"It doesn’t matter if you’re ethnically Irish, Polish, Italian, or Swedish, our nation is America, and our myth and cultural heritage is that of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern America, the formation of the revolutionary Old Stock, and the pan-European (though especially Anglo-Scottish and Southern) conquest of the west. I believe a Norseman in the U.S. should be proud of his ethnic heritage, just like how a Scotsman, Englishman, German, etc. would be, but we should also recognize our shared national origin and founding myth as sacred and honorable."
I will always poke at this myth because its kind of a meme that came about at the end of Manifest Destiny, at the end of our great western expansion and the completion of the American project. Prior to that, there were more mixed views on what America was, and what our founding myth was.
Our civil war proves we were never united, that part was always a myth. We had way too many different types of British - cavaliers, roundheads, jacobites, etc etc. We had way too many different types of continental Europeans who sided with these sub groups. It led directly to the civil war because these different types of Heritage Americans never agreed on a common vision for America. This is why when you ask different White people "what does it mean to be American?' you get answers related to their familial histories. I tend to notice its Anglos who have this rosy view of America being this great Anglo endeavor, when its in fact a European endeavor, and many Gaels and Germans have been at the forefront of much American expansion. My own family history is testament to this, and I must affirm this history as vital to my understanding of my nation. Its important to me, because its my family, but why would someone with a different history care? They won't care, they will just view America their own way.
An Irishman who's family has been here since the mid-1800's will view America different from the Scots who were here in the 17th century colonies. A German mercenary who fought in our Revolution, or a german industrial worker or farmer from the early 19th, will view America much different than those Anglo-Saxons who make up the bulk of the nation. This is why you feel two different pulls on your spirit, brother. You have those different views in you. I think you are more akin to your immigrant grandparents and you assimilated so hard that you now ignore the other strains of Americanism that existed here from the start, deigning to join the Anglo version of events. As I said, our country split along ethnic and tribal lines during the Civil War, and its from earlier differences back in Britain. Modern Americans carry both lines in them today. It's partly why Southerners and Westerners hate East Coast folk. We come from different lines who warred back in Europe and here in America.
Reading the words of our founders, we can find great pride in the Anglo-Saxon majority! I will never undermine that by speaking out of turn or falsely on them, in fact like you I have great respect for them. Many of my relatives are Anglo-Saxon. However, most of my non-Gaelic family were recent implants to America, they are not Heritage Americans from England. My direct male forefathers have been here since the start, and they never once stopped identifying with Scotland. They've always known themselves as "American" because that is their nation, but they were not Anglo-Saxons. This does not fit the myth you described.
America is much more akin to Britian in this sense. Within the British Empire you had Scots, Irish, and Englishmen, but they were all British. Within America, you have Scots, Irish, and English, but we are all American. It's like when Anglo-Saxons try to claim the glory of the British Empire all for themselves. They have every right to claim the majority, for that is their lot, but they do not claim the whole pie. It's an Anglo trait, imo
My direct forefathers have been in America from the start and they've never once stopped calling themselves Scots, and they often married Scots even though they were in the middle of the American South. Where did they find so many Scots to marry if we are all Anglo? Why would Appalachia have an Irish presence? Why would Louisiana have a French presence? What of the many Spaniards who joined America when we bought southern colonies? They are all true Americans, and yet they are not Anglo even if they have four recent Anglo ancestors. That's not how it works. This is why when Rome fell, there were so many different polities that sprouted up - because the Romans were not all one people, they were many peoples claiming to be the same.
I know many non-Anglos like me, we are very proud of America and our Anglo-brethren. We do not negate America by affirming our tribes and families. We are in fact affirming the history of America by identifying with our fathers who founded this nation.
Thanks for reading and writing a constructive comment. I largely agree with you wrote. I didn't mean to intend that Americans could only be Anglos or that an American national myth is entirely Anglo. I just want to be clear. I'm not the most articulate person. Where I come from, Anglo-Saxon roots and influence are strong and it's a symbol of American civilization here. Many Mayflower descendants live all around the U.S. and have populated much of the country too which is why I wrote that it was central to the American myth. You're right though that other groups understand their American origins through their ancestral backgrounds, not through an English one.
I can understand why for example a Scots-Irish guy from Appalachia would not care about the Mayflower, whereas an English American man from New England or New York would. I hope I didn't come across as believing that non-Anglos aren't as American as Anglo-Americans. I disavow such sentiment, but at the same time I do believe that the American cultural and national consciousness, even despite our varying White ethnic backgrounds, has large and undeniable Anglo influence, even in how we speak the same language mostly and still have cultural similarities which are of course pan-European but also Anglo.
I agree that our nation has been subject to division throughout our history, which is probably a natural consequence of our ethnic differences. I think that if we're to survive as a nation and as a race which is being threatened by foreign influence, we should work toward thinking racially as the Founding Fathers had intended. As I'm sure you know, the 1790 Naturalization Act limited American citizenship to "free White persons of good character". I think that if we're to reconcile our differences, so that the nation which has allowed us to flourish and prosper freely with respect to them may survive, we should both acknowledge and respect the achievements of Anglo-Celtic, Dutch, etc. Old Stock men and of the pan-European-American legends who built and expanded our country and who are, in my unwavering view, as American as can be, if not more.
You are a Scotsman, yes, but I don't see you as non-American, and I'm sure you see yourself as American as well as a Scotsman. I have some Scots in me too, even though I'm certainly no Scotsman myself (more Irish Gael than Scottish Gael), and my ancestors came from the Aberdeen area before settling in the North where they married into Anglo families. This likely isn't important in the slightest bit but it's to prove my point. On that note I also have Dutch and some miniscule German roots which were colonial. The point is that not even the Old Stock was entirely English, which is something that I am now realizing I should have emphasized in the original post. Anyway, as an American, it is not only your right but your duty to protect your sacred, ancestral traditions and to have pride in your ancestry, whether Anglo or non-Anglo, as long as you're White. Whites are the only real Americans.
I don't think that acknowledging the Anglo-Saxon influence and origins of our country hould hinder our ancestral understanding of our nation. I think the two should go hand-in-hand if anything to affirm what the Founding Fathers wished for this country to be: a European civilization above all else. Thomas Paine said that it was Europe, not just England, which was the mother of America, to paraphrase him in Common Sense, and I think this has been proven true throughout the course of American history. We do have English influence and heritage in what amounts to our culture especially, even if its not our blood, but this obviously shouldn't negate non-Anglo White Americans' identities. I do not see this country's history as a pure Englishman would, I can agree, and my perspective is influenced by my European immigrant forebears who migrated to Maine and even Georgia/South Carolina.
A Pan-European nation will have a pan-European perspective after all. I'm a bit tired so I apologize if I'm not as articulate as I hope to be. I appreciate the comment and might edit this some more later when I've had a good rest.
PS: Your poem "The Blood of America" was a good read.
I agree with everything you've written, and have nothing much to add. I definitely support the Anglo project over any other. I just know my fathers identified with their fathers, and my first direct male forefather to bring me here was James MacMillan who fought in the Revolution. I have so much love him and his peers. This nation is for the Americans.
"It doesn’t matter if you’re ethnically Irish, Polish, Italian, or Swedish, our nation is America, and our myth and cultural heritage is that of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern America, the formation of the revolutionary Old Stock, and the pan-European (though especially Anglo-Scottish and Southern) conquest of the west. I believe a Norseman in the U.S. should be proud of his ethnic heritage, just like how a Scotsman, Englishman, German, etc. would be, but we should also recognize our shared national origin and founding myth as sacred and honorable."
I will always poke at this myth because its kind of a meme that came about at the end of Manifest Destiny, at the end of our great western expansion and the completion of the American project. Prior to that, there were more mixed views on what America was, and what our founding myth was.
Our civil war proves we were never united, that part was always a myth. We had way too many different types of British - cavaliers, roundheads, jacobites, etc etc. We had way too many different types of continental Europeans who sided with these sub groups. It led directly to the civil war because these different types of Heritage Americans never agreed on a common vision for America. This is why when you ask different White people "what does it mean to be American?' you get answers related to their familial histories. I tend to notice its Anglos who have this rosy view of America being this great Anglo endeavor, when its in fact a European endeavor, and many Gaels and Germans have been at the forefront of much American expansion. My own family history is testament to this, and I must affirm this history as vital to my understanding of my nation. Its important to me, because its my family, but why would someone with a different history care? They won't care, they will just view America their own way.
An Irishman who's family has been here since the mid-1800's will view America different from the Scots who were here in the 17th century colonies. A German mercenary who fought in our Revolution, or a german industrial worker or farmer from the early 19th, will view America much different than those Anglo-Saxons who make up the bulk of the nation. This is why you feel two different pulls on your spirit, brother. You have those different views in you. I think you are more akin to your immigrant grandparents and you assimilated so hard that you now ignore the other strains of Americanism that existed here from the start, deigning to join the Anglo version of events. As I said, our country split along ethnic and tribal lines during the Civil War, and its from earlier differences back in Britain. Modern Americans carry both lines in them today. It's partly why Southerners and Westerners hate East Coast folk. We come from different lines who warred back in Europe and here in America.
Reading the words of our founders, we can find great pride in the Anglo-Saxon majority! I will never undermine that by speaking out of turn or falsely on them, in fact like you I have great respect for them. Many of my relatives are Anglo-Saxon. However, most of my non-Gaelic family were recent implants to America, they are not Heritage Americans from England. My direct male forefathers have been here since the start, and they never once stopped identifying with Scotland. They've always known themselves as "American" because that is their nation, but they were not Anglo-Saxons. This does not fit the myth you described.
America is much more akin to Britian in this sense. Within the British Empire you had Scots, Irish, and Englishmen, but they were all British. Within America, you have Scots, Irish, and English, but we are all American. It's like when Anglo-Saxons try to claim the glory of the British Empire all for themselves. They have every right to claim the majority, for that is their lot, but they do not claim the whole pie. It's an Anglo trait, imo
My direct forefathers have been in America from the start and they've never once stopped calling themselves Scots, and they often married Scots even though they were in the middle of the American South. Where did they find so many Scots to marry if we are all Anglo? Why would Appalachia have an Irish presence? Why would Louisiana have a French presence? What of the many Spaniards who joined America when we bought southern colonies? They are all true Americans, and yet they are not Anglo even if they have four recent Anglo ancestors. That's not how it works. This is why when Rome fell, there were so many different polities that sprouted up - because the Romans were not all one people, they were many peoples claiming to be the same.
I know many non-Anglos like me, we are very proud of America and our Anglo-brethren. We do not negate America by affirming our tribes and families. We are in fact affirming the history of America by identifying with our fathers who founded this nation.
Thanks for reading and writing a constructive comment. I largely agree with you wrote. I didn't mean to intend that Americans could only be Anglos or that an American national myth is entirely Anglo. I just want to be clear. I'm not the most articulate person. Where I come from, Anglo-Saxon roots and influence are strong and it's a symbol of American civilization here. Many Mayflower descendants live all around the U.S. and have populated much of the country too which is why I wrote that it was central to the American myth. You're right though that other groups understand their American origins through their ancestral backgrounds, not through an English one.
I can understand why for example a Scots-Irish guy from Appalachia would not care about the Mayflower, whereas an English American man from New England or New York would. I hope I didn't come across as believing that non-Anglos aren't as American as Anglo-Americans. I disavow such sentiment, but at the same time I do believe that the American cultural and national consciousness, even despite our varying White ethnic backgrounds, has large and undeniable Anglo influence, even in how we speak the same language mostly and still have cultural similarities which are of course pan-European but also Anglo.
I agree that our nation has been subject to division throughout our history, which is probably a natural consequence of our ethnic differences. I think that if we're to survive as a nation and as a race which is being threatened by foreign influence, we should work toward thinking racially as the Founding Fathers had intended. As I'm sure you know, the 1790 Naturalization Act limited American citizenship to "free White persons of good character". I think that if we're to reconcile our differences, so that the nation which has allowed us to flourish and prosper freely with respect to them may survive, we should both acknowledge and respect the achievements of Anglo-Celtic, Dutch, etc. Old Stock men and of the pan-European-American legends who built and expanded our country and who are, in my unwavering view, as American as can be, if not more.
You are a Scotsman, yes, but I don't see you as non-American, and I'm sure you see yourself as American as well as a Scotsman. I have some Scots in me too, even though I'm certainly no Scotsman myself (more Irish Gael than Scottish Gael), and my ancestors came from the Aberdeen area before settling in the North where they married into Anglo families. This likely isn't important in the slightest bit but it's to prove my point. On that note I also have Dutch and some miniscule German roots which were colonial. The point is that not even the Old Stock was entirely English, which is something that I am now realizing I should have emphasized in the original post. Anyway, as an American, it is not only your right but your duty to protect your sacred, ancestral traditions and to have pride in your ancestry, whether Anglo or non-Anglo, as long as you're White. Whites are the only real Americans.
I don't think that acknowledging the Anglo-Saxon influence and origins of our country hould hinder our ancestral understanding of our nation. I think the two should go hand-in-hand if anything to affirm what the Founding Fathers wished for this country to be: a European civilization above all else. Thomas Paine said that it was Europe, not just England, which was the mother of America, to paraphrase him in Common Sense, and I think this has been proven true throughout the course of American history. We do have English influence and heritage in what amounts to our culture especially, even if its not our blood, but this obviously shouldn't negate non-Anglo White Americans' identities. I do not see this country's history as a pure Englishman would, I can agree, and my perspective is influenced by my European immigrant forebears who migrated to Maine and even Georgia/South Carolina.
A Pan-European nation will have a pan-European perspective after all. I'm a bit tired so I apologize if I'm not as articulate as I hope to be. I appreciate the comment and might edit this some more later when I've had a good rest.
PS: Your poem "The Blood of America" was a good read.
I agree with everything you've written, and have nothing much to add. I definitely support the Anglo project over any other. I just know my fathers identified with their fathers, and my first direct male forefather to bring me here was James MacMillan who fought in the Revolution. I have so much love him and his peers. This nation is for the Americans.