We’ve all heard the saying before, “we’re a nation of immigrants” or “we’re a melting pot.” These phrases are often used by the open borders crowd to excuse and promote illegal immigration. They’re also used by neoconservatives as the founding mythos of the United States. Frankly, it’s absurd, and it’s just not true. To a certain extent, it may have some truth to it if one is talking about the North, but it’s utterly false if applied to the South.
The “Nation of Immigrants” or “Melting Pot” idea is really a product of neoconservativism. The Neoconservative Movement was started due in large part to ex-Trotskyite Jews who became disillusioned with the Democrat Party. One thing the neocons didn’t like about old conservatism, or paleoconservativism, was the idea of America being a country of largely Anglo-Saxon character and people. This didn’t sit well with many of the neocons who were of Jewish descent and understandably didn’t identify with the old version of America. As a result, neoconservatism began to espouse the “Proposition Nation” idea. This is basically magic dirt theory – because all you have to do to be an “American” is sign some papers and intellectually assent to ideas. Or, you can just sneak across the border, and as long as you’re born on Uncle Sam’s dirt pile, you’re good.
Although the neocons deserve most of the credit for the “nation of immigrants” idea, the foundations were laid for it earlier during the Lincoln era. Before Lincoln, the United States was thought of more as a confederation of independent states. After the Civil War though, the idea of the United States as a single entity became prominent. As a result, what happens to one part of the country defines the whole. Furthermore, from the Civil War until the early 1900s, massive waves of destitute immigrants came to work in the factories of the northern cities. This was beneficial to the crony industrialists because it provided continuous cheap labor. Now, I did say the “Nation of Immigrants” idea makes a little more sense for some parts of the North – and, that’s because many of the Northern cities were flooded with immigrants during this time period.
Even then, the idea is still novel. Remember, the Northern states were composed primarily of English or Colonial stock for the first 200 plus years. Although the North started to have and still has a lot of ethnic white communities, the immigrants didn’t define the country. Up until the 1960s, the North was still controlled by the WASP elite. Once the WASPs lost control of the institutions, the proposition nation idea became the norm. Up until this time, the quintessential American in the Yankee mind was an Anglo-Saxon descended from the Mayflower or other early voyages. In fact, many immigrants (especially, Germans and Scandinavians) Anglicized their last names in order to fit in and climb the social latter.
The South, on the other hand, has never been a “Nation of Immigrants” in any way. Hardly any immigrants made it to the South throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, besides a handful of places like New Orleans. Immigrants move to an already existing society. Our Southern ancestors were not immigrants, they were colonists and pioneers who moved to a wilderness. As a whole, the South is a society descended of British colonists, and their African slaves, who arrived from about 1607-1790.
I see this often when Southerners do their DNA tests and it’s almost always predominantly Anglo-Celtic. And, many Southerners are surprised because they have also bought into the “Nation of Immigrants” myth. The South is really just one great big extended family. All you have to do is go back 200 years or so and it’s very likely you’ll be related to a good number of other Southerners. This may sound like being “inbred” to the ears of modernity, but this is how all real nations work. Nations (or ethnos) are groups of closely related peoples who often descend from a single patriarch. This is even how the nations of the Old Testament are described.
Now, even if we want to accept Northern history as our own (when it’s not), it still wouldn’t make sense to let in more and unlimited immigrants. Why should one have to? Why make the body sicker by adding more to harm the body? On top of this, the immigrants (invaders) coming now aren’t even compatible with Western Civilization. And, if we were to accept this premise, we must also acknowledge that there’s a difference between “a nation of immigrants” and a “nation with immigrants.” Finally, it’s just stupid to base our immigration policy on a poem written by some socialist on the Statue of Liberty.
nation (n.)
c. 1300, nacioun, “a race of people, large group of people with common ancestry and language,” from Old French nacion “birth, rank; descendants, relatives; country, homeland” (12c.) and directly from Latin nationem (nominative natio) “birth, origin; breed, stock, kind, species; race of people, tribe,” literally “that which has been born,” from natus, past participle of nasci “be born” (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.
So, while there were a lot of immigrants that arrived in the industrial cities of the North during the last two centuries, it has nothing to do with the South. And, this is an unfortunate result of Lincolnism and the neoconservative movement. It’s also really just an example of spineless politicians not enacting immigration control or enforcing borders. Furthermore, it’s another way of saying we have no “culture,” which is provably false.
-By Dixie Anon
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
Excellent sir and a correct assessment.
Really good article. To hold on to our southern culture we must understand it. I think its also important to show how it is different from northern culture.
“Before Lincoln, the United States was thought of more as a confederation of independent states. After the Civil War though, the idea of the United States as a single entity became prominent. ”
Northerners essentially think of their sixteen states as being the United States. To them, the rest of “America” is just a wasteland, or colonial possessions inhabited by their subordinate subjects, whose history and culture simply don’t matter and don’t exist.
Good to hear from you Mr. Owen. Yes, you are correct. In my household, I’ve raised my children to think of themselves as Christians first, Alabamians second, Southerns(Confederate) third and lastly as Americans.
My wife and I have taught them to be proud of the South and what it is to be Southern.