Author: Theodore Roosevelt

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-11

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9781331148302

Excerpt from Americanism and Preparedness: Speeches of Theodore Roosevelt, July to November, 1916 I come here to Maine to advocate the election of Charles E. Hughes as President of the United States, and the election of a Senate and House of Representatives to support him, and to give some of the reasons why in my judgment it would be a grave misfortune for the people of the United States to re-elect Mr. Wilson. I make no merely partisan appeal. I ask the support of all good citizens for our cause. I ask the support of all good Americans. And I not merely ask, but demand as a matter of right, that every citizen voting this year shall consider the question at issue from the standpoint of America, and not from the standpoint of any other nation. The root idea of American citizenship, the necessary prerequisite for patriotic service at home, and for service to mankind at large, is that there shall be in our citizenship no dual allegiance. There must be no divided loyalty between this country and the country from which any of our citizens, or the ancestors of any of our citizens, have come. The policy of the United States must be shaped with a view to two conditions only: first, with a view to the honor and interest of the United States, and second, with a view to the interest of the world as a whole. It is therefore our high and solemn duty, both to prepare our own strength so as to guarantee our own safety, and also to treat every foreign nation, in any given crisis, as its conduct in that crisis demands. The citizen who does not so act, and who endeavors to shape America's policy in the interest of the country from which he or his ancestors have sprung, is no true American, and has no moral right to citizenship in this country. Any attempt to organize American citizens along politico-racial lines is a foul and evil thing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.