Arizona republican., 1911-12-24

the United States call themselves | Americans. Surely no Canadian wants | tG call himself an American He has ! an older and a better name-a name | that no one else can claim Moreover ' II some 9O00O.0O0 of people decide rl | call themselves something. Y is not
 easy tO see what any one else is going
 to do about it. A recent reference to ! this matter in a contemporary led us
 to look into it historically. and We learn that the people of what is now
 the United States did not call them selves Americans. but the name was given them by the public men of the United Kingdom. The custom there was tO refer to the colonies of this continent as America and the people as Americans. We find the elder Pitt afterward Earl Chatham. using both these expressions in Parliament as long ago as 1766. In one of the most famous speeches-that against the em- pioyment of mercenaries in ihc war with the colonies, delivered some years after that date. he said: My lords.
 you cannot conquer America Were I
 an American as l am an Enelishman.
 and foreign force were landed on
 my shores. never would lay down
 my arms"
 In the bill which he submitted to the
 lords in the hope that it would pass
 and remove all discontent, he uses the
 word America as descriptive of the
 colonies, and expressly excepts from it
 AEsl fl.l.a U.l,.
 Canada"
 As long ago as l744. in a bill deal
 ing with trade matters, the American
 colOnies,.. were referred to. and in
 l76S the secretary of the treasury spoke of the revenue from America" ]"
 In IFS Pitt said:
 When the resolution was taken in
 the house to tax America was in
 bed. and he closed his speech by say ing: The Americans are the sons of England" During the debate on the Quebec act in I775 the thirteen colo nies were referred to as America i'm contra distinction to Canada.
 In an anonymous pamphlet printed in London in l765 on The State os the Nation" the cOlories are calIel America and the people Americans. Burke. in his famous conciliation speech in l115. spoke of the colonials as Americans. Doubtless we might multiply instances if time would per init the necessary investigation or it were necessary to demonstrate the point
 On the other hand. the people of tn, colonies did not. officially at least. speak of themselves as Americans. Tn a somewhat hasty examination of d number of official protests against la xation we have been unable to find the term applied by these people to themselves, although in its famous protest the continental congress spoke of American commerce" and the gen eral assembly of Massachusetts sand that certain questions ought tn be de- 1 termined by "an American parlia- 1 ment." It is not until after the inde- 1 Dendence of the colonies was ack- | that we find the use of the | term American becoming common on ! this side of the Atlantic. Then we cad Of Washington saving, The , name America is stimulus to liberty" | md Thomas Paine an EngliShman by i birth and education, writing in Phila- ielphia that the Americans have al- ways stood for liberty
 Speaking for q moment of the name 'anadian. we may say that in our
 ecessarily hurried search we find it lsed just about the middle of the iov oventeenth century, or q hundred ears before We find the word Ameri- | an used as descriptive of people It 5 true that those to whom it was ap- lied were If French origin. and it is | uite true that the LOyaliStS did not all themselves Canadians. It is like
 ise very true that they would have 6pudiated the name Americans
 It appears. therefore. that the peO- lc of the United States in claiming } be called Americans have not been uilty. as some think. of an unwar- 5ntable presumption. but have good istorical precedent for applying the anne to themselves. and as they seem etermined tO do so. and we could not revent them from doing so if we -ied. it is well to know that it was the British Parliament more than century ago that the name was given } them, and that it was given at least ? one occasion to distinguish them om the people who lived in Canada. Colonist.