Module 7

It is believed that Thomas Jefferson once stated “We want to populate the nation with a thousand generations of Americans.” Perhaps it is safe to assume that Jefferson was only referring to Anglo Americans in this statement, however it would be wrong to assume that all the founding fathers and Americans shared this view.
America has always been divided whether it be driven by geographic location or socio economic differences. The push for assimilation has always had its detractors whether it be in reference to manifest destiny or a desire for a greater sense of nationalism, An example of this dissention can be viewed in this letter written to Henry Clay in 1837 by William Channing.
"Did this county know itself, or were it disposed to profit by self-knowledge, it would feel the necessity of laying an immediate curb on its passion for extended territory.... We are a restless people, prone to encroachment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress... We boast of our rapid growth, forgetting that, throughout nature, noble growths are slow..... It is full time that we should lay on ourselves serious, resolute restraint. Possessed of a domain, vast enough for the growth of ages, it is time for us to stop in the career of acquisition and conquest. Already endangered by our greatness, we cannot advance without imminent peril to our institutions, union, prosperity, virtue, and peace..... It is sometimes said, that nations are swayed by laws, as unfailing as those which govern matter; that they have their destinies; that their character and position carry them forward irresistibly to their goal;....that ... the Indians have melted before the white man, and the mixed, degraded race of Mexico must melt before the Anglo-Saxon. Away with this vile sophistry! There is no necessity for crime. There is no fate to justify rapacious nations, any more than to justify gamblers and robbers, in plunder. We boast of the progress of society, and this progress consists in the substitution of reason and moral principle for the sway of brute force....We talk of accomplishing our destiny. So did the late conqueror of Europe (Napoleon) ; and destiny consigned him to a lonely rock in the ocean, the prey of ambition which destroyed no peace but his own.” (Blum 276)
This quest for assimilation has grown throughout history except now it has evolved into a quest for global governance. However, much like with manifest destiny there will be a bold few who will resist for as Thomas Jefferson said “It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.”

Sources
• Blum, Schlesinger, Jr. et al. The National Experience: A History Of The United States. 6th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Hovanovich, 1985