St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-18
THEo. RoosEvELr's LETTER
He Regards True Americanism as
Alien to Knownothingism.

He Regards True Americanism as
Alien to Knownothingism.
The American Citizen of yesterday
contains the following interesting let
ter from Hon. Theodore Roosevelt. of
the civil service commission:
UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE CON-
MISSION. WASHINGTON, d. c., Feb o.
Editor American Citizen-Sir: l have
been much interested in two or three of
your editorials that have been sent to
me, notably in that wherein you oppose
the division of thetschool fund 1t gives
me pleasure to write a word iii hearty
commentator of the spirit of true
AmericaniSm. True Americanism IS as
absolutely alien to Knownothingism on
the one hand as it is to every form of
forelgniSm OH the other.
Every foreigner who comes to this
country is in honor bound to become an
American citizen pure and simple.
without any qualification. He has no
business to bring into our American
political life the questions of European
politics, and especially the religious
and race rivalries of Europe. He is
bound not 10 act as an Irishman or
German, Englishman or Scandinavian,
but purely as an American. 1t is an
outrage that any one of our political
conventions should insert into the party
platforms plankS to catch any division
of the foreign vote, because it is an
outrage that there should be any d.
vision of our voters who east their votes
as foreigners. We have nothing to do
i'll our political platforms with the
rivalry between Germany and France,
with the question of home rule for Ire
land, or of union for the British empire;
all we are concerned with are the ques-
tons of American politics, ana we have
the right to demand that every Amer
lean voter should vote purely with
reference to those questions.
But II the fUreIgn-born citizen who
comes over here honestly and in good
faith fuifills the duties of American
citizenship and acts as an American
pure and simple. it is most emphatcally
an outrage to discriminate against him
III any way because of his birthplace or
his creed. l nave had the honor of
knowing a number of gentlemen who
have been to congress from the North
WOoS ouliu5 tiiO paoL INV lcdIS. duu
among the very StouteSt Americans of
: them all l could name certain congress
men who happened to be born in Ger
many, in Sweden, or III Norway. In the
same way. during the term of service in
,tle New YORK legislature, when came
TO select the most important committee
with which l ever had to work, and
when had to choose my four colleagues
purely from considerations affecting the
public service, found that no less than
three of them were Irish by birth OF
descent.
Among the men with whom / was as
sociated i'll the New York legislature, il
l were asked to name those whom |
thought most thoroughly American, as
we'll as absolutely honest and patriotic
in their devotion to the well-being of
the commonwealth, l should put very
high among their number many of my
colleagues of German and Irish birth or
parentage. One of them, by the way,
whom l should put especially high,
would be a gentleman now residing in
st. Paul, Hon. Nj. j. Costello. l have
been through the fire with Mr. Costello,
and have seen him tried by very severe
tests, and not found wanting.
1t is always pleasure to me to say
anything l can on behalf of straight
Americanism in every form. Yours
truly, THEODORE ROOSEVELT.