In the God of battles trust! Die we may--and die we must; But, oh, where can dust to dust Be consigned so well, 20 As where heaven its dews shall shed On the martyred patriot's bed, And the rocks shall raise their head, Of his deeds to tell?
De Crèvec[oe]ur (1731-1813) was a French writer who emigrated to America at the age of twenty-three. He settled on a farm near the City of New York, and came to know many of the great men of his day. For instance, he had the friendship of Washington and Franklin. France appointed him as her consul at New York. In 1782 Crèvec[oe]ur published his _Letters of an American Farmer_. As this extract shows, it is almost prophetic in its insight into the future.
What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was 5 Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations.
An American is he who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he 10 obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western 15 pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry which began long since in the East; they will finish the great circle.
The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; in America they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love his country much better than that wherein either he 5 or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor; his labor is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest. Can it want a stronger allurement?