"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated
Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever
known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an
American at all.
"This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German
or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul.
Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who
holds any other allegiance.
"But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as anyone else."
"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its
continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities,
an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans,
Scandinavian-Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American
Republic.
"The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there
ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who
yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the
land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American."
Theodore Roosevelt
Address to the Knights of Columbus
New York City- October 12th, 1915
"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."
Naturalization Oath of Allegiance
How many Americans who are foreign born actually meant it when they took the oath of citizenship? When you see 'Americans' protesting while flying foreign flags, it gives one pause. How many committed perjury when they took the oath?
