Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-06-03
Who We Are.

>.n.- TIM publication Of the STAND
ALi,'- tIclr oh the Angln-A American
Alliance. tNu weeks ago, readers are
a-htn. tin. ton, Who are Anglo
AlurIirAu>'r Doubtless the >nccrs Of
Prince Bismarck, a popular authority
IN ,",.t.m, ntal Eur"r" Ju-t now, may
have t. som" extent provoked tins
question. That notable Prince who
: anything bat a Sympathi/cr with
the promoters of the English and
American entente, fatty atiirm> that
the people OF the United States are not
Anglo >aXun> and it j. glaring mis-
take to consider them such. He
CLASSES our people as "A race of mixed
blood, in which British, Irish, Ger
man. French and scandinavian are
extensively represented, and he even
goes 80 much further as to declare
that pure Anglo-Saxon extraction does
not predominant in the rank and file
OF our population.
Now to set our inquiring friends
Alright on this subject, it, may be the
best way to settle the question first as
to who the Anglo-Saxons were and
where they came from when they in
vadcd early Britannica.
History informs us that So long ago
a, III the fifth and sixth centuries, the
TeutonS, otherwise called Saxons, a
wild and barbarous people inhabiting
the northernmost regions of ancient
Germany, rallying forth in overwhelm-
ing hordes crossed the Rhine upon
rudcly constructed RATS Of logs, thence
the English Channel in galleys, and
stormed the towns and villages of the
simple, inoiiensiye Britons.
Five hundred years before this time,
Julius Caesar had reached the island
and left sprinkling of Roman colon
lists along the water front of the
country, but so far was this from
ranking as Roman conquest that it
:sa well.known fact that the Britons
were never subdued by him. In time
TO come the country was surfeited and
overrun by the incoming Saxons to
such an extent that the domestic and
political complexion of the population
was gradually changed and finally
merged into a new, composite race, re-
sulting in what was afterwards called
; the Anglo-Saxons. The prefix can
glo" was derived from the Anqles,
another hardy tribe which emigrated
from the southeast part of Denmark.
Thus it will be seen that by fusion
of the Angles and Saxons the English
people came into existence, the an
Gent Britons themselves being wholly
swallowed up by dint of superior num-
bers possessing small advancement
of the then existing civilization of the
European world.
From about the sixth century to
the dawn of the renaissance in Italy,
England was little better than a dark
and semi-heathen land. But the new
birth of art and literature in the Latin
States soon permeated the whole of the
continent and England receiving the
lions share of the new light rapidly
assumed a prominent place among the
nations of Western Europe, since
which time her progress has been in a
marked degree upward and onward.
The early American colonists were
typical Englishmen, fact quite suf-
ficient to forever settle the question as
our right to call ourselves Anglo
Saxons.
1t has been we'll remarked that
with the single exception of Martin
Van Buren,, all the Presidents of the
United States have been men of Eng
lish extraction in the larger sense of
expression. A similar remark may
be made regarding the great majority
Of our most noted statesman, literary
celebrities, inventors and financial
operators. The London Spectator pro-
nounces the American people as
overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon," in
all that rightly appertains to true
nationality. After what has been
said then, the readers of the STAND
ARDS remarks on the proposed Brit
ish and American alliance may con-
slider themselves entirely safe in adj
herring to the verdict that as a people,
we are none other than bona fde
Anglo-Saxons.
Sons OF THEIR FATHERs.-President
Mckinley did not do a very wise nor
a very patriotic thing when he ap-
pointed lot of very ordinary men to
be Major-Generals, simply because
they happened to have fathers. John
Jacob Aston, Jr., James G. Blaine, Jr.
William B. Allison, Jr., Ulysses S.
Grant, Jr., Russell Harrison, and a
job-lot of other young men of in.
herited notoriety are not likely to add