The Clifton clarion., 1886-07-07
The SmerIcan Type.

llon across the water, and JeerlnS- y answer without waiting a reply, the Indian. He they argue, is the real American, indigenous to the soil and the true type of the con tinent. Are you Indians they further question, then if not, you masquerade Under the name American, and claim race not your own-one more instance among the many shams. with which the New World abounds; and if not Americans what are you7 The degenerate spawn of Europe, wretched tumble of the odds and ends of our nationalit1es, tinctur- ed in parts with Negro, Indian and Asiatic, and, in large measure combining the worst features of the dregs of society from which and with which you are composed? :? This. the sheer European-less commonly put forward in latter years, but occasionally cropping to the surface in the bitter screed of some pessimistic philosopher.
 The term American is broad one, and yet by no possible just system of reasoning can it be made to include such and so much. The Aborigine IS not an American, and as applied to him it is incorrect in usage. The word is of European origin derived from the name of an Italian traveller, and as such, a misnomer when thrust on an alien race. Whether through mistake or by willful intent the word came to be applied to the newly discov- cred world, it belongs to the white man and his race. It IS in meas ure restrictive, and xat most, can be made to include fase. of European descent <S56 S' he length and bresafSS
 from Alaska tokf q
 from the Atlantic shore | rugged coast of the Pacific. ' is its broadest meaning, and as such, the Ch1leno and Brazilian, the Costa Rican and Nova Scotian, might claim in common with the Vermonter and Virginia1i to be Americans, just as Russians and Turks alike are Europeans with Germans and Englishmen. But by custom, common consent, that portion of the American world in cluded within the boundary lines of the United States lays special claim to the title. As the most pushing and prosperous in the Western Hemisphere, with broad areas and as broad a policy it is but fitting, that the peopleso represen tative of continent should claim the term as they yet will the soil, leaving for the time to the petty states of the south while they con tinue to maintain their sovereign ty their more local national names. Mexican, Peruvian, Bolivian, etc.
 With this restrictive meaning as to territory, considering Americans only such as reside within the Uni ted States, we must yet define the term within narrower limits. We cannot speaking of a race include all inhabitants of this country. Foreign-born citizens however worthy, though naturalized with the fullest of legal force can never be Americans beyond what citizen ship gives them. The heart and braln may be in the new land of their adoption, but there are ten drills which reach back to the land of birth, and the spirit is not Amer icar, while tue physical type, of necessity is stamped with the characteristics of the soil from whence they came.
 This brings us to the native born; and the policy of exclusion is not done. The child born beneath the stars and stripes, reared on Ameri- can soil, instructed in the public schools, and with all interests made to center here, yet born of Greek or Russian or Portuguese percentage, cannot in one genera ton shake of the marks of his or igin to concealment. Ho becomes one among us but not one of us He is Americanized but not Amer ican, and even the second and third generations do not become fully American in lineaments and phy sical contour however they may be ID feeling and temperament. The child of Irish or German pa rents, shows this, though in d les ser degree, springing from a more kindred race, yet the mark of ori- gin is there and fails not to mani