In his new book “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” law professor and media presence Jonathan Turley again and again echoes this question first raised by Frenchman Michel Guillaume de Crèvecoeur. In 1765, de Crèvecoeur became a citizen of colonial New York, and to symbolize his new status, he changed his name to J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur. He won renown both at home and abroad for his book of essays, “Letters From an American Farmer.”
In one essay, de Crèvecoeur asks “What then is the American, this new man?” He responds with answers like this one: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.”
De Crèvecoeur concludes his essays with this comparison of the old world and the new:
“The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.—This is an American.”
With the 250th celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence at hand, now is a fine time to look back at our ancestors, near and far, and listen to what they had to say about being an American.
Here we go.
A New World
Grace Elizabeth Bush’s “And So—America” depicts the United States as a dream of liberty finally realized:
Before America became the land it is today,
There was a dream:
A dream that men could say
The things they wished to say.
Before America became to us a nation,
There was hope,
A hope that men could come and go at will,
And without fear.
Before America was born, and here to stay,
There was a prayer,
A prayer that men could speak of God
And worship each in his own way.
And so that dream, that hope, that prayer
Became America.
John Adams presents a similar vision of liberty and escape from entrenched customs and classes in his diary entry, Feb. 21, 1765:
“I always consider the settlement of America with Reverence and Wonder—as the Opening of a grand scene and Design in Providence, for the Illumination of the Ignorant and the Emancipation of the slavish Part of Mankind all over the Earth.”
Novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote a long passage in his novel “You Can’t Go Home Again” about the promise of America, which ends with these words:
“So, then, to every man his chance—to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity—to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him—this, seeker, is the promise of America.”
Even today, when compared to so many other countries, and despite our nation’s deep political and cultural divisions, America is a new world, a place of dreams where the ambitious and the brave have the right to make of themselves what they will.
A Declaration Unique in History
The signatories of the Declaration of Independence knew full well that they were not only sundering the ties between the colonies and the mother country but were also risking execution or imprisonment as traitors. Sensing the last-minute reluctance of some delegates to take this step, New Jersey delegate John Witherspoon offered this ringing endorsement:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table, which ensures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy the name of freeman. For my own part, of property I have some, of reputation more. That reputation is staked, that property is pledged, on the issue of this contest; and although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country.”
Writing to Abigail immediately after the vote, John Adams reported:
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
To be an American, then, is to be a son or daughter of the Declaration of Independence, to believe wholeheartedly that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
To Love America, You Must Know America
True Americans know the story of their country—the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. The words and deeds bequeathed them by the dead are heirlooms that they are duty-bound to pass along to the next generation. In “Obligation,” Gail Brook Burket reminds us of this solemn trust:
Great men have gone before us,
Great men will follow after.
Time’s vaulted arches echo
With their brave-hearted laughter.
The valiant men before us
Left all mankind their debtor.
They found life good in living
And sought to leave it better.
The men who follow after
Loom like a gleaming tower.
Can we be less than heroes
In our appointed hour?
Americans understand that with liberty comes great responsibility. Because they know their history, they are aware of the earlier generations who honored that compact, like those who sacrificed their lives in war for the good of their country. Because they know their history, they recognize the names, words, and deeds of men and women like Patrick Henry, Sacajawea, Stonewall Jackson, Amelia Earhart, and Martin Luther King Jr. They’ve read the Preamble of the Constitution, understand the importance of the Bill of Rights, recognize “Four score and seven years ago” as the opening of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and can find Pearl Harbor on a map.
To be ignorant of this history diminishes an American. In “Time Enough for Love,” science fiction writer Robert Heinlein warned,
“A generation which ignores history has no past—and no future.” In “Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story,” Professor Wilfred McClay speaks of a clear and present danger to America today, “A culture without memory will necessarily be barbarous and easily tyrannized, even if it is technologically advanced.”
Consequently, all good Americans have a working knowledge of their country’s history. As John F. Kennedy wrote in 1962:
“A knowledge of history is, above all, a means of responsibility—of responsibility to the past and of responsibility to the future … of responsibility to those who came before us and struggled and sacrificed to pass on to us our precious inheritance of freedom … and of responsibility to those who will come after us and to whom we must pass on that inheritance with what new strength and substance it is within our power to add.”
The Parent of All Virtues
The Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero wrote, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all the others.” This axiom goes far in explaining our love for our country.
Once a friend of mine, for instance, urged by another friend to start buying lottery tickets, laughed a little and said: “I already won the lottery. I was born in the mid-20th century in America.”
Here’s a second example. In a letter written to James Monroe from Paris in 1785, newly appointed ambassador to France Thomas Jefferson echoed my friend’s sentiments:
“I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it’s soil, it’s climate, it’s equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. my god! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. while we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe & continuing there.”
Thanksgiving this year falls on Thursday, Nov. 26. Wise and grateful Americans will make the Fourth of July—and every other day of the year—a mini-Thanksgiving, daily setting aside just a moment to offer up a prayer or thought of appreciation for our country and to seek always to preserve and protect our liberties.
That gratitude is at the heart of what it means to be an American.
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