WHO IS AN AMERICAN?
From the very beginning, Americans were confronted with three real external dynamics that shaped our character, our spirit. First, we were on our own. Old Europe was too far away, and we were isolated though that also means we are geopolitically well situated. Second, we had to contend with, and subdue, the hostile environment around us whether that environment contained Native Indians or the elements or rough terrain and untamed wilderness or remnants of some European power. Third, we had to collaborate with a lot of different people in doing all of this, and important in that regard was the need to fashion these different peoples into a sort of cohesive unit if we were to survive and succeed.
All of this demanded and brought forth ingenuity, creativity, pragmatism, toughness, candor, and optimism as well as a raft of other traits and virtues not the least of which was courage from the people who made this place[1]. Everyone had to pull their own weight and pull together. The American wilderness was the ideal place for adventurers, explorers, and brave settlers who blazed the way for more and better settlement. It took nearly three hundred years, or from 1607 to 1890 which, if we count thirty years as a generation, is 10 generations, 15 if we count twenty years as a generation. That is a long time. And in that time a certain character comprised of traits and virtues became engrained in Americans, especially in those closest to the frontier. These were passed down, and are being passed down, from generation to generation and infuse and infused American society at large. The people who tamed the wilderness and fought the enemies were people that came primarily from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and Holland, and peoples from other parts of Europe came to America to continue this destiny. They worked, fought, lived, and propagated on this land forging an irrevocable bond with this soil, making a new nation, a new identity — American.
John Eppstein was just one of many who identified the existence and source of American identity: “American nationality is as real, as closely related to the enjoyment of national rights as the British, Irish, German, Italian or Polish nationality of the forefathers of those who are now American citizens.”[2]
Reason and pragmatism (and with it a certain informality) are important aspects of the American character, arising from our experience and patrimony. Both of these traits set us to seeking and finding truth. This in turn helped us to recognize the existence of God, Who is more powerful than us, even all-powerful. He set out certain rules and inspired the Bible which contained those rules. The Decalogue presented a knowable, practical way to live in family, and in small communities, especially when on the front lines of the effort to turn the wilderness into a homeland. Jesus Christ was known and accepted by the Americans not only because of the Bible, but also because of the various Christian sects that abounded. Americans made an early acquaintance with Christ and the Ten Commandments, and we maintain such to this day. This entire dynamic is a road to Catholicizing this fatherland as Catholics are called to do and as Alexis De Tocqueville predicted would happen to at least a part of the population.
All of this was reinforced by the Common Law, best set forth by William Blackstone in his Commentaries, and forming the basis of every colony, later State, that came into existence during those ten to fifteen generations of struggle. Even though the Republicanism of Thomas Jefferson and others went to work like acid to remove aspects of the Common Law, much of it remained and, again, was knowable while at the same time forming a unifying factor amongst the growing American nation. It ordered relations amongst Americans and presented the combined wisdom and knowledge of centuries of European forebears to explain daily existence. This Common Law was instrumental in making this land fruitful by helping bring together formerly disparate European peoples to accept a common cultural baseline presented in English, a language that the Americans adapted to this land and our existence.
The work of the Americans in tilling the ground, extracting minerals, building roads and cities, defending and expanding land, and having babies on this soil was the work of cooperating in creation with the Almighty and fellow frontiersmen. Adherence to God’s will in the form of the Natural Law was essential to this cooperation or work and it too was a way to unify the various groups in their struggles. One aspect of the Natural Law is the doctrine of Providential Destination, or making the land fruitful, a concept recognized by jurists from the School of Salamanca to recent times. Americans are tied to the soil, the land, and so we could discern better the Natural Law written on our hearts.
From this struggle to subdue nature and enemies and build a country out of nothing, came other traits or virtues such as truth-seeking, honesty, hard work, self-control, and responsibility. These infuse the American spirit, form our habits, and shape our character. Traditions, customs, and culture developed based on experience and character, further defining Americans. History was commemorated and statues erected to great people in daring poses. By private agreement and by law, holidays were created and respected — Christmas, Good Friday, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Labor Day, Independence Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day. All of this and more exhibited identity and patriotism at work building a people tied to this land.
To further give order and governance to the land and society, Americans turned to their own history and experience on this continent. Things like elected leaders and written constitutions were used because we were familiar with them as colonists. Individual initiative, limited powers of government, and righteous criticism of officials came about on these shores and comported with the character of a new people largely on their own in this big place called North America. The principles of Liberalism, with their roots in Dutch and English commercial classes, became known and accepted to the nascent Americans beginning in the 1720s because of the work of publicists as well as preachers and ministers. These ideas, comporting well with American experience and necessity, kept initiative in society with private actors in the name of “civil society”. This helped unify the colonies, turned States, and with the Constitution ordered society on the national level, meaning the level of discourse above that of the States. All of this set the stage for the creation of great wealth and innovation which gave Americans a competitive advantage to other peoples of the World. An important part of wealth creation was trade, finance, and industrialization all of which went together and was advanced by Liberalism and the political platform known as the Constitution.
Liberalism also had an external purpose. It was a powerful ideological force, or tool, or weapon that was spread about the world to reorder societies and to assist with the ascendancy of the United States. This in turn benefitted the residents of the United States, while also seemingly benefitting the residents of other countries. The advancement of these principles was seen as part of Americans’ patriotic duty, and gave a missionary impulse to American foreign policy. All of this went to ordering the land a certain way as Carl Schmitt would write nearly two hundred years later in Nomos of the Earth. But as I discuss elsewhere, the presence of the Liberal ideology helped to create a real struggle in the American heart.
All of these things mentioned above were part of a shared experience that tied Americans to each other and to this land known as the United States and America. All of this is part of our heritage. People from many different places of Europe there formed one people on this land – e pluribus unum.
The Founding Generation and the US Government classified Americans – those of European descent — as White, a classification that originated with Europeans who encountered other peoples around the globe. Despite that classification, we were, and are, referred to and known as American by commentators, historians, and Church leaders. Essential characteristics of an ethnic American are that he is a White Christian who is born here, speaks American English, and is heir to a certain heritage (character, traditions, history, culture, customs, habits).
And the residents of the United States are from many different peoples. Those from Europe assimilated relatively easily. Others not so easily. Americans, as a distinct ethnic group, became distinguishable from the other major groups that live on this land as a result of a number of factors, though many of our beliefs, habits, and virtues were assumed or acquired by other peoples not of European ancestry. However, all of these groups, all of these peoples, are growing closer and intermingling as is bound to happen when they live in close proximity to each other. Finally, we need to recognize that “American” also has a designation of someone who is a citizen of the United States, regardless of one’s ethnic background. Citizenship carries with it certain qualities, duties and rights, and these are all best found in the virtues, habits and traits that developed over the years in this land.
[1] This article is not meant to address all the aspects and peculiarities of the American character or culture. Books have been written on American culture and tradition.
[2] John Eppstein, The Catholic Tradition of the Law of Nations, p. 384.