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GRANTING CITIZENSHIP
Alexander Hamilton opposed granting citizenship immediately to new immigrants: "To admit foreigners indiscriminately
to the rights of citizens, the moment they foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into
the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty." Instead, he recommended that we gradually draw newcomers into American life,
"to enable aliens to get rid of foreign and acquire American attachments; to learn the principles and imbibe the spirit
of our government; and to admit of a philosophy, at least, of their feeling a real interest in our affairs."
Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith
becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is
an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the
man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here."
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"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
Chinese Proverb.
When they finally learned to read...they didn't like what it said.
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