The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1909-12-08
Are Americans AneIO.SaxOns9


Some one. writing to The New
York World, declares that we are
mot authorized BY the facts of his
tory in calling ourselves Anglo
Saxon. Says he: America is not
AngIo-Saxon. There is only one
country to which the term can be-
applied England. Yet in England
it is seldom heard. Ireland. Scot
Hand and Wales are Celtic. 4
This may be true. In some parts
OF tie country our population has
grown to be very composite.
Streams of immigration from all
parts of the globe have been con-
stantly pouring into our borders.
But this does not gainsay the propo-
lsition that fundamentally we are Of
Anglo-Saxon derivation. Most of
Ethe pioneers who settled America.
who fought in the war of the Rev
olution and who framed the organic
law OF the young republic were
Anglo-Saxons Consequently it is
no display of ignorance to
designate our civilization by this
term.
Moreover, our language is almost
wholly Anglo-Saxon.
But let US hear further what this
higher critic of modern history has
to say upon the subject. He con-
tinues::
America is simply Aryan, or,
if a less comprehensive term is
needed. Anglo-Celtic or Teuto-
Celtic. Its glory, however, lies in
its genius for assimilating and de-
veloping the diverse elements of
Europe. The language may be de-
scribed as Anglo-Saxon. but the
American is far away from being
an Anglo-Saxon product. The term
is an irritant to any man who val
ues clear thinking. tits also redo
lent of subserviency, and should be
left to the motley throng whose
ambition it is to bend their back
before a foreign monarch.
To the fine-spun argument which
this authority makes. The Wash
ington Post returns this answer:
The white population of Mary
land. Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia,
North Carolina, Tennessee and
Arkansas is distinctively Anglo
Saxon, with some admixture Of
Scotch Irish, except in Maryland,
perhaps. So we find the Anglo
Saxon dominating in South Caro-
lima, Alabama and Mississippi.
with some admixture with the
Huguenot. The Anglo Saxon dom
mates in the middle West also, and
the trans Mississippi, every state of
it. Indeed, there is not one single
State Of the entire Union, with the
possible exception Of Louisiana, in
which the Anglo Saxon is not the
dominant factor. George Washing
ton was as much of an Anglo-Saxon
as the Black Prince, and Sam
Adams was as Anglo-Saxon as Oil
yer Cromwell.
But the language that Chaucer
helped to invent, the tongue that
Shakespeare sang. the diction of
Chatham's eloquence, the express
sion Of Tennyson's poetry this
will make an Anglo-Saxon of a
German or Scandinavian in the
second generation on our soil, and
so also of a Catholic Irishman or a
Highland Scotchman. AS for the
LoWland Scotch, they are Saxon.
The Bruce himself was Saxon, as
was that Fitzjames who met Rod
erick Dhu.
But the language is reinforced
in our country by the Anglo Saxon
literature, the Anglo-Saxon theory
of government, by the Anglo-Saxon
law, by the Anglo-Saxon sports.
In every State Of the Union the
common law of England is author
ity. except Louisiana.
Then what is the use of making
a quibble of fact as big as a
mountain and as irresistible as a
thuaderbolt7 Environment makes
the man. =