The German Sunday. 71 



nationalities will be kept down. And the only servants of the 

 crowd who will lose the day of rest which mere human exper- 

 ience, apart fi-om the Divine Law, has j)ronounced to be abso- 

 lutely necessary, will be the police, whose apportionment of duty 

 may save them even that loss. If any are disturbed by the 

 suggestion of allowing and encouraging such laxity as this, 

 I have only to say that having made this provision to prevent 

 a great abuse, it will then be the field of effort of all christians 

 of all names in this free country to bring the people up to the 

 standard of religious observance, w^hich they may severally 

 regard, as a matter of obligation under Divine Law. It does 

 not follow in every instance that a man's view of the Sabbath, 

 or the Lord's day, is such that he can win the others to its 

 adoption. And it may be that the reason is in the view it- 

 sel£ 



I have wished, in this paper, to indicate what seems to me 

 the right line of argument on a difficult question, and to con- 

 demn the one which is usually taken as impolitic and unjust. 

 It is one of a great number of topics belonging to this section 

 of the Academy, growing out of the relations of our Ameri- 

 can and foreign born citizens. And on all those topics I 

 venture to lay down a proposition by no means new, and yet 

 being constantly forgotten, in legislation and in social prob- 

 lems, one under which all that I have said, when restraining my- 

 self from religious arguments, might perhaps have been inclu- 

 ded — that foreigners, on becoming citizens, should become 

 Americans as far as possible — that neither in language, nor 

 schools, nor churches, nor in other social or political relations, 

 should they be encouraged to perpetuate their nationalities. 

 It is true that they must mingle with us in a generation or two, 

 but no little evil is caused by their efforts to keep themselves 

 apart and by the politician's concessions to this natural but 

 mistaken desire. 



