July Fourth is
traditionally a day to celebrate not only America's founding but also the
exceptional nature of our great country. Coming this year in the middle of one
of the nastiest presidential campaigns in recent memory, it would certainly be
refreshing to hear from candidates on American exceptionalism, but somehow I
doubt that Hillary Clinton or her minions are up to the task. This being the
case, they should take a lesson from, Abraham Lincoln, who, even before he
became president, understood that we are a nation of people unlike all others
before us. Lincoln returned to what he saw as
America's founding.
In Lincoln's opinion, what made Americans was that
they could find these words written in the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created
equal." Americans read that, "and then they feel that moral sentiment
taught in that day evidences their relation to (the Founding Fathers), that it
is the father of all moral principle in them and that they have a right to
claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the
men who wrote that declaration, and so they are."
Unfortunately, we are in danger of losing that
principled definition of what it means to be American. The left encourages
immigrants to hold on to their past, not adopting a new American identity but
retaining their native language and allegiances. The right frets that today's
immigrants cannot or will not become Americans as previous waves did. Neither
is right.
A much smaller portion of America's population now
than in Lincoln's day can claim to be descended from that first group of
Americans who broke with England. Nor do most immigrants come from Europe now.
But all of us, no matter where our ancestors came from or how recently they
came, are still bound by the principles of our founding. It is adherence to
that American creed that we should celebrate this July Fourth -- and we should
insist that those who want to lead us pledge allegiance to it.
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