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Show Americanism By LEONARD WOOD I m not a Virg:nian but an American. Patrick. Henry t Speech in the Virginia Convention, Conven-tion, 1765. THESE words of Patrick Henry make n sermon In Americanism. They are brief as a text, but as full of meat as any sermon. Native-born Americans, perhaps, need the lessons to be drawn from Henry's words more than some pf the American citizens of foreign birth. Men and women who come here from the other shores naturally think in terms of the Unite!) States and not in those of any state. Henry was a Virginian talking to Virginians when he proclaimed his Americanism as paramount to his stateism. The state Is the state and the country is the country. No man can be merely a Massachusetts man, or a New York man, or a California man, but he must be an American man if he Is to meet the requirements of citizenship in the great republic. This has nothing at all to do with varying opinions concerning state powers and federal powers. In the late war divisions of men reo- resenting every state in the Union fought for the right. Theirs was a pride, not local but national. In the camp and In the field the mingling of men from all parts of the country made in part for Americanization, but In larger part for Americanism. There were comparatively few soldiers sol-diers who needed what we call Americanization. Amer-icanization. The day has not yet .come perhaps when the men of Maine can take the same pride In the deeds of men of California that they take In the deeds of the sons of the land of the pine tree. It Is not human nature to suppose sup-pose that this should be the case, but within the last few years a nearer approach to the ultimate goal of a perfected patriotism has been made. There is nothing In this to prevent a man from .taking pride In the par ticutav state of his birth and upbringing. upbring-ing. "There Is no place like home." The affections center In one's neighborhood, neigh-borhood, but there are the broader affections af-fections which embrace the whole country and which in real American hearts are held supreme. Abraham Lincoln, born in Kentucky, nominated and elected to the presidency presi-dency from Illinois, thought only In terms of the union of states. Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt, born In New Tork. living liv-ing for some years In the open West, was Intensely Amerlcnn. He knew nothing of state boundaries. - |