American government now rules them, and they must accept the common law just as any American is required to do. Roosevelt’s second level of Americanism is to make a sense of national pride priority over sectional, or what Roosevelt likes to call, parochial pride (2). To place any other pride above pride in the nation is considered disastrous and un-American. â€Å"We do not wish in politics, literature, or in art, to develop that unwholesome parochial spirit, that over-exaltation of the little community at the expense of the great nation, which produces what has been described as the patriotism of the village, the patriotism of the belfry