It is one of the more commonly used cliches of the political establishment.
“We are a nation of immigrants.”
Most Americans just buy that bill of goods and never think about what it actually means. After all, they reason, their people came here from somewhere.
This is true, but this is simply reflexive group think of the worst order.
The vast majority of Americans were born here and come from families that go back for generations. The same was true of the founding generation. Many of the men from that greatest generation of Americans–sorry Tom Brokaw–were fourth or fifth generation Americans whose families had settled in the British North American colonies on their own hook.
No government handouts awaited their arrival.
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More importantly, these people, even those who arrived from the British Isles, were different. Most spoke English, but their idioms, dialect, and usage widely differed. So did most of their customs, from marriage to child-rearing to views of liberty and order.
That is still true today. Go to Massachusetts see what kind of reaction you get if you said this: “I’m fixin’ to go to the store and get a buggy. I’ll need it for my sweet tea and grits.”
You’ll be viewed as an alien. And rightly so. You would be.
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We can’t be a “nation” because of a “nation,” by definition, is a people with similar language, customs, traditions, religion, etc. Northern and Southern Americans certainly have some things in common, maybe many, but their differences are often night and day. Everyone knows it, they just don’t understand why that is important.
America, both then and today, is a collection of republics…