A man is
foreign not because he was born in a foreign land, but because he clings
to foreign customs and ideas.
I do not fear foreigners half so much as I fear Americans who impose on
them and brutally abuse them. Such Americans are the most dangerous
enemies to our institutions, utterly foreign to their true spirit. Such
Americans are the real foreigners.
Most of those who come to us are predisposed in favor of our
institutions. They are generally unacquainted with the true character of
those institutions, but they all know that America is the land of
freedom and of plenty, and they are favorably inclined toward the ideas
and the obligations which are bound up with these blessings. They are
open to American influence, and quickly respond to a new and a better
environment.
They naturally look up to us, and if with fair and friendly treatment we
win their confidence, they are easily transformed into enthusiastic
Americans. But if by terms of opprobrium, such as "sheeny" and "dago,"
we convince them that they are held in contempt, and if by oppression
and fraud we render them suspicious of us, we can easily compact them
into masses, hostile to us and dangerous to our institutions and
organized for the express purpose of resisting all Americanizing
influences.
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