.True Americanism 47 



blood Jay, Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Hu- 

 guenots were, on the whole, the best immigrants we 

 have ever received ; sooner than any other, and more 

 completely, they became American in speech, con- 

 viction, and thought. The Hollanders took longer 

 than the Huguenots to become completely assimi- 

 lated; nevertheless they in the end became so, im- 

 mensely to their own advantage. One of the lead- 

 ing Revolutionary generals, Schuyler, and one of the 

 Presidents of the United States, Van Buren, were 

 of Dutch blood ; but they rose to their positions, the 

 highest in the land, because they had become Amer- 

 icans and had ceased being Hollanders. If they 

 had remained members of an alien body, cut off by 

 their speech and customs and belief from the rest of 

 the American community, Schuyler would have lived 

 his life as a boorish, provincial squire, and Van 

 Buren would have ended his days a small tavern- 

 keeper. So it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania. 

 Those of them who became Americanized have fur 

 nished to our history a multitude of honorable names, 

 from the days of the Muhlenbergs onward; but 

 those who did not become Americanized form to the 

 present day an unimportant body, of no significance 

 in American existence. So it is with the Irish, who 

 gave- to Revolutionary annals such names as Car- 

 roll and Sullivan, and to the Civil War men like 

 Sheridan men who were Americans and nothing 

 else: while the Irish who remain such, and busy 

 themselves solely with the alien politics, can have 

 only an unhealthy influence upon American life, 



